Title: State v. Davis

State: arizona

Issuer: Arizona Supreme Court

Document:

110 Ariz. 51 (1973) 514 P.2d 1239 The STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. Leon DAVIS, Appellant. No. 2671. Supreme Court of Arizona, In Banc. October 22, 1973. *52 Gary K. Nelson, Atty. Gen., by Thomas A. Jacobs, Asst. Atty. Gen., Phoenix, for appellee. Edward Hendricksen, Yuma, for appellant. CAMERON, Vice Chief Justice. This is an appeal from a jury verdict and judgment of guilt to the crime of selling heroin, § 36-1002.02 A.R.S., and a sentence of not less than five nor more than ten years in the Arizona State Prison. We are asked to consider only one question on appeal and that is: Was the chain of possession of the heroin broken rendering the heroin inadmissible into evidence? The facts necessary for a determination of this matter on appeal are as follows. The defendant was arrested in Yuma, Arizona, for selling a "$20 paper" of heroin to an informant. At the trial in the matter, one of the arresting officers testified that the "$20 paper" of heroin: "was aluminum foil. I guess maybe possibly up to an inch long, half an inch wide and maybe an eighth to three-sixteenths of an inch thick." He placed it inside a plastic bag upon which he placed his initials, placed it in an envelope which he personally addressed, and sent it by registered mail to the Arizona Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona. He stated that he thereafter received the evidence back from the State Crime Laboratory, that he recognized the plastic bag, the envelope in which he had sent the material to the crime laboratory, and that the alumimum foil had a tip of plastic over the end with an initial on it. After identifying the letter and the plastic bag, he testified: The officer also testified as to the contents of the foil being "brownish brown tinted color; Grainy-type powder." The State called the chemist for the Arizona Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory. He testified that he received the evidence contained in the sealed envelope from the property custodian of the Department of Public Safety Laboratory, that he opened the envelope and analyzed the contents. He stated: He testified that the foil contained heroin in a usable quantity. And: It would thus appear that the officer in Yuma placed the evidence in a plastic bag, placed the contents in a sealed envelope, personally addressed it, and sent it to the Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory in Phoenix. Then the property custodian of the Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory delivered this envelope unopened to the chemist who performed the experiments, determined the contents to be heroin, placed the contents back in the original foil bindle, then in the plastic bag and the envelope and turned it over to the property custodian for mailing back to Yuma. The defendant contends that the chain of possession was "broken" in that all persons who handled the exhibit from the time it left the possession of the officer and was returned to him did not testify, including the property custodian of the Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory. In the case of a narcotic which is readily susceptible to alteration and substitution, once it has left the hand of the officer receiving it and has come into the possession of others, a chain of possession must be established to avoid any claim of substitution, tampering or mistake. Failure to establish such a chain of possession will render the narcotic inadmissible as evidence. This is not, however, an impossible burden, for the State is not required to exclude every remote possibility of its happening: And where there is no evidence to suggest any possibility of substitution or tampering it may properly be received in evidence. Sparks v. State (Nev.), 506 P.2d *54 1260 (1973); Cartwright v. State (Ind.), 289 N.E.2d 763 (1972). This court has stated: The courts have generally held that the mailing of a narcotic sample to a central laboratory and its return under proper conditions does not amount to a break in the chain of custody or possession. In State v. Tokatlian (Ia.), 203 N.W.2d 116 (1972) hashish was mailed to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Laboratory in Chicago, Illinois, for an analysis and then mailed back to the officer where it remained in his possession until the day of the trial. In State v. Frates (Mont.), 503 P.2d 47 (1972) tablets were mailed to the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs in San Francisco for examination and returned in a plastic container, a mailing box and mailing wrapper bearing the handwriting of one of the officers, to the police department. In Haywood v. State (Tex.), 482 S.W.2d 855 (1972) a substance was mailed to the Texas Department of Public Safety Laboratory in Austin, analyzed, and returned. See also Baldwin v. State (Tex.Cr.App.), 490 S.W.2d 583 (1973). And in a federal case arising in Arizona, the customs officer sent the narcotic by registered mail to the laboratory in Los Angeles and it was returned by registered mail. The Ninth Circuit in upholding the admissibility of the narcotics stated: Concerning the property custodian who did not testify the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in a case wherein some LSD was sent to the state chemist for testing, stated as follows: In the instant case we believe that an adequate chain of custody has been shown. The property custodian of the Department of Public Safety played only a minimal role in the chain of possession. He collected the mail and gave it to the chemist in the laboratory, and then when the chemist was through, mailed it back to Yuma. The officer identified the containers as did the state chemist. The probability of tampering, altering, or contaminating the substance was almost nil. There was high probability that the integrity of the exhibit was maintained as it traveled from Yuma to the state laboratory and back. The trial court properly admitted the heroin into evidence. Judgment affirmed. Concurring HAYS, C.J., and STRUCKMEYER, LOCKWOOD and HOLOHAN, JJ., concur.