State v. Gallegos

New Mexico Court of Appeals·Decided July 31, 2018·No. A-1-CA-34930·Unpublished

Opinion

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1 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO 2 STATE OF NEW MEXICO, 3 Plaintiff-Appellee, 4 v. No. A-1-CA-34930 5 VICTOR W. GALLEGOS, 6 Defendant-Appellant.

7 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF OTERO COUNTY 8 James Waylon Counts, District Judge

9 Hector H. Balderas, Attorney General 10 Anita Carlson, Assistant Attorney General 11 Santa Fe, NM

12 for Appellee

13 Bennett J. Baur, Chief Public Defender 14 Kimberly Chavez Cook, Assistant Appellate Defender 15 Santa Fe, NM

16 for Appellant 17 MEMORANDUM OPINION 18 BOHNHOFF, Judge.

1 {1} Defendant Victor W. Gallegos was convicted of possession of 2 methamphetamine. Defendant raises three challenges on appeal: (1) Defendant’s 3 Confrontation Clause rights were violated because a substitute analyst testified to the 4 conclusion reached by the primary analyst who did not testify; (2) the district court 5 committed fundamental error by not instructing the jury on the lesser included offense 6 of possession of paraphernalia; (3) the failure of defense counsel to request the lesser 7 included offense instruction amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel. This is a 8 memorandum opinion and because the parties are familiar with the facts and 9 procedural posture of the case, we set forth only such facts and law as are necessary 10 to decide the issues raised. We affirm. 11 BACKGROUND 12 {2} Alamogordo, New Mexico police executed a search warrant at the home of 13 Defendant. The warrant was based on information supplied by a confidential 14 informant that Defendant possessed a large quantity of heroin at his home. When the 15 search warrant was executed, Defendant was at home with a tenant who rented a room 16 in the house and two other visitors. The police did not find any heroin but instead 17 found morphine, drug paraphernalia (a syringe, Q-tips, a knife with residue, a piece 18 of a balloon with residue, and a small baggie with a hole in the corner), and remnants 19 of methamphetamine in plastic baggies in a dresser in Defendant’s bedroom.

1 {3} Defendant was charged in a three-count criminal information with possession 2 of morphine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of methamphetamine. 3 At the two-day trial, Alamogordo police officer Joseph Singer testified about the 4 search of Defendant’s home. Officer Kyle Garrett testified to his participation in the 5 search and his discovery of baggies that contained a clear crystal substance in them. 6 Sergeant David Kunihiro testified that the baggies appeared to contain 7 methamphetamine and he further testified about the drug paraphernalia found in 8 Defendant’s home. In addition to the law enforcement testimony, Andrew Barber 9 (Barber), a forensic scientist from the state forensic laboratory in Las Cruces, testified 10 regarding the lab tests of the baggies that were suspected to contain 11 methamphetamine. 12 {4} Barber testified as an expert witness in the field of chemistry and as an analyst 13 of controlled substances. Barber stated that he had reviewed the work of the analyst 14 who performed the original analysis of the contents of the bags. The prosecutor then 15 asked Barber what his conclusions were. Defense counsel objected, arguing lack of 16 foundation because Barber was not present when the evidence was received by the lab 17 and he was not involved in the testing. The district court then raised the question of 18 a possible Confrontation Clause issue under Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 19 (2004), because defense counsel could not question the person who actually

1 performed the testing. The prosecutor responded by arguing that State v. Huettl, 2013- 2 NMCA-038, 305 P.3d 956, holds that an expert can review data and give opinions. 3 After the district court reviewed Huettl it stated that there may not be a Crawford 4 issue, but noted that there nevertheless was insufficient foundation on the chain of 5 custody and, on that basis, sustained defense counsel’s other objection regarding lack 6 of foundation. Defense counsel did not follow up on the court’s comments by making 7 any argument or objection regarding Crawford or Huettl. 8 {5} The prosecutor then continued to examine Barber, questioning him about the 9 bar codes used to mark each item received by the lab and the chain of custody shown 10 on the original evidence receipt. Defense counsel objected on hearsay grounds. The 11 district court ruled that there was no foundation as to relevance because the prosecutor 12 had not shown that the sample tested was even related to Defendant’s case and 13 sustained the objection. Barber was then excused, subject to recall. 14 {6} Barber was recalled the next day and his direct examination continued. Barber 15 explained his role as a technical reviewer, saying that he reviewed the data and formed 16 his own opinion. When asked, “on your review what did you do in particular to these 17 items?” Barber stated, without eliciting any objection:

18 In my review, I went through all those steps that we discussed. I checked 19 to see if the description of the evidence was consistent with the evidence 20 received, and that the methods and procedures that he used were

1 consistent with—and that the data are consistent with—the conclusions 2 that he reached in the end.

3 The prosecutor then asked Barber, “and based on the data review did you form your 4 own opinion?” Barber replied, “yes” to which the prosecutor asked “what was that?” 5 Defense counsel again objected based on lack of foundation for the opinion and asked 6 to conduct voir dire, which request the district court granted. Defense counsel 7 established that another analyst, Eric Young (Young), had performed the initial work 8 and then presented Barber with the resulting data, Barber did not observe Young’s 9 work, and Barber drew a conclusion from the data that was given to him by Young. 10 Defense counsel then stated that he still had the same objection, that there was no 11 foundation for Barber to draw a bottom-line conclusion:

12 there’s inadequate foundation for him to draw and articulate a conclusion 13 as to what any of this stuff adds up to, he didn’t run the test, he wasn’t 14 there when the test was run, he didn’t have any hands-on role in this 15 analysis, he’s got stuff after the fact, and now he’s here as kind of a 16 human tape recorder to say what [Young] might say, and I can’t cross- 17 examine [Young].

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