Aguilar v. Com.

699 S.E.2d 215, 280 Va. 322
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedSeptember 16, 2010
Docket082564
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 699 S.E.2d 215 (Aguilar v. Com.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aguilar v. Com., 699 S.E.2d 215, 280 Va. 322 (Va. 2010).

Opinion

699 S.E.2d 215 (2010)

Miguel Angel AGUILAR
v.
COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.

Record No. 082564.

Supreme Court of Virginia.

September 16, 2010.

*216 Megan Thomas (King & Campbell, on brief), for appellant.

Stephen R. McCullough, Senior Appellate Counsel (Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, Attorney General; Charles E. James, Jr., Chief Deputy Attorney General; E. Duncan Getchell, Jr., State Solicitor General, on brief), for appellee.

Present: HASSELL, C.J., KOONTZ, KINSER, LEMONS, and MILLETTE, JJ., and RUSSELL and LACY, S.JJ.

ON REMAND FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

OPINION BY Justice CYNTHIA D. KINSER.

In a per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court of the United States vacated this Court's judgment refusing Miguel Angel Aguilar's petition for appeal and remanded "for further consideration in light of" Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 2527, 174 L.Ed.2d 314 (2009). Aguilar v. Virginia, 559 U.S. ___, ___, 130 S.Ct. 1282, 1283, ___ L.Ed.2d ___ (2010). On remand, the issue we address is whether, in view of the decision in Melendez-Diaz, the Commonwealth's failure to call as witnesses two forensic scientists who played preliminary roles in the DNA analysis at issue but did not author certificates of analysis admitted into evidence violated Aguilar's rights under the Confrontation Clause. We conclude that it did not because neither scientist bore testimony against Aguilar.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Aguilar was convicted in a bench trial in the Circuit Court of the City of Alexandria of robbery, in violation of Code § 18.2-58; use of a firearm in the commission of robbery, in violation of Code § 18.2-53.1; rape, in violation of Code § 18.2-61; and object sexual penetration, in violation of Code § 18.2-67.2(A)(2). The convictions arose out of felonious conduct committed against Elizabeth Arnez while she was working alone as a night teller in a bank located in the City of Alexandria. As she counted money in her cash drawer, she heard footsteps behind her and turned to see a man pointing a firearm at her. A hood covered the gunman's face except for his eyes. The gunman took money from her cash drawer and a vault and, forcing Arnez into a women's bathroom, told her to lower her pants. According to Arnez, she felt his penis enter her vagina and "he pushed three times." The gunman also penetrated her vagina with his finger.

After Arnez reported the crimes to the police, a sexual assault nurse examiner interviewed Arnez and collected evidence from her. Specifically, the nurse obtained buccal, right thigh, and vaginal swabs in addition to Arnez' underpants and pantyhose. The nurse packaged each item separately and placed them in a physical evidence recovery kit (PERK).

Aguilar was eventually arrested and indicted for the named offenses. After his arrest, buccal swabs were obtained from him pursuant to a search warrant. Those swabs, the PERK evidence collected from Arnez, and *217 buccal swabs obtained from Aguilar's brother, Jovel Antonio Aguilar, were submitted to the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Forensic Science for DNA analysis.[1]

Pursuant to Code § 19.2-270.5, the Commonwealth notified Aguilar prior to trial of its intent to introduce into evidence certificates of analysis containing the results of DNA analysis. Nathan Himes, a forensic scientist who qualified at trial as an expert in "DNA analysis and body fluid identification," authored those certificates and testified regarding the DNA analysis conducted on the submitted samples. According to Himes, the tested samples included a "thighs[/]external genitalia sample, a vaginal[/]cervical sample, an oral buccal mucosa sample," underpants, and pantyhose, all obtained from Arnez, and the buccal swabs taken from Aguilar and his brother.

With regard to the samples taken from Arnez, Himes stated that the initial testing, which he described as a "preliminary screening" conducted to "indicate the presence of seminal fluid," was done under his supervision by another examiner, Catherine Columbo. At that time, Columbo had recently started working as an examiner so Himes directly supervised her work. Himes "physically [saw] the tests being performed."

In her preliminary screening of the thighs/external genitalia and vaginal/cervical samples, Columbo did not find any spermatozoa present. Examining the samples himself, however, Himes identified "one spermatozoa head in each of the smear and the extract from the thighs[/]external genitalia sample." He found nothing on the vaginal/cervical sample. Himes also discovered seminal fluid, but no spermatozoa, on the victim's underpants. From the seminal fluid, a "single DNA type ... foreign to" Arnez was obtained, but it "was not suitable for comparison or drawing any conclusions."

Following the identification of spermatozoa, Himes took the sample "forward" for analysis and "essentially split that one sample into two separate samples[:] the first sample being ... the spermatozoa itself, and the second sample being everything else other than spermatozoa." This "nonsperm fraction," according to Himes, "potentially contain[ed] the nonsperm components of seminal fluid as well as any other body fluid such as saliva, vaginal fluid, anything else that's not a sperm cell."

Himes then placed the samples on a "robot" that was operated by Melanie Morris, a "PCR/STR technician" trained in "robotic extraction." Himes described her work as "processing ... the samples" that he had determined were suitable for DNA analysis by "run[ning] the machines that [would] ultimately begin the DNA analysis take-out process." Morris "operate[d] the robot in order to conduct the analysis portion where the DNA's being pulled out of [a] cell[;] the DNA's being amplified." After Morris pulled the DNA out of a cell and amplified it by making "multiple copies of just the areas of DNA [Himes] want[ed] to look at," she "placed [the samples] on a gel in order to determine how much amplified DNA there was." The gel "shows the amount of amplified product that was determined after [the] amplification process, and ... prior to taking it forward to DNA typing." Himes then "perform[ed] the DNA typing process, where [the samples are] placed on a larger gel in order to actually determine DNA fragments."

Himes developed a DNA profile from the nonsperm fraction; there were "no amplification results" from the sperm fraction. He also developed a DNA profile from the "oral buccal mucosa" sample given by the victim. Himes concluded that a "DNA profile foreign to E. Arnez was developed from the thighs/external genitalia sample," and he stated that finding in a certificate of analysis dated January 25, 2007. The certificate bore Himes' signature and his attestation that he performed the analysis "as an employee of the Department of Forensic Science" and that the certificate was "an accurate record of the results of that analysis."

Himes also developed DNA profiles of both Aguilar and his brother from the buccal swabs obtained from each of them. He compared *218 those profiles to the foreign DNA profile developed from Arnez' thighs/external genitalia sample. Himes could not "eliminate [Aguilar] as a contributor to that foreign DNA profile developed from the thighs[/]external genitalia sample." He was, however, able to eliminate Aguilar's brother as a contributor of that particular profile.

In statistical terms, Himes reached these conclusions regarding the foreign DNA profile developed from Arnez' thighs/external genitalia sample:

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Bluebook (online)
699 S.E.2d 215, 280 Va. 322, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aguilar-v-com-va-2010.