Child's comments can be used in murder trial

Although jurors will never get to see Ana Hernandez, they will get to hear what the child told a handful of people following her mother's brutal slaying last year.

District Judge Sally Loehrer decided Monday that comments the then 3-year-old girl made to police and to her grandmother will be admissible at her father's trial next month.

Among the statements jurors in the Fernando Hernandez case will hear is, "Daddy dead my mommy."

Although witnesses typically cannot testify about comments made to them by other people, there are exceptions. Once such exception is when a judge finds the comments are "excited utterances" -- statements made in the heat of the moment when they are unlikely to be lies.

On Monday Deputy District Attorneys Robert Daskas and Stacy Kollins argued that the comments Ana Hernandez made to police at the time of her father's arrest fell under that exception, and they want jurors to hear the comments without having to put the child on the stand.

The prosecutors argued that while she was only 3 at the time, the girl had the ability to observe things, remember them and relate them back -- all of which are necessary for a child to be found competent to testify. They also said she understood the difference between telling the truth and lying.

The prosecutors put three police officers, one Child Protective Services worker and the girl's grandmother on the stand so they could testify as to what she told them.

It was the grandmother, Ana Griego, who testified that the girl told her that her daddy had "dead" her mommy. The police officers all testified the girl had also told them that "daddy hurt mommy real bad."

Afterward, Loehrer agreed to allow all but one of the officers to testify as to what the girl said. She also said a psychologist would not be allowed to tell jurors about the girl's counseling sessions.

Fernando Hernandez' trial is expected to begin July 10. The state is seeking the death penalty.

According to police, Fernando Hernandez was stopped on U.S. 95 near Searchlight early on the morning of Nov. 4, 1998, for driving erratically.

After he reportedly blurted out to police "Just shoot me, just kill me. I killed her," police found the body of Donna Hernandez on the staircase of a home in the 2400 block of Clifton Court in Las Vegas.

The 38-year-old woman, a Clark County Family Court clerk, had been beaten, stabbed numerous times and strangled.

An investigation revealed Donna Hernandez had obtained temporary and extended protective orders against her husband, from whom she had separated.

Metro homicide Detective Tom Thowsen testified Monday that when he visited with Ana Hernandez shortly after her father's arrest, the girl told him that her father had become upset with her mother when she asked him to leave after appearing on their doorstep that morning.

The little girl said her father pushed her mother down some stairs and cut her face with a kitchen knife, Thowsen said. She also told him that her father said he was going to take her to Mexico, where she would get a "new mommy."

Thowsen said the murder scene matched perfectly with what the child said.

However, it is Thowsen's testimony on that subject that will not be allowed, Loehrer said. It doesn't fall into the excited utterance exception, and since the girl will not be testifying, defense attorneys cannot cross-examine her.

Hernandez, who is represented by Christopher Oram and David Schieck, also faces charges of burglary, sexual assault, kidnapping, drunken driving, felony speeding and unlawful sexual penetration of a dead human.

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