Opinion ID: 1433814
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to gather blood evidence

Text: Although Daniels characterizes the State's inaction as a failure to preserve evidence, his claim of error actually relates to the State's failure to gather blood evidence from Daniels immediately following his arrest. Daniels admitted to shooting the AM/PM Mini-Mart clerks, but relied on a voluntary intoxication defense to negate the element of specific intent. Daniels argues that he could have proven that he was intoxicated when he shot the clerks if the State had taken a blood sample for testing. Daniels' expert testified that a blood test would have helped to determine whether Daniels had ingested PCP within several hours preceding his arrest. [1] In relying on case law involving the failure to preserve evidence, Daniels fails to distinguish between collection and preservation of evidence. Had the State gathered blood evidence from Daniels and then allowed it to be lost or failed to deliver it to Daniels' counsel, his argument would be more tenable. The State's failure to preserve potentially exculpatory evidence may result in dismissal of the charges if the defendant can show bad faith or connivance on the part of the government or that he was prejudiced by the loss of the evidence. Howard v. State, 95 Nev. 580, 582, 600 P.2d 214, 215-216 (1979) (citations omitted). Although this court has not previously articulated a rule specifically governing the present situation, some states have been reluctant to impose a duty to gather exculpatory evidence. See, e.g., March v. State, 859 P.2d 714, 716 (Alaska Ct.App.1993) (Officers investigating a crime need not `track down every conceivable investigative lead and seize every scintilla of evidence regardless of its apparent importance ... or run the risk of denying a defendant due process ....' (quoting Nicholson v. State, 570 P.2d 1058, 1064 (Alaska 1977))); State v. Rivera, 152 Ariz. 507, 733 P.2d 1090, 1095 (1987) (The State has no corresponding duty, however, to gather blood alcohol evidence for the defense to use in corroborating the defense's own evidence.); State v. Steffes, 500 N.W.2d 608 (N.D.1993) (state has no duty to collect particular evidence at the crime scene). At least one court, recognizing that injustices could arise from the State's failure to gather evidence under certain circumstances, has developed a test for failure to gather evidence. In State v. Ware, 118 N.M. 319, 881 P.2d 679 (1994), the New Mexico Supreme Court established a two-part test. The first part requires the defense to show that the evidence was material, meaning that there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been available to the defense, the result of the proceedings would have been different. Id. 881 P.2d at 685; see United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985). If the evidence was material, then the court must determine whether the failure to gather evidence was the result of mere negligence, gross negligence, or a bad faith attempt to prejudice the defendant's case. Ware, 881 P.2d at 685-686. When mere negligence is involved, no sanctions are imposed, but the defendant can still examine the prosecution's witnesses about the investigative deficiencies. Id. When gross negligence is involved, the defense is entitled to a presumption that the evidence would have been unfavorable to the State. Id. In cases of bad faith, we conclude that dismissal of the charges may be an available remedy based upon an evaluation of the case as a whole. [2] We agree with the Ware court's conclusion that, although police officers generally have no duty to collect all potential evidence from a crime scene ... this rule is not absolute. Id. at 684. Accordingly, we approve of the approach articulated in Ware, and adopt a similar standard for Nevada. Despite this decision, we must deny Daniels' appeal because he failed to establish that the blood evidence was likely to have been material, and because he failed to establish that the State's failure to gather the blood evidence was attributable to negligence, gross negligence, or bad faith. The prosecution does not address the exculpatory potential of the blood evidence; however, we conclude that whether the blood evidence would likely have prevented Daniels' conviction is pure speculation. By Daniels' own admission, he was not arrested until about six hours after his alleged ingestion of PCP. Daniels' expert testified that PCP can only be detected in the blood for a few hours after ingestion. Thus, if the test did indicate the presence of PCP, it would not prove beyond mere speculation that Daniels ingested the drug before the shootings. Although we need not reach the second part of the prescribed analysis in light of our conclusion that the first prong of the Ware test has not been satisfied, we note that Daniels also failed to establish that the State's failure to gather blood evidence was caused by negligence, gross negligence, or bad faith. Daniels emphasizes that Detective Tremel declined to order blood tests on the morning of Daniels' arrest despite his awareness that Marshall and other witnesses had described Daniels' strange appearance and behavior. However, the detective was also aware that the nurse who performed Daniels' initial medical screening did not notice any signs that Daniels was under the influence of drugs, and Daniels told her that he had not taken any drugs. Furthermore, the detective testified that, prior to the tape-recorded interview, Daniels admitted to smoking marijuana the previous day, but denied any other recent drug use. We conclude that a reasonable jury could not find that the detective was negligent, grossly negligent or acted in bad faith by deferring to the nurse's professional judgment and Daniels' own assertions that he was not intoxicated.