State v. Gilpin
| Citation | 977 P.2d 905,132 Idaho 643 |
| Decision Date | 02 April 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 24098,24098 |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Idaho |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Laura L. GILPIN, f/k/a Laura L. Pomerleau, Defendant-Appellant. |
David H. Leroy, Boise, for appellant.
Hon. Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; Kenneth M. Robins, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for respondent.
Laura L. Gilpin, known as Laura L. Pomerleau at the time she was accused of committing this offense, appeals from a judgment of conviction for vehicular manslaughter, I.C. § 18-4006(3), entered upon her conditional guilty plea. Gilpin asserts that the district court erred when it denied her motion to suppress blood alcohol test results. We affirm.
Gilpin was driving on a remote highway near Mountain Home, Idaho, with her two small children in the backseat of her utility vehicle. Her vehicle rolled over in a one-car accident, and Gilpin and her youngest child were ejected. As a result of the accident, Gilpin's youngest child died. Gilpin was life-flighted to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise and was treated for a number of injuries, the most severe being injuries to her head. Upon her admittance to the emergency room, Gilpin was given a pseudo-identity, which assigned her the name "Unknown Fulton" and described her as a ninety-four-year-old male. 1 Gilpin was also assigned a patient identification number (PIN) 2030021 and a medical record number (MRN) 00300880, which were on bands placed around each wrist.
Following standard protocol in treating a trauma patient, hospital personnel drew blood from Gilpin and sent it to the hospital laboratory for testing. The test results indicated that Unknown Fulton, with PIN 2030021 and MRN 00300880, had a blood alcohol level of .22.
Gilpin was charged with vehicular manslaughter and child endangerment. A preliminary hearing was held where witnesses, officers and hospital personnel testified. The magistrate found that there was probable cause to believe that Gilpin committed the crimes of vehicular manslaughter and child endangerment, and Gilpin was held to answer the charges before the district court.
Prior to trial, Gilpin filed a motion to suppress 2 (hereinafter designated as a motion in limine) the results of the blood test, claiming that the state would be unable to lay an adequate foundation for the admissibility of the test results and that the blood test results should not have been admitted at the preliminary hearing under I.C.R. 5.1 for the finding of probable cause to bind her over for trial. The district court reviewed the transcripts from the preliminary hearing and no further evidence was submitted. The district court denied Gilpin's motion, determining that Gilpin had failed to show that the prosecution would be unable to lay a sufficient foundation for the test results to be admitted into evidence at trial and also found that the results were properly admitted at the preliminary hearing under I.C.R. 5.1. The matter was then assigned to a different district judge for trial. Gilpin entered a conditional plea of guilty before that district judge, preserving the right to appeal from the denial of her motion in limine by the original district judge.
Although her position centers around the foundational requirements for the admissibility of the blood tests, Gilpin presents four distinguishable issues for our review, whether: (1) the magistrate erred by admitting the blood test results at the preliminary hearing pursuant to I.C.R. 5.1; (2) the district court misperceived the evidence, resulting in an erroneous factual finding which was unsupported by the evidence; (3) an adequate foundation can be laid for the admission of the blood test results at trial when the chain of custody cannot be established; and (4) Gilpin's right to procedural due process was violated when she showed that there were serious defects in the chain of custody. We will address each issue in turn.
Gilpin claims that the magistrate erred at the preliminary hearing when it admitted, pursuant to I.C.R. 5.1, affidavits which contained Gilpin's medical records, including her blood alcohol content test results. According to Gilpin, a scientific examination of blood done by a private hospital as part of the medical treatment it provided to a patient is not admissible under Rule 5.1.
