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State v. Ware8/29/1994
BACA, Justice.
Pursuant to SCRA 1986, 12-502 (Repl. Pamp. 1992), the State appeals the Court of Appeals' opinion in State v. Ware, N.M. , P.2d (Ct. App. 1993) (No. 13,307), which affirmed a trial court order suppressing certain evidence in the trial of Defendant-Appellee, Robert Ware. We granted certiorari to consider whether the Court of Appeals erred in affirming the trial court order. We reverse the Court of Appeals, and remand this case to the trial court for further proceedings.
I.
On May 29, 1990, police officers responded to a call of domestic violence at Defendant's address. The officers found Betty Ann Martinez ("Martinez"), Defendant's girlfriend, bleeding from a wound on the back of her head. The officers also found the Defendant at the scene, with blood on his body and clothing. During the course of investigating the scene, the officers found a rock that had blood on it. The officers did not attempt to collect the rock itself, or samples from the rock, such as blood, other bodily fluids, cloth, fibers, or hair. Instead, a police detective photographed the rock where it was found. Following further investigation, the officers arrested Defendant at the scene.
A hearing before a grand jury was held on June 7, 1990. At the hearing, Martinez testified that someone other than Defendant chased her into the landlord's yard and pounded on her head with a rock. Martinez testified that she could not identify her assailant and had no idea why someone would attack her. On June 8, 1990, the grand jury indicted Defendant on three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. See NMSA 1978, § 30-3-5(A) & (C) (Repl. Pamp. 1984).
On May 15, 1991, Defendant filed a Motion to Dismiss, claiming that the State's negligence in failing to preserve the rock violated his due process rights under the state and federal constitutions. The Defendant sought dismissal of the charges against him or suppression of any photographs or testimony pertaining to the rock. A hearing on the motion was held on May 16, 1991. At the hearing, Defendant argued that ), set forth the relevant test for destruction of evidence. Defendant maintained that the State's failure to preserve the rock resulted in prejudice to the Defendant because the rock could not be tested for hair, blood, or fibers, and because the rock could not be used to impeach prosecution witnesses. Defendant urged dismissal of the charges.
The State argued that Defendant had failed to show prejudice resulting from the failure to collect the rock. The State maintained that the police investigating the crime scene had simply made a judgment call and decided to photograph the rock rather than to take the rock into evidence. The State asserted that witnesses would verify the connection of the rock to the crime charged. Finally, the State contended that it had breached no duty to the Defendant by failing to gather the rock, and requested that Defendant's motion be dismissed.
The trial court granted Defendant's motion and filed an Order of Prohibition on June 19, 1991. The court found that Defendant had been prejudiced by not being able to conduct tests of blood, bodily fluids, cloth, fibers, or hair from the rock, and by being denied the opportunity "to challenge the nexus of the rock to the incident." The court found that the State's failure to preserve physical evidence had violated Defendant's due process rights "as guaranteed by Article II, Section 18 of the New Mexico Constitution by the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The court prohibited the State from introducing photographs of
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