Opinion ID: 1197916
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admissibility of Shell Casing

Text: Eleven days after Jeanette's body was found, the police discovered a shiny 9mm shell casing under a bush at the crime scene. Defendant contends that the trial court erroneously admitted the shell casing into evidence because the state failed to establish a sufficient chain of custody. At trial, however, defendant's attorney failed to object to the admission of the shell casing and later stipulated that the evidentiary escort [chain of custody] was maintained. Therefore, defendant has waived this issue absent a finding of fundamental error. See State v. Gillies, 135 Ariz. 500, 510-11, 662 P.2d 1007, 1017-18 (1983). To establish a chain of custody, the state must show continuity of possession, but it need not disprove every remote possibility of tampering. See State v. Hardy, 112 Ariz. 205, 207, 540 P.2d 677, 679 (1975). Defendant offers no specific evidence to support his assertion that the shell casing may have been tampered with before police recovered it. At trial, the state introduced testimony showing that the shell casing remained intact and unaltered once the police recovered it. For these reasons, we find no fundamental error here.