Evidence – Hearsay – Vehicle Registration Card

Assuming without deciding that a vehicle registration card was admissible and not hearsay, the trial court’s refusal to admit the card was harmless error and defendant’s convictions of marijuana possession and firearm possession by a felon are affirmed.
Defendant wanted to introduce the registration card to show he was not the owner of the car in which drugs and a gun were discovered. He argued that the card fell within the public records exception to the hearsay rule. In sustaining the commonwealth’s objection to admission of the card, the trial court held that the registration card was “not a public record … DMV records may be, but the registration card found in a car is hearsay.”
We need not address the admissibility of the registration card because even if the trial court erred by failing to admit it, such error was harmless.
Here, the evidence showed not only that defendant possessed the keys to the car, but that he opened the car door and checked under the hood before police approached him. Defendant was the sole occupant of the car and told police it belonged to him. Also, several items in the trunk bore his name. Based upon this evidence, we conclude that admission of the registration card would not have substantially influenced the trial court’s determination that defendant possessed the contraband in the trunk.
Finding sufficient evidence to convict defendant, his convictions are affirmed.
Patterson v. Commonwealth (Beales, J.) Aug. 8, 2006; Keith A. Jones for appellant; Kathleen B. Martin, AAG, for appellee. VLW 006-7-288(UP), 6 pp.