Opinion ID: 1874840
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Evidence of Shaved Pubic Region

Text: One week after the trial court ordered Huggins to submit samples of his head hair and pubic hair for comparison with other evidence, a crime scene investigator sent to collect the samples discovered that Huggins' pubic region was recently shaved, precluding collection of a pubic hair sample at that time. The investigator was able to obtain a sample of Huggins' scalp hair. The State sought to admit both the investigator's testimony and a photograph of the shaved area to support its assertion that Huggins was attempting to avoid the court-ordered testing because it would yield incriminating evidence. Huggins argued that the evidence was irrelevant and misleading because there was an innocent explanation why he shaved his pubic region: to combat a crab lice infestation at the detention facility where he was being held. The appropriate inquiry for admission of an attempt to conceal evidence of a crime is whether a clear nexus exists between the act of concealment and the offense for which the defendant is on trial. See Menna v. State, 846 So.2d 502, 506 (Fla.2003). If the act is so ambiguous as to remove from its invocation any probative value ... as to the issue of the defendant's alleged consciousness of guilt, the evidence is inadmissible. Id. at 506-07. This test applies to the court-ordered submission of pubic hair samples in this case. Ambiguity of purpose can arise in a variety of circumstances, and is not limited to refusal to participate in a voluntary procedure, as in Menna. Regardless of whether the procedure allegedly evaded or hampered by the defendant is voluntary or compulsory, the defendant's act must clearly appear to be an attempt to avoid the gathering of inculpatory evidence before the jury may be exposed to what would otherwise be an irrelevant and prejudicial matter. In Looney v. State, 803 So.2d 656, 667 (Fla.2001), this Court stated that the determination of whether there is a sufficient nexus to demonstrate materiality should be made with a sensitivity to the facts of the particular case. Several factors present in this case deprive this evidence of the proper nexus between the act of Huggins' shaving his pubic region and consciousness of guilt. First, as advanced by Huggins, the heat and humidity in the unairconditioned facility where Huggins was housed created favorable conditions for lice infestations that led some inmates to shave their pubic hair to combat the problem. [15] Second, Huggins shaved only his pubic region, not his head, from which samples were also ordered to be taken. Third, shaving is at best a temporary measure. In contrast to destruction of an object to prevent the discovery of inculpatory evidence, the inevitable regrowth of hair would have enabled the State to obtain a pubic hair sample a relatively short time later. Under these circumstances, Huggins' act evinced a desire to avoid a lice infestation as much as, or more than, it showed a desire to avoid submitting pubic hair for analysis. I conclude that pursuant to Menna and Looney, this evidence was erroneously admitted as evidence of consciousness of guilt.