How has the court considered contested statements in a murder trial?

In People v. Riccardi, the contested statements concerned a decedent's fear of the defendant. (People v. Riccardi (2012) 54 Cal.4th 758, 813-814.) The court concluded "that evidence of the decedent's state of mind, offered under Evidence Code section 1250, can be relevant to a defendant's motivebut only if there is independent, admissible evidence that the defendant was aware of the decedent's state of mind before the crime and may have been motivated by it." (Id. at p. 820.)