Opinion ID: 1723757
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: trial counsel was ineffective for failing to request funds for a blood splatter expert.

Text: ¶ 16. Defense counsel moved in November 1989 to have the circuit court provide funding for an investigator and a clinical psychiatrist/expert to aid the defense. The circuit court granted the motion as to the psychiatrist, but apparently did not grant funds for an investigator. Ricky Chase now argues that his counsel was ineffective for failure to request funds for a blood splatter expert, as such a person could allegedly have examined the blood on a certain pair of blue jeans introduced into evidence and rendered some kind of opinion as to whether the person who wore the jeans actually fired the fatal shot. Chase attaches an affidavit from Patrick Wojtkiewicz, Director of DNA Research at the North Louisiana Criminalistics Laboratory in Shreveport, which states the following: Assuming the jeans worn by Mr. Chase have not deteriorated to a significant degree, an examination of the blood on the jeans may reveal how the blood got on the jeans, i.e. whether the blood is typical of blood spray from standing within a few feet of the wound when it was made or whether the blood was merely transferred to the jeans by a blood object (including a body, skin or hands) after the gunshot wound was inflicted. ¶ 17. Chase's argument in this application appears to assume that he was wearing the bloody jeans in question during the shooting. As the State argues in its response, Ricky Chase argued throughout the trial that the jeans in question were not his and he had not worn them the day of the shooting. We find that trial counsel should not be found ineffective for failure to solicit expert testimony which did not support Chase's trial testimony, or to rebut a finding which the jury had not yet made.