Opinion ID: 2119912
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: urinalysis results.

Text: A screen of a urine sample taken from Appellant at University Hospital approximately one hour after the accident was positive for unquantified amounts of cocaine and marijuana. Appellant made a motion in limine to suppress expected testimony from Dr. George Rodgers, a toxicologist, from testifying that on the night of the accident, a test of appellant's urine revealed traces of cocaine and marijuana. In fact, prior to Dr. Rodgers's testimony, Alberta Kummer, a medical technician employed at the hospital, testified without objection that she was the person who tested Appellant's blood and urine samples and that the urine screen was positive for cocaine and marijuana. Also without objection, Kummer introduced a printout of her test results, which is found in the record as Commonwealth's Exhibit 8. It was this exhibit that was presented to Dr. Rodgers to inform him of the test results. Thus, there was no violation of the motion in limine. Dr. Rodgers testified that traces of marijuana can remain in the body for weeks after ingestion but that traces of cocaine will disappear within twenty-four hours. He could not say when in the twenty-four hour period Appellant had ingested the cocaine but admitted that he also could not say that Appellant had not ingested the cocaine immediately prior to operating his vehicle. And, although he testified in detail to the effects of a blood alcohol concentration of 0.238 grams per deciliter on the motor skills and judgment of a person with that amount of alcohol in his system, he did not know what additional effect would result from a mixture of alcohol and cocaine. Appellant did not move to strike either Kummer's or Rodgers's testimony but only moved for an admonition to the jury to disregard all evidence of marijuana and cocaine as irrelevant. The motion was denied. We upheld the admission of almost identical evidence in both Estep v. Commonwealth, Ky., 957 S.W.2d 191, 193-94 (1997), and Bush v. Commonwealth, Ky., 839 S.W.2d 550, 555 (1992). In State v. McClain, 525 So.2d 420 (Fla.1988), the Supreme Court of Florida held that even a trace amount of cocaine in the system of a person charged with vehicular homicide would have some relevance, id. at 421; and agreed with the conclusion of a district court of appeals in State v. Weitz, 500 So.2d 657, 659 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1986), that such evidence is not inadmissible simply because a toxicologist cannot estimate the degree of impairment caused by its presence. McClain, supra, at 423. Nevertheless, McClain held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in suppressing the evidence under Fla. Stat. Ann. § 90.403, Florida's equivalent of KRE 403. Id. at 422. Here, the trial court admitted the evidence. Like the court in McClain , we believe that evidence that a person charged with vehicular homicide had intoxicating drugs in his system when the homicide occurred is relevant to the issue of wantonness even without additional evidence of the degree of impairment caused by its presence. KRE 402. An item of evidence, being but a single link in the chain of proof, need not prove conclusively the proposition for which it is offered. It need not even make that proposition appear more probable than not.... It is enough if the item could reasonably show that a fact is slightly more probable than it would appear without that evidence. Even after the probative force of the evidence is spent, the proposition for which it is offered still can seem quite improbable. Robert G. Lawson, The Kentucky Evidence Law Handbook § 2.05[3], at 80 (4th ed., LEXIS 2003) (quoting Edward W. Cleary, McCormick on Evidence 542-43 (3d ed.1984)). The evidence was thus admissible unless its probative value was substantially outweighed by its prejudicial effect. KRE 403. This is an issue committed to the sound discretion of the trial court. Commonwealth v. English, Ky., 993 S.W.2d 941, 945 (1999). We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the evidence.