Court Opinion

ID: 9734636
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:40:20.906947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:49.658429
License: Public Domain

DON WITTIG, Justice,
dissenting.
In this instance, the applicable “abuse of discretion” standard requires us to review only the testimony actually elicited from Black on the record before us regarding her expertise. It is from that record we determine whether the trial judge’s decision to allow her to testify was “arbitrary and unreasonable and without reference to guiding principles.” Goode v. Shoukfeh, 943 S.W.2d 441, 446 (Tex.1997); Lagrone v. State, 942 S.W.2d 602, 616 (Tex.Crim.App.1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 917, 118 S.Ct. 305, 139 L.Ed.2d 235 (1997).
Before admitting expert testimony, the trial court must be satisfied that three conditions are met: (1) that the witness qualifies as an expert by reason of his knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education; (2) that the subject matter of the testimony is appropriate for expert testimony; and (3) that admitting the expert testimony will actually assist the fact finder in deciding the case. See Tex. R.Crim.Evid. 702; Alvarado v. State, 912 S.W.2d 199, 215-16 (Tex.Crim.App.1995). Further, the offering party bears the burden to prove the witness they are offering is an expert. Matson v. State, 819 S.W.2d 839, 851 (Tex.Crim.App.1991). The first condition of Alvarado is the only one at issue in this case.
As the majority recognizes, the prosecutor brought out no testimony as to Black’s training, education, skill, or knowledge in the field of identifying controlled substances. The only testimony as to Black’s qualifications as an expert in identifying controlled substances was with regard to her “practical experience.”
*321While, in some cases, an expert’s qualifications can be established on practical experience alone, Black’s nebulous and sketchy testimony about her experience left too much to be inferred about her qualifications as an expert in identifying controlled substances. Moreover, because of the scientific/technical nature of her work, it is questionable whether she could have been shown to be qualified as an expert without at least some testimony as to her educational background, whether she had any training and experience that enabled her to know her level of expected expertise, what, if any, licenses she holds, whether she even had the capacity to do her work properly, and whether she was familiar, competent, and knowledgeable with the procedures that actually enabled her to identify the particular substance as cocaine. In short, we are left guessing as to these fundamental qualifications. Even the experts “practical experience” with the substance in question is truly unknown. Had she ever tested a single sample of cocaine before this testimony? With the burden of proof on the party offering the expert, what the majority says it can infer from the testimony is perhaps what it and the trial judge took for granted.
As to Black’s needed qualifications as an expert, I disagree with the majority’s assertion that the “precise subject at issue” is whether or not the substance was merely a “controlled substance.” In Broders v. Heise, 924 S.W.2d 148 (Tex.1996), the court stated that the proponent of an expert must show their expert possesses special knowledge as to the very matter on which he or she proposes to give an opinion. See Broders, 924 S.W.2d at 152. It went on to hold that to satisfy Rule 702, the offering party must establish the expert has knowledge, experience, training, or education “regarding the specific issue before the court which would qualify the expert to give an opinion on that particular subject.” Id. at 153 (emphasis added).
“Controlled substances” is a very large, non-specific category of substances. As a cursory examination of Tex. Penal Code § 481.101, et seq. reveals, the category of controlled substances is divided up into several “Penalty Groups,” which consist of hundreds of individual complex chemical structures. Accordingly, under both the requirements of Rule 702 and Broders, the issue in this case is not whether Black qualified to testify as an expert about controlled substances in general, but about a particular controlled substance appellant was alleged to have possessed: cocaine.
The State simply failed to demonstrate Black had the expertise to identify the particular substance the police officers obtained from appellant was cocaine. Therefore, the first of the three conditions set out in Alvarado was not met. The timely and specific objection to the expertise of Black should have been sustained. Then, the State, by expending a curative few questions properly qualifying Black, could probably have helped us all save one more tree.