Law360 (September 4, 2026, 8:02 PM EDT) -- A Florida appellate panel on Friday reversed a man's child molestation convictions, saying the trial court erred in admitting into evidence a text message from the defendant's wife describing her emotional reaction to the accusations.
The text message did not fall into Florida's state-of-mind exception to the hearsay rule, the panel said, because it only allows the admission of extrajudicial statements if the person's state of mind is at issue in the case. It was not so here, the court said.
"Her state of mind, emotional condition or physical sensation were not issues in the action, nor was the text message used to prove or explain her subsequent conduct," Judge Carrie Ann Wozniak wrote in the opinion.
Defendant Cristopher Alexis Trinidad Cruz was accused of sexually abusing a young female relative. After learning about the allegations, the alleged victim's mother gave the wife a copy of a letter that Cruz had purportedly written to the girl.
Cruz's wife responded to the mother in a text message that referenced "her emotional response to having read the letter," according to the opinion. It "indicated that she believed the allegations" against her husband and was worried she would lose her children.
Prosecutors argued before the trial court that the text message fell into an exception to the hearsay rule for statements of then-existing mental, emotional or physical condition. The trial court agreed.
Cruz was convicted on one count of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child younger than 16 and older than 12, and one count of child abuse.
On Friday, the appellate panel said the trial court erred in admitting the message and that the error was not harmless because this case "was purely a credibility contest," the opinion said.
The panel reversed and remanded the case to the trial court for a new trial.
Judges Dan Traver, Carrie Ann Wozniak and Jared Smith sat on the panel for the Sixth District Court of Appeal.
Representatives for the parties could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.
Cruz is represented by Jason Forman.
The government is represented by James Uthmeier and Clara Murga of the Florida Office of the Attorney General.
The case is Cristopher Alexis Trinidad Cruz v. State of Florida, case number 6D2024-2198, in the Sixth District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida.
--Editing by Janice Carter Brown.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.