State v. Belken

• Decision Date: 06 September 2001
• Docket Number: No. 99-2001.,99-2001.
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Lincoln Duane BELKEN, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

633 N.W.2d 786

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Lincoln Duane BELKEN, Appellant.

No. 99-2001.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

September 6, 2001.

Linda Del Gallo, State Appellate Defender, and Dennis D. Hendrickson, Assistant State Appellate Defender, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Thomas S. Tauber, Assistant Attorney General, and Edward Bjornstad, County Attorney, for appellee.

CADY, Justice.

The primary issues we confront in this appeal from a judgment and sentence for kidnapping and sexual abuse is whether the district court erred at trial in admitting rebuttal evidence that an investigating officer failed to disclose to the defendant during a deposition, and in admitting evidence of a DNA match between the defendant's DNA and the crime-scene DNA together with a random match probability of one in 431 billion. The court of appeals determined the district court abused its discretion in admitting the rebuttal testimony and reversed the conviction after concluding the evidence was highly prejudicial to the defendant. On our review, we vacate the decision of the court of appeals and affirm the decision of the district court as modified in this opinion.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

On July 3, 1998, Tanya Ross accompanied several girlfriends to the Lake Okoboji area to celebrate the Independence Day holiday. This was Tanya's first visit to the Okoboji area, and she was unfamiliar with her surroundings. The girls checked into a motel located on the east side of West Okoboji called "The Inn" at approximately 6:00 p.m. The college-aged girls took turns in the bathroom getting ready to go out for the evening. They also began to consume alcoholic beverages, and other girls began to arrive at the motel room. Tanya consumed a couple of alcoholic beverages while at the motel.

Eventually, everyone left the motel room to go to Arnold's Park, an amusement park located on the south side of West Okoboji. The group of girls left in two cars. However, Tanya somehow was left behind.

After waiting, to no avail, for her friends to return to the motel, Tanya decided to walk to Arnold's Park. At approximately 11:00 or 11:30 p.m., Tanya started walking in the direction where she believed Arnold's Park was located. Tanya had been walking for about fifteen minutes when a young man stopped and offered her a ride into town. The man appeared "harmless to her," so she accepted the ride. They engaged in a brief conversation. The man asked for her name and where she lived. Although Tanya did not ask the man for his name, he did tell her he was from Okoboji.

When they reached what appeared to be the town, Tanya requested to be dropped off. Instead of letting Tanya out of the car, the man accelerated speed and locked the doors with the automatic power locks. After parking in a wooded area near a lake, the man obtained a gun from the trunk, and threatened to kill Tanya if she attempted to leave. The man then raped Tanya at gunpoint. When the man completed the sex act, he left Tanya in the woods by herself.

Tanya then started walking down the road in search of help. After she had been walking for some time, a man named Heath Richter passed by and offered her assistance. As Heath was driving Tanya to the police department, he saw Officer Dan Schaffer. Officer Schaffer interviewed Tanya and called her an ambulance. These events took place at approximately 12:50 a.m. At the hospital, medical personnel examined Tanya and obtained evidence for subsequent deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis.

Tanya provided investigators detailed descriptions of the assailant, the car, and the gun. She described the assailant as a white male, approximately twenty-one years old, thin build, short—approximately 5' 8", light brown hair, clean-shaven, a little acne, wearing gold-framed eyeglasses. He was wearing a green t-shirt on the night of the assault. Tanya described the car as a white four-door mid-1990's model with red interior and automatic door locks. She believed the gun was a semiautomatic with a blue or dark-colored finish.

On August 18, 1998, Tanya identified Lincoln Belken from a photographic array as the assailant. The photograph of Belken matched the detailed description Tanya had provided to the authorities. On a previous date, Tanya had viewed a photographic array that did not include Belken for one hour and was unable to find the assailant. However, Tanya's identification of Belken on August 18 was instantaneous. Tanya subsequently identified Belken's white Achieva from a photograph as the car driven by the assailant on July 3.

A search warrant was executed at Belken's parents' residence in Spirit Lake, where he was residing at the time of the assault. A gun resembling the one described by Tanya was seized and later identified by Tanya. Several green t-shirts were also seized. Based on the positive identifications and the items seized, Belken was charged with first-degree kidnapping and second-degree sexual abuse.

