Opinion ID: 1706781
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: whether the trial court erred in allowing the jury to consider jackson's blood and urine samples from pucket laboratories.

Text: ¶ 6. Trial evidence established that Jackson's urine tested positive for alcohol and that his blood alcohol level was 0.17%. The appellant claims that the blood and urine results are the only evidence that the defendant was intoxicated and that this evidence should not have been presented to the jury. ¶ 7. In addition to the blood and urine samples, however, three witnesses, Deputy Thomas Earl Stevens, Joanna Pierce, and John Paul Kirby, presented testimony indicating that Jackson had been drinking on the night of the accident. Deputy Thomas Earl Stevens was the officer investigating the scene, and he testified that he found empty beer cans around the scene as well as in the cab of the truck. Pierce testified that she had seen Jackson drinking a beer between 7:00 and 8:00 on the evening of the accident. Kirby testified that he was with Jackson from 6:30 to 10:30 and that they were drinking beer during that time. Clearly, the blood and urine samples are not the only indication that Jackson was intoxicated at the time of the accident. ¶ 8. The appellant objects to the blood and urine samples on the basis that no documentary evidence as to the source of the blood and urine samples exists other than the reports that were returned to the Circuit Clerk of Jefferson Davis County. He claims that Jackson's blood and urine samples were destroyed by the laboratories. He also contends that the chain of custody was broken and that the blood and urine samples should therefore not have been admitted into evidence. ¶ 9. We usually defer to the trial court's determination of whether authorities have maintained the chain of custody of evidence. Nix v. State, 276 So.2d 652, 653 (Miss.1973). When reviewing the chain of custody, we will not disturb the finding of the trial court unless there has been an abuse of discretion. Nails v. State, 651 So.2d 1074, 1077 (Miss.1995) ( citing Morris v. State, 436 So.2d 1381 (Miss.1983)). The test to determine whether there has been a break in the chain of custody is whether there is evidence of probable tampering. Nix, 276 So.2d at 653. The record in this case does not reflect that Jackson's blood and urine samples were tampered with in any way. ¶ 10. Officer Thomas Earl Stevens was the first official to arrive at the scene of the accident. He testified that when he saw evidence that Jackson had been drinking he ordered that an alcohol test be performed on Jackson's body. He then witnessed the deputy coroner draw the blood and urine from the body of the deceased. He also watched as the deputy coroner, Greg Blackwell, packaged and sealed the samples. ¶ 11. The coroner, Joe Hutchins, testified that the deputy coroner acted under his supervision and in accordance with the standard procedures in their office. After the samples were drawn, they were taken to the hospital in Prentiss, where they were picked up by the testing facility, Pucket Laboratories. Following standard procedure, Pucket Laboratories sent the coroner's office a copy of the results of the tests. Hutchins then recorded these results in his official records. ¶ 12. Greg Blackwell, the deputy coroner, was trained by the Mississippi Crime Laboratory in the correct procedure for taking blood and urine samples. He described the protocol and testified that he followed the proper procedure in drawing and packaging Jackson's samples and sending them to the testing laboratory. The appellant attempted to discredit Blackwell's testimony by eliciting on cross-examination that he did not specifically remember taking the blood and urine from Jackson's body and that he did not specifically remember filling out the form that accompanied Jackson's samples. The fact that Blackwell did not remember every single detail about a test he conducted six years ago does not convince this Court that the chain of custody was broken. Blackwell testified that he did remember working with Jackson's body and that the correct procedure was followed. ¶ 13. Finally, the defendants below presented the deposition of Tom Pittman, the head of Pucket Laboratories. In his deposition, Pittman identified the report concerning the testing results and stated that these results were sent to the Jefferson Davis County Clerk's Office pursuant to standard office procedure. ¶ 14. The record establishes that the chain of custody was not broken. We have held that Mississippi Rule of Evidence 401 allows for the admission of blood alcohol test results into evidence. Whitehurst v. State, 540 So.2d 1319, 1323-24 (Miss.1989). In this case, the issue of alcohol consumption is relevant. Therefore, the trial court did not err in admitting the test results from Jackson's blood and urine into evidence.