Opinion ID: 1983594
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: exclusion of evidence of blood-stained clothing

Text: The defendant's next claim is that the trial court erred when it refused to permit him to introduce through an expert witness evidence relating to blood stains on two pairs of trousers allegedly belonging to the defendant. The state's exhibit 1 was a pair of trousers belonging to the defendant which had a pattern of contact bloodstains, [5] testing as type AB, Rh negative, on the inside of the legs between the crotch and knee. The victim's blood type was AB, Rh negative, while the defendant's was B, Rh positive. The defendant's expert theorized that the bloodstains could be from the defendant's own blood that had stained the trousers after he had scratched poison ivy sores on his legs. The defendant testified that he had such open sores on his legs at the time of the murder and that he had been treating them with a calamine-type lotion. [6] The defendant's expert serologist testified that when blood of group B, the defendant's type, was mixed with calamine, dried, and then reconstituted for testing, it could test falsely as group AB, the victim's blood type. The expert had not attempted to discover whether the calamine also could affect testing of Rh factors, and the state did not present any evidence on the point. The defendant tried to introduce two pairs of trousers that also had contact bloodstains on the insides of the legs. These trousers allegedly had been found along with several other items by the defendant's wife in a rag bag in the basement of the defendant's home on the second day of trial. Mrs. Stepney could not say whether any of the items had been laundered before being placed in the bag. She testified that some items might have been lying around for more than two years, that is, many months earlier than the date of the crime. She could not say whether the trousers had been worn by the defendant at or near the date of the crime. The stains were only of type B blood, and no traces of calamine lotion could be detected on the trousers. The state objected to the offer of the trousers or of testimony concerning tests conducted on them, claiming that the evidence was irrelevant because no proper foundation had been laid connecting the trousers to the time of the incident. The trial court agreed and refused to admit the trousers or the testimony. [7] The defendant then made an offer of proof that the trousers were stained in a pattern similar to the pattern on the state's exhibit 1 and that because the stains were of a similar pattern and type, the jury could consider whether or not [the defendant] had other problems with the same type of poison ivy problem on the inside of his pants....The court again sustained the state's objection. When determining if the object should be admitted, the trial court should consider the nature of the article, the circumstances surrounding the preservation and custody of it, and the possibility of intermeddlers tampering with it. People v. Prast, 319 N.W.2d 627, 636 (Mich. App. 1982); see also State v. Alford, 384 So. 2d 761, 765 (La. 1980); Washburn v. State, 318 S.W.2d 627, 635-36 (Tex. Crim. App. 1958). The trial court in the present case refused to admit the trousers because [w]e can't tell ... how long they had been where they were found, what has happened to them, what might have stained them. All of those factors are unknown.... The defendant claimed that the trousers were relevant to show the possibility that the defendant might have had poison ivy on his legs at some other time. If the defendant could have established when he wore the pants and that he had been afflicted with poison ivy at that time, the proffered evidence might have been marginally relevant to show that it was possible that the stains on the state's exhibit 1 were from bleeding poison ivy. The state, however, never contested that such stains were a theoretical possibility; it claimed rather that they were not actually made in that way. The trial court reasonably could have concluded that the foundation laid for admission of the trousers was insufficient to support even the inference suggested by the defendant. The court was not required to admit evidence that was merely speculative. Under all the circumstances, we cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion when it refused to admit evidence concerning the trousers. See State v. Bennett, 20 Wash. App. 783, 788, 582 P.2d 569 (1978).