State v. Gallegos

CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 31, 2018
DocketA-1-CA-34930
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Gallegos (State v. Gallegos) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Gallegos, (N.M. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

This memorandum opinion was not selected for publication in the New Mexico Appellate Reports. Please see Rule 12-405 NMRA for restrictions on the citation of unpublished memorandum opinions. Please also note that this electronic memorandum opinion may contain computer-generated errors or other deviations from the official paper version filed by the Court of Appeals and does not include the filing date.

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.

3 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

4 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

5 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].

18 The prosecutor responded by stating, “[Barber] is here as an expert [and] experts can

19 testify to the data and to the procedures and policies[.] . . . He can, as an expert, testify

20 to data, he is not testifying to what [Young] told him. . . . He has drawn an opinion

21 that is consistent with the data presented to him.” The district court stated that “Huettl

22 seems to say that someone who didn’t perform the test can examine the data and arrive

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Related

Crawford v. Washington
541 U.S. 36 (Supreme Court, 2004)
State v. Guerra
2012 NMSC 27 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2012)
Village of Angel Fire v. Board of County Commissioners
2010 NMCA 38 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2010)
State v. Mora
1997 NMSC 060 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1997)
State v. Baca
1997 NMSC 059 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1997)
State v. Martinez
927 P.2d 31 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1996)
State v. Phillips
2000 NMCA 028 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2000)
Bonacci v. City of Aurora
642 P.2d 4 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1982)
State v. Casteneda
642 P.2d 1129 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1982)
State v. Meadors
908 P.2d 731 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1995)
State v. Lucero
863 P.2d 1071 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1993)
State v. Lopez
508 P.2d 1292 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1973)
State v. JASON F.
1998 NMSC 010 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1998)
State v. Boeglin
731 P.2d 943 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1987)
Village of Angel Fire v. COLFAX CO. BCC
242 P.3d 371 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2010)
State v. Herrera
2001 NMCA 073 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2001)
State v. Lucero
725 P.2d 266 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1986)
State v. Darkis
10 P.3d 871 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2000)
State v. Garcia
128 P.2d 459 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1942)
State v. Huettl
2013 NMCA 038 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2013)

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Gallegos, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gallegos-nmctapp-2018.