Opinion ID: 2518827
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Did the Trial Court Properly Exclude the Dog Track Testimony?

Text: ¶ 44 Lord also claims that the trial court's exclusion of the dog handler denied his constitutional right to offer testimony of witnesses in his defense. State v. Maupin, 128 Wash.2d 918, 924, 913 P.2d 808 (1996) (recognizing both state and federal constitutional rights to present witnesses). However, the right to present defense witnesses is not absolute. A criminal defendant has no constitutional right to have irrelevant evidence admitted. State v. Hudlow, 99 Wash.2d 1, 15, 659 P.2d 514 (1983). The rules of evidence define relevancy as the tendency to make a material fact more or less probable. ER 401. A trial court's decision to exclude evidence will be reversed only where the trial court has abused its discretion. State v. Picard, 90 Wash.App. 890, 899, 954 P.2d 336, review denied, 136 Wash.2d 1021, 969 P.2d 1065 (1998) (The determination of whether testimony is admissible rests within the sound discretion of the trial court.). ¶ 45 The trial court excluded the dog handler's testimony based on the court's determination of the relevance or irrelevance of the handler's evidence, not his failure to qualify as an expert or the lack of scientific acceptance of scent tracking. See ER 702. [15] ¶ 46 The dog handler could not narrow the date of the scent trail followed by his dogs beyond a two week window. Thus, the victim could have made the scent trail during her frequent visits to the stable at any time within the preceding 14 days. Ms. Parker had been to the stable and road many times during that period, and the dog handler could not definitively testify that the track his dog followed was made on the day that Ms. Parker disappeared. Br. of Resp't at 16. The court determined the testimony would not prove any material fact because of the uncertain date of the scent. ¶ 47 The trial court was well within its discretion to refuse evidence it found irrelevant. See State v. Stubsjoen, 48 Wash. App. 139, 147, 738 P.2d 306 (1987); see also ER 401. Appellate courts cannot substitute their own reasoning for the trial court's reasoning, absent an abuse of discretion. Stubsjoen, 48 Wash.App. at 147, 738 P.2d 306. Consequently, if the dog handler had been able to determine that the scent track was from the date of the crime, such evidence might have been admissible and relevant. [16] However, the handler made no such claim, instead offering a two week timeline that did not change the State's basic crime theory. ¶ 48 We also note that while there was no error in the trial court's decision, the evidence excluded would easily meet the harmless error standard. To determine whether error is harmless, Washington uses the `overwhelming untainted evidence' test. State v. Smith, 148 Wash.2d 122, 139, 59 P.3d 74 (2002) (citing State v. Guloy, 104 Wash.2d 412, 426, 705 P.2d 1182 (1985)). [17] Under this test, if the untainted, admitted evidence is so overwhelming as to necessarily lead to a finding of guilt, the error is harmless. Id. The State contends that even if this court finds that the track evidence was relevant; its exclusion amounted to harmless error when reviewed in context. See State v. Bourgeois, 133 Wash.2d 389, 403, 945 P.2d 1120 (1997) (error is not prejudicial if the evidence is of minor significance when compared to the overall weight of the evidence). ¶ 49 This exclusion of the dog track evidence is distinguishable from the three eye witnesses whose testimony was excluded in the first trial. See Lord, 184 F.3d 1083. In that case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found inadequate the first trial counsel's decision to omit presentation of three witnesses. [18] Id. at 1096. That court held that the omission constituted inadequate performance by trial counsel because the testimony could have raised reasonable doubt. Id. at 1095. ¶ 50 Here, the omitted eye witness testimony was admitted in the second trial, as well as much additional DNA analysis evidence. DNA evidence proved the victim's blood was found at Lord's workshop. Two different hair DNA analyses placed Lord near different parts of the crime scene each with a 99.94 percent probability. The second trial cured the defects that the Ninth Circuit found in Lord, 184 F.3d 1083, and added the DNA evidence. This jury based their verdict on a comprehensive review of all the evidence and voted to convict Lord. Any evidentiary rulings were harmless given the weight of the overall evidence.