Opinion ID: 1382950
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: glass particles.

Text: Glass fragments found at seven different locations on the Davenport property were sent to the Kentucky State Police Crime Laboratory for forensic examination, as was the clothing Appellant was wearing on the night the crimes were committed. Scrapings of Appellant's clothing produced numerous small glass particles, but none matched the glass fragments found on the Davenport property. Appellant complains that the evidence that glass particles were found on his clothing should have been excluded as irrelevant, since those particles did not match the glass fragments gathered from the crime scene. Appellant did not object to the admission of this evidence at trial. Since the evidence was more exculpatory than inculpatory, we regard this omission as a legitimate trial tactic. Sanders v. Commonwealth, Ky., 801 S.W.2d 665, 668 (1990), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 831, 112 S.Ct. 107, 116 L.Ed.2d 76 (1991); Cosby v. Commonwealth, Ky., 776 S.W.2d 367, 369 (1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 1063, 110 S.Ct. 880, 107 L.Ed.2d 963 (1990), overruled on other grounds, St. Clair v. Roark, Ky., 10 S.W.3d 482 (1999). In fact, counsel for Appellant literally pounced on the mismatch during cross-examination of the forensic analyst who testified to it. At oral argument, Appellant's primary complaint was that the prosecutor, in his closing argument, cited the presence of glass particles on Appellant's clothing as evidence of his guilt. The prosecutor did not claim that the particles matched the glass fragments gathered from the crime scene and forwarded to the crime laboratory. Clearly, there was a lot of broken glass at the crime scene. The absence of a match between the glass particles on Appellant's clothing and the glass fragments sent to the crime laboratory does not eliminate the possibility that the glass on Appellant's clothing came from the Davenport residence. It just eliminates the possibility that the glass on Appellant's clothing came from the same objects as the glass fragments sent to the crime laboratory. The prosecutor did not misstate the evidence with respect to the glass particles.