Opinion ID: 1059619
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 17

Heading: Chain of Custody of Blood Sample

Text: Johnson argues that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence the analysis of the blood sample taken from him for inclusion in the DNA data bank while he was incarcerated at Southampton Correctional Institute in September 1995. He asserts that the Commonwealth did not establish the chain of custody of the blood sample, and he contends that the Commonwealth had insufficient controls ... to conclusively track a sample once it reaches the lab to insure that one specimen is not mixed with another. We find no merit in this argument. A chain of custody is properly established when the Commonwealth's evidence provides reasonable assurance that the sample to be admitted at trial is the same sample, and in the same condition, as when it was first obtained. Vinson v. Commonwealth, 258 Va. 459, 469, 522 S.E.2d 170, 177, (1999); Pope v. Commonwealth, 234 Va. 114, 121, 360 S.E.2d 352, 357 (1987), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 1015, 108 S.Ct. 1489, 99 L.Ed.2d 716 (1988). Thus, under this standard, the Commonwealth is not required to eliminate every conceivable possibility of substitution, alteration, or tampering. Pope, 234 Va. at 121, 360 S.E.2d at 357; Alvarez v. Commonwealth, 24 Va.App. 768, 776, 485 S.E.2d 646, 650 (1997). In the present case, the Commonwealth proved that Ann Chavis drew Johnson's blood, and that she taped and initialed the vial containing the sample before delivering it to Deborah Harrell. Harrell kept the sample in her custody until delivering it to Diane Hamilton at the Division of Forensic Science DNA laboratory. The sample remained in the custody and control of the DNA laboratory until it was analyzed. We also note that under Code § 19.2-187.01, an attested report of analysis from the Division of Forensic Science is prima facie evidence of custody from the time a sample is received by the laboratory until it is released after testing. Johnson presented no evidence to overcome the Commonwealth's introduction of this prima facie evidence, or the direct evidence of actual custody of the blood sample. Therefore, the Commonwealth met its burden of demonstrating a reasonable assurance that Johnson's blood sample was the same sample, and in the same condition, as when it first was obtained.