Chapter 11 - § 11.7 • DEMONSTRATIVE EVIDENCE

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 11.7 • DEMONSTRATIVE EVIDENCE

Colorado

➢ Foundation for Admissibility; General. "To be admissible, demonstrative or illustrative evidence must be shown to be reasonably accurate and correct." Martinez v. W. R. Grace Co., 782 P.2d 827, 830 (Colo. App. 1989). The trial court's determination regarding the reasonable accuracy and correctness of the evidence is a preliminary issue under CRE 104. "[W]hen the correctness of the representation is disputed, it is for the jury ultimately to determine the weight to be accorded the exhibit." Id.

➢ Foundation for Admissibility; Scale Model. A scale model of a speed bump in a parking lot, over which the plaintiff tripped and fell, was properly admitted into evidence because a witness testified that the color and texture of the model fairly and accurately depicted the bump on the date of the plaintiff's accident. Martinez v. W. R. Grace Co., 782 P.2d 827, 830 (Colo. App. 1989).

➢ Foundation for Admissibility; Videotape Experiment. A videotape displaying experiments performed by the defendant's expert in a products liability case involving an allegedly defective ladder was properly admitted into evidence over the plaintiff's objection. The defendant's theory was that the plaintiff had misused the ladder, and the defendant's expert testified that the deformity to the ladder only occurred after the accident, when the plaintiff fell on it. The videotape depicted experiments in which the expert dropped a sandbag equivalent to the plaintiff's weight on an identical test ladder lying on the ground. The experiment caused damage to the test ladder substantially similar to the damage found in the ladder involved in the accident. Koehn v. R.D. Werner Co., 809 P.2d 1045, 1050 (Colo. App. 1990).
➢ Foundation for Admissibility; Animation. In a criminal prosecution for negligent child abuse resulting in death, there was no error in allowing a testifying witness to utilize a computer-generated animation that demonstrated that subdural hematomas and retinal hemorrhaging occur when a baby is shaken. People v. Cauley, 32 P.3d 602, 606-07 (Colo. App. 2001); see Bullock v. Daimler Trucks North America, LLC, 819 F. Supp. 2d 1172, 1177-78 (D. Colo. 2011) (ruling that a modeling analysis of an automobile accident could be used as a demonstrative exhibit by an expert to illustrate the principles utilized by the expert; however, the trial court would not allow the simulation to be admitted as substantive evidence). The appellate court

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