Opinion ID: 1975354
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Relation of Cigarette Butt to Investigation or Prosecution

Text: In his first assignment of error, Poe challenges the district court's finding that other than in a larger sense, there was no evidence in the record relating the perpetrator of the robbery to the cigarette butt found at the scene. Such finding is critical given that § 29-4120(1)(a) requires any biological material subject to the provisions of the Act to be related to the investigation or prosecution that resulted in such judgment. Although the district court's order references testimony indicating the perpetrator was smoking a cigarette at the time of the robbery, Poe argues that the district court erred in finding that the record contained no specific evidence relating Poe to this cigarette. In support of this argument, Poe directs us to the following testimony from Officer Clark: And the suspect, when he originally went to the store, was smoking a cigarette and we believed what we found to be his cigarette butt laying [sic] on the floor because it was getting close to closing time and the girls were starting to clean up a little bit and they definitely said the cigarette butt was not there before he came in. So I did take the cigarette butt and place that into property also to be used as evidence. (Emphasis supplied.) We agree. As a threshold, § 29-4120(1)(a) requires that the biological material be related to the investigation or prosecution. Officer Clark's testimony clearly relates the cigarette butt found on the floor to the cigarette being smoked by the perpetrator of the robbery. The district court's finding that the record contained no evidence relating the perpetrator of the robbery to the cigarette butt was clearly erroneous. Such determination, however, does not end our inquiry.