Convicted of Murder, Man Appeals 911 Call Ruling

A St. Louis (Mo.) man is appealing his 2009 murder conviction, saying a jury should have been allowed to hear a 911 call he made to a dispatcher who gave him CPR instructions for his girlfriend’s 3 year-old daughter whom he found unconscious. Quintin Gray Sr., 26, has also raised several other issues of evidence in his appeal, including the exact cause of death. Police arrested Gray in Feb. 2008 after hospital doctors called police to report the child died from blunt force trauma. A jury found Gray guilty of second-degree murder in Dec. 2009, and two months later a judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison. His attorney now hopes to convince the Missouri Court of Appeals that the trial judge erred when he ruled the 911 call was hearsay, and would not let the jury consider it as evidence. During that call, a dispatcher instructed Gray to perform CPR with the palms of his hands—used for adults—and not with his fingers, as used for small children. That CPR mistake could have caused the injuries that the toddler suffered, Gray contends, leading to his acquittal. The prosecutor believes the 911 call was properly excluded, since Gray did not take the stand during the trial, and could not be cross-examined about his “testimony” as heard on the 911 tape. Read more about the case and listen to excerpts of the 911 call here. Download (pdf) a copy of the defendant’s and attorney general’s legal briefs filed in the appeals court here.