On May 8, 1999, Tanya believed she saw Belken at her place of employment in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Tanya had been working as a bartender at Applebee's restaurant all day until 10:00 p.m. The young man she believed to be Belken was wearing a baseball cap low on his head. Tanya also claimed she saw a white Achieva in the parking lot when she left Applebee's at 10:30 p.m. However, at a bond review hearing held a few days later, Belken presented evidence in the form of receipts, canceled checks, and witnesses that on May 8 he was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with his wife and daughter.

Belken filed a pretrial motion requesting the State to produce all written or oral statements made by anyone interviewed by the State during the investigation of the July 3 assault. The district court granted the motion, and ordered the State to produce all statements taken by its investigating officers. The district court also granted Belken's request for additional money for a private investigator to obtain voluntary statements from witnesses not listed in the minutes of testimony.

Trial commenced on November 17, 1999. State witnesses included Terry Klooster, an Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) agent, and Thomas Loebach, a deputy police officer. Both of these officers were involved in the investigation of Tanya's assault.

The State also introduced expert testimony of the DNA analyses performed on seminal fluid found on the undergarments worn by Tanya on July 3 and DNA samples obtained from Tanya and Belken. Maria Sides, a DCI criminalist in the state DNA analysis laboratory, testified Belken was a potential donor of the seminal fluid found on Tanya's undergarments, as were one in 1000 Caucasians. The method used by Sides to analyze the DNA is known as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and Sides used a 310 analyzer manufactured by Perkin-Elmer to conduct her analysis. The kit provided by the manufacturer permitted Sides to use six genetic sites in analyzing the DNA. The manufacturer also provided a data base to assist in generating the random match probability of one in 1000 Caucasians. Sides limited the probability match to Caucasians because Belken is Caucasian.

Jami Harman, the scientific director of a private forensic paternity and DNA testing laboratory in St. Louis, Missouri, named Genetic Technologies, Inc., was the State's other expert witness. The district court denied Belken's motion to exclude Harman's testimony, finding she was qualified to testify as an expert witness. Harman detailed her experiences and education in DNA testing and the process she conducted in analyzing the DNA and reaching the statistical probabilities in this specific case. Like Sides, Harman used a 310 analyzer manufactured by Perkin-Elmer, and relied on the data base provided by the manufacturer to obtain a random match probability. However, Harman used a profiler kit that permitted her to look at nine genetic sites. Harman concluded the DNA from the seminal fluid found on Tanya's undergarments matched Belken's genetic profile. Harman further testified that the probability that another Caucasian would match Belken's genetic profile was one in approximately 431 billion Caucasians.

Belken presented an alibi defense. Defense witnesses testified Belken was in a boat on the lake with his wife (then-fiancée) Jennifer, his parents Barry and Kari Belken, and his relatives Peter, Vickie, Rachaelle, and Aaron Larsen, to watch the fireworks display on the evening of July 3, 1998. The boat ride ended around 10:30 p.m., and Belken, Jennifer, and Aaron then went to the Belken residence in Spirit Lake. The other occupants of the boat arrived at the residence between midnight and 1:00 a.m. Belken was taking a shower at the residence at the time.

The only alibi witness that accounted for Belken's whereabouts during the period of time when the assault occurred was Jennifer. Aaron did not testify at the trial. Jennifer testified that after she, Belken, and Aaron left the boat landing, Belken and Aaron went to the restroom at the park, and they then drove directly to Belken's parents' home, which was located five miles from the park.

The State attempted to discredit Jennifer's testimony with its theory that Jennifer was providing false testimony to protect her husband. On cross-examination, Jennifer admitted she and Belken had an argument on July 3, but denied the State's suggestion that the reason for the argument was Belken's desire to go to Arnold's Park that evening instead of on the boat with his family. Jennifer also refuted the State's assertion that the argument resumed when they reached Belken's parents' home and that Belken subsequently left her alone for a period of time. In addition, Jennifer denied telling Wanda Garloff, her former manager at Dairy Queen, in September 1998 that she was uncertain whether Belken had not committed the offense.

The State proffered the rebuttal testimony of Wanda Garloff to impeach the statements made by...