Opinion ID: 2180416
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Missing Evidence Instruction Properly Denied

Text: The State concedes that all of the missing evidence would have been subject to disclosure under Superior Court Criminal Rule 16, and that the government had a duty to preserve the drug paraphernalia, but not the cash. The Superior Court concluded that the State was not negligent in forfeiting the currency because the forfeiture was consistent with the State's standard operating procedures and the defense did not request that the State record the serial numbers on the bills. We agree. Therefore, we hold that the State did not breach its duty to preserve the currency and Hendricks was not entitled to a Lolly missing evidence instruction as to the missing cash. [27] Regarding the drug paraphernalia, the Superior Court concluded, and the State conceded, that the State had breached its duty to preserve that evidence by negligently destroying the digital scale and plastic bags. Therefore, it is unnecessary to address the three aspects of the Deberry analysis that inquires into the nature of this drug paraphernalia evidence. Accordingly, we proceed directly to the consequence portion of the Deberry missing evidence paradigm. The first part of the consequence analysis is to determine the degree of negligence or bad faith involved. Dover Police Department Detective Todd Case testified about the inadvertent disposition of the evidence and the procedure for periodic disposition of evidence at the police department. He stated on direct examination that: [u]nfortunately we are asked to periodically go through our evidence by our technicians to see if it is still of value, and we are required as the individual officer assigned to that evidence to enter into the DELJIS computer, which is the state wide criminal computer. In that capacity you can obtain the information of a particular criminal case and its status or disposition. Unfortunately in this case I interpreted the information from the computer stating that the three charges had either been pled away or disposed of; therefore, I instructed the evidence technician to dispose of the digital scale and baggies in a proper manner and that has been done, so were not physically available today. .... They were retained for a period of time until approximately February of this year when I then made that request accidentally and had them destroyed. The record reflects that the Dover Police Department mistakenly destroyed this evidence in February 2000, prior to Hendricks' trial. There is no evidence that the State acted in bad faith. The Superior Court found that the State had been negligent, and that factual determination of negligence is supported by the record. The second part of the consequence analysis is to determine the importance of the missing evidence after considering the probative value and reliability of secondary or substitute evidence that remains available. Hendricks argues that the missing drug paraphernalia evidence was important to his defense because, if the drug paraphernalia had been available, the defense could have tested it for drug residue or fingerprints in order to rule out Hendricks' involvement. The State submits that the absence of drug residue or fingerprints would not have changed the ultimate outcome of the case. The third part of the consequence analysis involves an examination of the sufficiency of alternative evidence produced at the trial to sustain the conviction. The trial judge found that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence based upon the testimony and observations of the officers to support a conviction on the maintaining a dwelling and possession of drug paraphernalia charges. We agree. The record reflects that Hendricks' possession of the drug paraphernalia was established independent of the missing evidence because he had a key to the hotel room in which that evidence was found, according to the police testimony at trial. The drug paraphernalia evidence was found pursuant to a search of a place where Hendricks was staying and which was under his control. The search was performed after Hendricks had consented. All of these circumstances support the State's position that a logical circumstantial inference could be drawn that Hendricks possessed any items found in that hotel room. The record reflects that the destruction of the digital scale and plastic bags was negligent, but was not done in bad faith. The record also reflects that there was reliable secondary testimonial evidence that made the actual availability of that drug paraphernalia unimportant to the State's case. The secondary evidence presented by the State was sufficient to establish Hendricks' guilt and to support his convictions. The missing drug paraphernalia evidence would not have been exculpatory. Even if neither the plastic bags nor the digital scale contained drug residue or Hendricks' fingerprints, the presence of those items in his hotel room was sufficient to establish his possession of that drug paraphernalia. Therefore, the physical existence of the drug paraphernalia evidence at the time of the trial was not material to Hendricks' defense. Although Hendricks' attorney was free to argue to the jury the significance of the drug paraphernalia that was missing because of its negligent destruction, the Superior Court properly denied Hendricks' request for a missing evidence jury instruction.