Opinion ID: 1801948
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Alleged improper admission of expert ballistics testimony

Text: During jury selection, at a hearing outside the presence of prospective jurors, the prosecutor made known that criminalist Gregory Laskowski had very recently concluded that the Colt .25-caliber pistol recovered in the October 1984 raid on the Caravan Inn had fired the bullets recovered from Clifford Merck's body. Laskowski briefly testified that, after learning the previous week from Detective Christopherson that the barrel of the gun had been tampered with, he had made a mold of the barrel using a casting compound, compared the mold with the bullets taken from Clifford's body, and concluded the bullets had been fired from that gun. (19) Later during trial, defendant moved under People v. Kelly (1976) 17 Cal.3d 24 [130 Cal.Rptr. 144, 549 P.2d 1240], to exclude Laskowski's testimony about the comparison and his conclusions. [22] As relevant here, the Kelly rule provides that the admissibility of expert testimony based on `a new scientific technique' requires proof of its reliabilityi.e., that the technique is `sufficiently established to have gained general acceptance in the particular field to which it belongs.' ( People v. Venegas (1998) 18 Cal.4th 47, 76 [74 Cal.Rptr.2d 262, 954 P.2d 525], quoting People v. Kelly, supra, 17 Cal.3d at p. 30; accord, Nelson, supra, 43 Cal.4th at p. 1257.) At an Evidence Code section 402 hearing, [23] Laskowski testified that in 1984 he had excluded the Colt pistol as the source of the bullets recovered from Clifford's body based on a comparison of those bullets with test-fired bullets. A few weeks before trial, however, Detective Christopherson had informed him that the inside of the barrel had been altered. Laskowski reexamined the gun and determined that the land impressions near the crown of the barrel had been damaged to such an extent that comparison with test-fired bullets was impossible. Laskowski therefore made a cast of the interior of the barrel using Mikrosil, a silicone rubber compound routinely used in the casting of tool marks. He then compared the markings on the cast that had been recorded from the inside of the barrel with the two bullets recovered from Clifford's body, and determined the bullets had been fired from the Colt pistol. On cross-examination, Laskowski admitted that neither he nor any other ballistics expert he was aware of had ever testified in court regarding ballistics comparisons using Mikrosil casting. However, at least a dozen or more experts he had spoken with told him that the method was acceptable. Moreover, he explained, the technique was not new, because the recording of tool marks with an elastomeric material has been done, and firearms examination was essentially a subset of tool mark comparison. Defendant called no witnesses. Based on Laskowski's testimony, the court ruled the method Laskowski had used to compare the gun barrel with the bullets recovered from Clifford's body was not a new scientific technique and therefore was not subject to the Kelly test. The court explained, What we're dealing with here is simplyis an old procedure that has been employed for years in terms of identifying . . . a firearm as being that which fired a slug, that has been with us for years and a little bit different technique, possibly, but the basic science, if you will, is the same, it is not a new technique and new process. Defendant contends the trial court's ruling was erroneous. We disagree. Kelly applies only to `that limited class of expert testimony which is based, in whole or part, on a technique, process, or theory which is new to science and, even more so, the law.' ( People v. Leahy, supra, 8 Cal.4th at p. 605, quoting People v. Stoll (1989) 49 Cal.3d 1136, 1156 [265 Cal.Rptr. 111, 783 P.2d 698].) Here, defendant does not claim that either the technique of ballistics comparisons or the technique of identifying tool marks using molds made of elastic material is new. Laskowski simply combined these two existing techniques to compare the Colt pistol's barrel with the bullets recovered from Clifford's body. As Laskowski testified, the recording of tool marks with an elastomeric material has been done and firearms examination is essentially a tool mark type of examination when one looks at impressed or striated materials, marks, and that is not a new technique. Moreover, neither technique is so foreign to everyday experience as to be unusually difficult for laypersons to evaluate. ( People v. Venegas, supra, 18 Cal.4th at p. 