Idaho Criminal Rule 5.1 provides, in pertinent part:
(b) Probable cause finding. If from the evidence the magistrate determines that a public offense has been committed and that there is probable or sufficient cause to believe that the defendant committed such offense, the magistrate shall forthwith hold the defendant to answer in the district court. The finding of probable cause shall be based upon substantial evidence upon every material element of the offense charged; provided that hearsay in the form of testimony, or affidavits, may be admitted to show the existence or nonexistence of business or medical facts and records, judgments and convictions of courts, ownership of real or personal property and reports of scientific examinations of evidence by state or federal agencies or officials, provided the magistrate determines the source of said evidence to be credible.
(Emphasis added.).
Gilpin relies on State v. Horsley, 117 Idaho 920, 792 P.2d 945 (1990) to support her argument that Rule 5.1 requires that the tests be conducted by a state or federal governmental agency in order to be admitted as evidence at a preliminary hearing. Her reliance is misplaced. Horsley, in contradiction to Gilpin's argument, recognized the difference between medical facts and records and reports of scientific examinations of evidence.
I.C.R. 5.1(b) distinguishes between hearsay in the form of affidavits showing the existence or nonexistence of medical facts and records and reports of scientific examinations of evidence by state or federal agencies or officials. The [report in this case] was a report of a scientific examination of evidence, not a report showing the existence or nonexistence of medical facts.
Horsley, 117 Idaho at 927, 792 P.2d at 952. The Court went on to conclude that the report at issue was not admissible under I.C.R. 5.1, stating:
The report at issue here did not purport to relate to the investigation, diagnosis, treatment, correction or prescription for any disease, ailment, injury, infirmity, deformity or other condition, physical or mental. Rather, it compared the genetic identity of the blood of Horsley and the victim with that of the victim's vaginal secretions containing sperm from the perpetrator of the rape. The director of the Lifecodes laboratory who signed the affidavit to which the report was attached did not purport to be a medical doctor. The report concerned the results of scientific examination and not medical facts or reports.
Horsley, 117 Idaho at 927, 792 P.2d at 952 (emphasis added). Therefore, the Court concluded that the report was not admissible.
Appellate review of the sufficiency of the evidence is limited in scope. Factual findings will be upheld if they are supported by substantial, albeit conflicting, evidence in the record. State v. Johnson, 131 Idaho 808, 809, 964 P.2d 675, 676 (Ct.App.1998).
Gilpin contends that the designation that she was a male and ninety-four years of age was not randomly assigned to her but instead shows either that hospital personnel were confused about whom the blood samples belonged to or that the blood samples were tampered with. Gilpin claims that the district court misperceived the evidence and asserts that there was insufficient evidence to support the district court's finding that the blood samples were not tampered with and were not accidentally switched with another patient's blood samples. Thus, she claims the motion in limine would have been granted but for this error.
In reviewing the evidence, the district court described the identification process of a patient upon admission to the trauma center at the hospital.
If a patient was not positively identified upon arrival at the trauma center, or sometimes simply to save the time it would take to enter the correct information, the patient is assigned a unique, pseudo-identity. That identity includes a unique name (in this case "UNKNOWN, FULTON") and an age and sex (in this case 94 years old and male). Those pseudo-identities are created in advance so they can be used whenever desired. The pseudo-identity is simply to provide a unique identification and is not intended to be descriptive of the patient. The use of the pseudo-identity to identify the Defendant when she arrived at the trauma room is not a ground for excluding from evidence the results of her blood test.
Gilpin cites the preliminary hearing testimony of Dr. Livingston, the surgeon who treated Gilpin in the emergency room, in support of her claim that the district court's factual finding was error. In his testimony, Dr. Livingston stated that although the computer assigns a name, it does not randomly assign age or sex, but Dr. Livingston failed to explain further how age and sex are assigned. Dr. Livingston's testimony did not exclude the possibility that hospital personnel randomly assign age and sex.
At the preliminary hearing, the phlebotomist, who...
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State v. Wilson
...determination that evidence is supported by a proper foundation is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. State v. Gilpin, 132 Idaho 643, 646, 977 P.2d 905, 908 (Ct.App.1999). We have stated that when a physical object is offered in evidence and a question of fact arises as to its connection ......
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