State v. McCray

183 P.3d 503, 218 Ariz. 252, 2008 Ariz. LEXIS 21
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 14, 2008
DocketCR-05-0508-AP
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 183 P.3d 503 (State v. McCray) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. McCray, 183 P.3d 503, 218 Ariz. 252, 2008 Ariz. LEXIS 21 (Ark. 2008).

Opinion

OPINION

BALES, Justice.

¶ 1 This mandatory appeal concerns Frank Dale McCray’s conviction and death sentence for the murder of Chestene Cummins. We have jurisdiction under Article 6, Section 5(3) of the Arizona Constitution and Arizona Revised Statutes (“A.R.S.”) section 13-4031 (2001).

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶ 2 On May 21, 1987, Chestene Cummins was strangled to death in her Phoenix apartment. Her boyfriend found her body on the floor with her mouth gagged, her body heavily bruised, her pants removed, and her shirt sliced open. She had been strangled with a sweatpants drawstring that was wrapped three times around her neck. The apartment was in disarray and there were signs of a struggle. Cummins’s wallet and rings were missing. The only fingerprints identified at the scene belonged to Cummins, her boyfriend, and her sister.

¶ 3 During an autopsy the next day, Cummins’s vagina, rectum, and mouth were swabbed for fluid. The medical examiner’s office tested fluid from each swab for acid phosphatase, an enzyme found in semen, and all the tests were negative. Fluid from each swab was also placed on separate filter papers that were sent to the Department of Public Safety crime lab. Unlike the medical examiner, a DPS analyst found acid phosphatase in the fluid from the vaginal and oral swabs. DPS froze and retained portions of the samples. DPS also identified acid phosphatase on other objects from the apartment. In 1987, DNA technology could not identify a perpetrator from the evidence, and the crime remained unsolved for more than a decade.

¶ 4 In 1997, the blood of Frank McCray, who had been imprisoned for a 1992 sexual assault, was drawn and stored pursuant to A.R.S. § 13-4438 (Supp.1997) (since renumbered as A.R.S. § 13-610 (Supp.2007)), which required DNA samples to be collected and retained for sex offenders. In 2000, DPS entered a DNA profile of McCray’s blood into its database.

¶ 5 A few months later, a Phoenix detective asked DPS to run a DNA test on the samples taken in 1987 from Cummins’s body. A DPS criminalist identified DNA from semen in both the vaginal and oral samples and entered the DNA profile into the DPS database. The DNA matched that of McCray. To verify the match, the criminalist prepared a new profile from McCray’s blood. She found that it also matched the profile from the DNA in the semen on the samples taken from Cummins’s body.

¶ 6 McCray was indicted in 2001 for murder, sexual assault, and burglary. The sexual assault and burglary charges were dismissed because the statutes of limitations *256 had run. In 2005, a jury convicted McCray of first-degree felony murder. In the penalty phase of the trial, the jury found two aggravating factors: McCray had been previously convicted of a felony involving violence, see A.R.S. § 13-703(F)(2) (1978 & Supp. 1987), and the murder was especially cruel, id § 13-703(F)(6). After the jury determined McCray should receive a death sentence, the trial court entered a sentence of death by lethal injection. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

¶ 7 McCray raises four issues on appeal. For the reasons explained below, we affirm his conviction and, as modified, his death sentence.

A. Chain of custody

¶8 McCray argues that the trial court erred in admitting the DNA evidence because the State did not establish a sufficient chain of custody to authenticate the evidence. A trial court’s conclusion that evidence has an adequate foundation is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. State v. Romanosky, 162 Ariz. 217, 224, 782 P.2d 693, 700 (1989).

¶ 9 An item is authenticated when there is “evidence sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question is what its proponent claims.” Ariz. R. Evid. 901(a). A party seeking to authenticate evidence based on a chain of custody “must show continuity of possession, but it need not disprove every remote possibility of tampering.” State v. Spears, 184 Ariz. 277, 287, 908 P.2d 1062, 1072 (1996). Furthermore, “[a party] need not call every person who had an opportunity to come in contact with the evidence sought to be admitted.” State v. Hurles, 185 Ariz. 199, 206, 914 P.2d 1291, 1298 (1996).

¶ 10 McCray argues that the State failed to establish a sufficient chain of custody from the time the fluid samples were taken from Cummins’s body at the autopsy until they were delivered later that day to DPS. In particular, McCray argues that the chain of custody was deficient because neither the medical examiner who performed the autopsy nor his assistant testified about taking the samples. Instead, Detective Mitch Rea, who attended the autopsy, testified that he was present when the swabs were taken, that the swabs were then each wiped on filter papers, that the medical examiner then gave him the filter paper samples in separate envelopes, and that Rea later delivered these samples, along with other evidence, to DPS.

¶ 11 To support his position, McCray cites this Court’s opinion in State v. Ritchey, which observed that evidence can be admitted “notwithstanding the inability of the state to show a continuous chain of custody ... unless a defendant can offer proof of actual change in the evidence, or show that the evidence has, indeed, been tampered with.” 107 Ariz. 552, 557, 490 P.2d 558, 563 (1971). McCray argues that the circumstances here reflect a change in or tampering with the evidence.

¶ 12 McCray notes that Rea said the medical examiner took the swabs, while other evidence showed that the medical examiner’s office usually had an assistant take the swabs. He also notes that Rea initially testified that the medical examiner had placed each sample in a separate envelope and that Rea had then packaged each one in an additional envelope; however, the DPS criminalist who received them testified that each sample was inside only one envelope. (When recalled, Rea testified that he must not have repackaged the swab samples.) Finally, McCray argues that the evidence was changed because the medical examiner did not identify acid phosphatase on the samples, but DPS later found this enzyme present.

¶ 13 Even if we accept McCray’s interpretation that Ritchey requires a “complete” chain of custody when there is proof of tampering or a change in the evidence, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the DNA evidence here. The inconsistent test results did not prove some actual change in the evidence. Instead, as noted in the trial testimony of both a medical examiner and a DPS analyst, the different results might be explained by technical limitations on the medical examiner’s tests, insufficient semen on the swabs after fluid was trans *257

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
183 P.3d 503, 218 Ariz. 252, 2008 Ariz. LEXIS 21, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mccray-ariz-2008.