81 [contrasting DNA evidence, which requires validation under Kelly, with fingerprint, shoe track, bite mark, or ballistic comparisons, which jurors essentially can see for themselves].) As we have explained, the Kelly rule is intended to prevent lay jurors from being unduly influenced by procedures which seem scientific and infallible, but which actually are not. ( People v. Webb (1993) 6 Cal.4th 494, 524 [24 Cal.Rptr.2d 779, 862 P.2d 779]; see also People v. Leahy, supra, 8 Cal.4th at p. 606 [ Kelly applies only to techniques that `appear[] in both name and description to provide some definitive truth which the expert need only accurately recognize and relay to the jury.'].) Thus, in People v. Webb, supra, 6 Cal.4th 494, we held that expert testimony regarding a fingerprint match based on a laser-derived image of a latent fingerprint was not subject to the Kelly test. ( Webb, supra, 6 Cal.4th at pp. 523-524.) There, an expert witness explained in detail how he had derived the image and compared it to the defendant's known fingerprint. Slides and photographs of each stage of the chemical and laser process were introduced, and the expert explained the points of similarity he found. There was no dispute that the method produced the image without tampering or alteration. ( Id. at p. 524.) We concluded, [w]here, as here, a procedure isolates physical evidence whose existence, appearance, nature, and meaning are obvious to the senses of a layperson, the reliability of the process in producing that result is equally apparent and need not be debated under the Kelly rule. ( Ibid. ) Similarly, here, the procedure Laskowski used merely isolate[d] physical evidencespecifically, the pattern of lands and grooves and associated imperfections on the inside of the Colt pistol's barrel, as well as the corresponding markings on the recovered bulletswhose . . . appearance, nature, and meaning [were] obvious to the senses of the lay jurors. ( People v. Webb, supra, 6 Cal.4th at p. 524.) At the Evidence Code section 402 hearing and at trial, Laskowski explained in detail the process he had used to create the barrel cast and compare it to the bullets recovered from Clifford Merck's body. Laskowski showed photographs of the gun, the barrel cast, the test-fired bullets and the recovered bullets to the jury and identified the points of similarity he found between the cast and the recovered bullets. Although there was some dispute about whether the method Laskowski used produced a cast of the barrel without tampering or alteration due to possible bubbling or shrinkage of the Mikrosil, that possibility was fully explored on cross-examination and the jury had the opportunity to weigh its effect on the validity of Laskowski's conclusions. Thus, here too there was no need to debate the reliability of the method under the standards of Kelly. ( People v. Webb, supra, 6 Cal.4th at p. 524; see also People v. Clark (1993) 5 Cal.4th 950, 1017-1019 [22 Cal.Rptr.2d 689, 857 P.2d 1099] [blood-spatter evidence not subject to Kelly because it is common knowledge that inferences can be drawn from spatter patterns of blood expelled from the human body], disapproved on other grounds in People v. Doolin, supra, 45 Cal.4th at p. 421, fn. 22; People v. Stoll, supra, 49 Cal.3d 1136, 1157 [absent some special feature which effectively blindsides the jury, expert opinion testimony is not subject to Kelly/Frye ].) Defendant contends that although the science of ballistics is not new, the accepted technique involves comparison of a test-fired bullet with bullets recovered from a crime scene. He contends there are critical differences between the identification of stationary impressions of tool marks using casts or molds, and the identification of marks produced by the dynamic forces acting on a bullet as it is propelled through the barrel of a gun. He argues that by combining tool mark comparison technique with ballistics comparison technique, Laskowski created a new technique, the reliability of which should have been proved under the Kelly standards. Defendant did not raise this argument in the trial court, and that court had no opportunity to evaluate it. In any event, the difference between static tool mark comparison and dynamic ballistics comparison was not a matter so beyond common understanding that lay jurors could not give it proper weight in evaluating Laskowski's opinion. Defendant could have raised this issue on cross-examination, or he could have presented his own expert to contest Laskowski's findings before the jury. He did neither. We conclude there was no error.