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Crime Laboratory v. Blenden6/24/1999
hat without Hales's testimony a proper foundation had not been laid for Howell's testimony. The trial court granted the motion to have the State reopen its case, but reserved ruling on the motion to strike until after Hales had testified. As a result the defense withdrew its motion to have the State reopen its case. The State then made its own motion to reopen its case in chief for the purpose of having Hales testify, which the trial court granted.
.Once on the stand, Hales testified that he had sampled Brandon's blood and placed the sample in the Chromatograph. Hales stated that in testing the blood he followed the Crime Lab's established procedures. These procedures were set out in a document entitled the Headspace Blood Alcohol Procedures (the "Procedures"), which were developed and prepared by Howell. Hales also transferred the data regarding the known standards from the computer-generated printout onto another document, called a sequence file, and discarded the computer printout. After the testing was complete, Hales gave the results to Howell for analysis.
.On cross-examination the defense asked Hales to read the Crime Lab's Procedures. Steps one through three read as follows:
"Step 1. Sample 100 microliters of the standard, control, volatile mix, blank, or unknown blood sample followed by one milliliter of internal standard using Abbott pipettor/dilutor or equivalent. Dispense into a 20 ml autosampler vial. Cases are sampled in duplicate.
Step 2. Place rubber septum in crimp top and crimp tightly.
Step 3. Load samples into autosampler tray. Program sequence file to accommodate standards, controls, blanks, volatile mix, and cases for current run and save."
In response to further questioning by the defense Hales testified that the "standards," referenced in step three, were plural because they referred to different concentrations of known standards. Hales also stated that when Brandon's blood was tested they did not use multiple standards of differing concentrations; the only known standard used had a .15 percent concentration. However, multiple standards of differing concentrations were used when the machine was calibrated several days before Brandon's blood was tested. Hales also testified that he did not remember whether he was the Crime Lab employee who had calibrated the machine prior to Brandon's blood being tested.
. At the Conclusion of Hales's testimony, the defense renewed its motion for a mistrial. The defense asserted that they were further entitled to a mistrial because of the Crime Lab's failure to follow its own procedures by not using multiple standards of different concentrations when Brandon's blood was tested and because the prosecution failed to disclose the name of the person who had calibrated the machine prior to the blood being tested. The defense also moved to have the test results excluded under the best evidence rule because the computer-generated printouts had been destroyed. The trial court granted Brandon's motion for a mistrial on the grounds that the prosecution's failure to identify the person who calibrated the machine violated Brandon's right to confront all persons in the Crime Lab who had anything to do with testing his blood.
. After the declaration of a mistrial Brandon filed a motion for sanctions, which was heard on July 19, 1996. The motion claimed that State's discovery violations made the mistrial unavoidable, and as such the State should be required to reimburse Brandon for expenses incurred in bringing the first trial. The defense also moved that the blood tests be excluded from consideration during the retrial. The defense further moved to have the case dism
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