State v. Arroyo

• Citation: 844 A.2d 163
• Decision Date: 26 March 2004
• Docket Number: No. 2003-2-C.A.,2003-2-C.A.
• Parties: STATE v. Carlos ARROYO.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Rhode Island

844 A.2d 163

STATE v. Carlos ARROYO.

No. 2003-2-C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

March 26, 2004.

Jane M. McSoley, Esq., for Plaintiff.

Catherine A. Gibran, Esq., for Defendant.

Present: WILLIAMS, C.J., FLANDERS, GOLDBERG, FLAHERTY, and SUTTELL, JJ.

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

The defendant, Carlos Arroyo, appeals from the judgment of a Superior Court jury convicting him of first-degree robbery. This Court heard oral arguments on January 27, 2004, pursuant to an order directing all parties to appear and show cause why the issues raised in this appeal should not summarily be decided. After considering the arguments of counsel and examining the memoranda filed by the parties, we are of the opinion that cause has not been shown and, therefore, we proceed to decide this case at this time. For the reasons stated below, we affirm the conviction.

Shortly before 10 p.m. on January 10, 2001, a man and a woman entered the China House Restaurant in Providence as Kevin Lam and his fellow employees were preparing to close for the evening.¹ Lam, who had been working the counter that evening, took the couple's takeout order. After their order had been placed, the couple went to a beverage cooler, from which the woman took a can of soda and the man a carton of orange juice.² The man returned to the counter while the woman, soda in hand, left the restaurant. Placing the orange juice carton on the counter, the man asked Lam whether it was for sale. The record is unclear as to Lam's response, but the man, in any event, left the restaurant without the orange juice, which remained on the counter.

Ten minutes later, the same man returned — alone — and asked to be "rung out." Lam testified that while he was calculating the couple's bill, the man pulled out a gun and ordered him not to move. The man then went behind the counter and attempted to open the cash register. Unable to do so, he demanded that Lam open it for him. Lam complied. After the register was opened, the man, with his finger on the trigger, cocked the gun, once more ordered Lam not to move, and proceeded to take $500 to $600 from the register before walking from the restaurant. Although the holdup man absconded with the cash, he left the carton of orange juice on the counter.

Lam immediately telephoned 9-1-1. He told the responding officers that the perpetrator had been wearing a light-green jacket with a hood. Lam testified that the gun the robber had pointed at him was black, six inches long, and that its handle was wrapped with a dark-blue bandana. He also testified that he had been concerned for his well-being during the robbery, fearing his son might never see him again.

Robert Firth, a detective from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation of the Providence Police Department (BCI), was dispatched to process the crime scene. According to his testimony, he was able to "lift" several latent fingerprints from both the orange juice carton left on the counter and the used carton in the cooler. Using the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), Det. Firth conducted a computer search to find a match for these latent prints. AFIS generated a group of potential matches. He then narrowed this group and matched the latent prints to a set of inked prints on file belonging to defendant. In accordance with BCI practice, Det. Firth then submitted his findings to two other BCI fingerprint examiners as a "safeguard," asking them to offer their respective opinions. Their separate findings did nothing to change Det. Firth's own opinion that the latent prints matched defendant's prints.

Robert Clements, the lead detective investigating the robbery, was then provided with defendant's name. He obtained an arrest warrant and executed it at defendant's apartment, which was about a four-minute walk from the restaurant. In the process of executing that warrant and taking defendant into custody, the police seized a blue bandana and a hoodless, dark-green fleece jacket. No gun, however, was ever seized in connection with the robbery. While in custody, and after being properly advised of his rights, defendant claimed that he had never been in the China House Restaurant.

On June 28, 2001, a grand jury returned an indictment charging defendant on four separate counts: first-degree robbery, in violation of G.L.1956 § 11-39-1(a); possessing a firearm after being convicted of a crime of violence, in violation of G.L.1956 § 11-47-5; using a firearm when committing a crime of violence, in violation of § 11-47-3.2(a); and carrying a firearm without a license, in violation of § 11-47-8(a). A jury trial was conducted between February 18 and 21, 2002, at the end of which the jury returned a verdict convicting defendant of first-degree robbery, but acquitting him on all three firearms counts. On March 5, 2002, defendant moved for a new trial. On March 25, 2002, the trial justice issued a written decision denying defendant's motion. On May 29, 2002, the trial justice sentenced defendant to serve twenty-five years, with ten years suspended.³ The defendant filed an appeal of his conviction that same day, raising several issues that we address below.

