Opinion ID: 1434194
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: admissibility of physical evidence at trial

Text: Both eyewitnesses stated that the man they had seen was wearing a dark cowboy hat and a leather jacket, and carried a bandana in his pocket. When the defendant was apprehended in Wyoming, the police seized a dark cowboy hat and a leather vest from him. Defendant objected to the admission of the hat and vest as evidence. He claimed that the State had not shown the chain of custody from the time the hat and vest were seized by Wyoming authorities until presented in court. Over this objection, the court admitted the evidence with reservation. When the court later admitted them without reservation, defendant failed to renew his objection. Normally, a single objection to the admission of evidence at the earliest opportunity will preserve an issue for appeal. State v. Pierre, Utah, 572 P.2d 1338, 1353 (1977). However, the objecting party must repeat his objection when evidence is admitted without reservation, calling the court's attention to any failure of counsel to connect up the evidence. State v. Stone, 18 Utah 2d 289, 291, 422 P.2d 194, 195 (1968). Defendant did not again renew the objection and is thereby precluded from raising it now. Even if defendant had properly raised his objection, the evidence was properly admitted. The so-called chain of custody doctrine has its greatest force where the physical evidence in question is fungible or subject to alteration. In those circumstances, the chain of custody is required to show that there has been no tampering, alteration, or substitution of the evidence. State v. Petralia, 110 Ariz. 530, at 536, 521 P.2d 617, 623 (1974). In defendant's circumstance, however, the articles are unique. Defendant's brother-in-law identified the hat and vest as belonging to defendant and, except for some wear, as being unaltered from the last time he had seen them. In this situation, the State did not need to show a complete chain of custody. State v. Carlton, 82 N.M. 537, 539, 484 P.2d 757, 759 (1971); Washington v. People, 158 Colo. 115, 405 P.2d 735, 739 (1965), cert. denied, 383 U.S. 953, 86 S.Ct. 1217, 16 L.Ed.2d 215 (1966).