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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS


PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v THOMAS WILLIAM SKINNER Defendant-Appellant.

UNPUBLISHED December 21, 1999

No. 208906 Ingham Circuit Court LC No. 96-070981 FC

Before: Talbot, PJ., Gribbs and Meter, JJ. PER CURIAM. Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted of two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, MCL 750.520c; MSA 28.788(3),1 and was sentenced to concurrent terms of five to fifteen years' imprisonment on each count. Defendant appeals as of right. We affirm. Defendant first argues that the trial court abused its discretion by ruling that Connie Shewchuck could testify regarding a statement she overheard complainant make to her son. Defendant contends that the statement constituted inadmissible hearsay and was irrelevant. We disagree. This Court reviews a trial court's decision to admit evidence for an abuse of discretion. People v Adams, 233 Mich App 652, 656; 562 NW2d 794 (1999). On direct examination, Shewchuck testified that while she could not remember the exact statement, she became startled when she overheard complainant "say something about being in bed." She stated that, as a result of what she overheard, she informed complainant's aunt of the statement. We agree with the trial court's ruling that the statement was not offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted, but to show the effect of the statement on the person who heard it. Accordingly, the statement was not hearsay and was properly admitted at trial. People v Flaherty, 165 Mich App 113, 122; 418 NW2d 695 (1987). Likewise, the admission of the statement was proper because it provided the jury with "an intelligible presentation of the full context in which disputed events took place." People v Sholl, 453 Mich 730, 741; 556 NW2d 851 (1996). Complainant testified that he told Shewchuck's son what defendant had done to him and complainant's mother testified that she first learned of the abuse from her sister (complainant's aunt).

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The disputed evidence was also relevant. At trial, defendant advanced the theory that complainant's mother fabricated the charges against him in order to seek revenge because he left her. Thus, evidence establishing the manner in which complainant's mother received the report of possible molestation and that it did not originate with her, had some tendency to make a fact of consequence to the action

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