Expert Testimony

The defendant first argues that the trial justice abused his discretion in qualifying Det. Firth as an expert witness because his experience and training in fingerprint comparison and identification were insufficient. Therefore, defendant contends, the trial justice improperly allowed Det. Firth to offer an expert opinion with respect to the fingerprint evidence. The state responds that the trial justice did not abuse his discretion in qualifying Det. Firth as an expert, and that any claimed shortcomings in Det. Firth's experience should have an impact only on the weight accorded his testimony and not the admissibility of his opinion.

Rule 702 of the Rhode Island Rules of Evidence provides that "[i]f scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of fact or opinion." Qualifying a witness as an expert on a particular subject rests solely with the discretion of the trial justice, and this Court will not disturb such a finding absent a showing of abuse of discretion. State v. Rodriguez, 798 A.2d 435, 438 (R.I.2002) (per curiam) (citing State v. Collins, 679 A.2d 862, 867 (R.I. 1996)). "An individual need not hold a particular license, title or certificate in a specialized field to testify as an expert; he or she need only possess `knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education' [that] can deliver a helpful opinion to the factfinder." Mills v. State Sales, Inc., 824 A.2d 461, 470 (R.I.2003) (per curiam) (quoting Raimbeault v. Takeuchi Manufacturing, (U.S.), Ltd., 772 A.2d 1056, 1061 (R.I.2001) and Owens v. Payless Cashways, Inc., 670 A.2d 1240, 1244 (R.I.1996)). When assessing the probative value of expert-opinion testimony, "the jury is always free to accept, to reject, or to accord any amount of weight it chooses to that expert's testimony." State v. Bertram, 591 A.2d 14, 25 (R.I.1991) (citing State v. Vargus, 118 R.I. 113, 127, 373 A.2d 150, 157 (1977)).

At the time of trial, Det. Firth had been a Providence police officer for nearly eight years, and had been assigned to BCI for one year and eleven months. He testified that he had the following qualifications: approximately forty hours of training from a BCI lieutenant on classifying fingerprints and latent fingerprint identification; in-house training from other senior fingerprint examiners in the department; "in-house certification" after approximately sixty days at BCI; a two-semester course at the state crime lab at URI; and passing the final exam in April 2001 to qualify as a fingerprint examiner. As part of graduating from the URI crime lab course in April 2001 he was certified as a fingerprint examiner. He had compared latent prints to inked prints just under one hundred times, and he had compared inked prints more than one thousand times. Although the number of times is not clear from the record, Det. Firth testified that he had been qualified to testify as a fingerprint examiner in Superior Court before. On cross-examination, Det. Firth conceded that he has neither lectured on fingerprint examination nor published any articles relating to the subject. He admitted that he had received his certification from the URI crime lab three months after comparing the latent prints in the present case with the inked prints on file for defendant.

Detective Firth's knowledge, training, and experience, combined with his processing of the crime scene, are a sufficient basis on which to qualify him as an expert witness on the latent and inked fingerprints that are the subject of this case. It is true that the witness' certification from the URI crime lab was not conferred upon him until three months after he examined the fingerprints at issue in this case. But to testify as an expert, he was not required to be certified as a fingerprint examiner; what was required was that he possess knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education to deliver an opinion helpful to the jury. See Rodriguez, 798 A.2d at 438

(qualifying a former police officer who had failed a certification test as an expert in fingerprint examination); see also Marshall v. Medical Associates of Rhode Island Inc., 677 A.2d 425, 426-27 (R.I.1996) (per curiam) (qualifying as an expert in a case involving an animal bite wound a physician who was not board certified in emergency and internal medicine because he had encountered hundreds of similar wounds and had lectured on animal bites).

Although his qualifications were somewhat limited, Det. Firth nonetheless had a degree of knowledge and experience in fingerprint examination. The defendant was allowed to probe as to the extent of Det....