State v. Carter
State v. Carter
Opinion of the Court
William Carter ("Carter") appeals his conviction entered by the Circuit Court of Jackson County for trespass in the first degree, a Class B misdemeanor. Carter alleges the trial court abused its discretion by prohibiting use of a report, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward ("NAS Report"), during the cross-examination of the State's fingerprint expert. Finding no abuse of discretion, we affirm.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
At approximately 8:00 am on January 16, 2014, Michael Taylor ("Taylor") arrived home from work to find a mirrored closet door lying on his bedroom floor. An initial examination of the area revealed that guns were missing from the closet and an air conditioning unit had been removed from a window. After discovering his telephone lines had been cut, Taylor went to a neighbor's home and called police. Responding officers secured the house and allowed Taylor to inventory his belongings. He determined that a camera, tablet, and Xbox *94unit
During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that the Xbox unit had been pawned by Carter's uncle at a Cash America pawn shop in Kansas City approximately six days after the burglary. In addition, a fingerprint analyst, through use of the ACE-V method,
Prior to trial, Carter filed a motion to exclude the evidence of the partial fingerprint comparison, using the NAS Report to argue that the scientific principles underlying fingerprint analysis are not reliable. The trial court denied the motion, finding that fingerprint comparison has long been recognized as reliable in the scientific community and admissible in the State of Missouri.
The State thereafter filed a motion in limine , seeking to exclude reference to the NAS Report at trial because, the State argued, the report is not authoritative within the relevant scientific community. Defense counsel countered that the trial court was required to take judicial notice of the NAS Report under section 490.150,
*95During the trial, the State's fingerprint expert was questioned by defense counsel outside the presence of the jury. The expert confirmed familiarity with the NAS Report but made clear that it was not viewed as authoritative by any sanctioning body in her field. The expert further testified that, although other publications may provide recommendations and guidelines, standards within her field were established by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice. The trial court ruled that Carter had failed to establish the NAS Report was an authoritative writing in the field of fingerprint analysis and prohibited its use by Carter.
Carter was found guilty of first-degree trespassing (a lesser-included offense of felony burglary in the second degree) and acquitted of the stealing charge. Carter moved for judgment of acquittal or, in the alternative, for a new trial, arguing that the trial court erred when it excluded reference to the NAS Report "in that this exhibit is a learned treatise under Missouri law and is a document edited or printed by the authority of Congress and therefore the court should have taken judicial notice [of the exhibit] under [section] 490.150." His motion was denied, and he was sentenced to six months in the Jackson County Department of Corrections. Execution of Carter's sentence was suspended, and he was placed on probation for two years.
PRESERVATION AND STANDARD OF REVIEW
Carter's sole point on appeal alleges the trial court abused its discretion by prohibiting use of the NAS Report, which he contends is a learned treatise, to cross-examine the State's fingerprint expert. Carter specifically claims that the trial court was required to take judicial notice of the report under section 490.150 because it is a "public document purporting to be edited or printed by authority of congress" and argues that the trial court's refusal to allow him to use the report was not harmless because he "would have likely successfully impeached the validity of the opinion of the fingerprint analyst[.]"
Prior to considering whether the trial court erred by not permitting use of the NAS Report, we must first determine whether the issue was preserved for our review. The State argues that Carter failed to preserve the claim of error because he never attempted to use the NAS Report at trial. See State v. Ryland ,
Because the error is preserved, we review the trial court's decision for *96abuse of discretion. See State v. Allen ,
DISCUSSION
An alleged learned treatise that is authored "by someone not before the court" and "offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted[,]" such as the NAS Report in this case, is hearsay.
Here, defense counsel attempted to establish that the NAS Report was authoritative through two of the three methods-first by seeking judicial notice under section 490.150 and then by seeking a concession from the State's expert during questioning outside the presence of the jury. On appeal, Carter only focuses on the fact that the trial court did not take judicial notice of the NAS Report pursuant to section 490.150.
Carter's singular emphasis on section 490.150 to satisfy the "judicial notice" method of establishing that a writing is authoritative within a scientific field reflects a misunderstanding of the scope of this statute. Section 490.150 provides, "Public documents, purporting to be edited or printed by authority of congress, or either house thereof, shall be evidence to the same extent that authenticated copies of the same would be." (emphasis added). The provision simply addresses the authentication of certain public documents. However, the authentication of a document, in this case the NAS Report, independently provides no substantive support to the pertinent issue of whether the NAS Report is authoritative within the scientific field of fingerprint analysis. Carter conflates the distinct concepts of authenticating a writing with establishing that the document is authoritative. In the context *97of this appeal, the former is irrelevant absent success in proving the latter.
More to the point, even assuming the trial court should have taken judicial notice that the NAS Report was authentic under section 490.150, Carter still needed to establish that the report was authoritative within the expert's scientific field. Embree ,
Point denied.
CONCLUSION
Carter's conviction is affirmed.
All concur.
Taylor provided police a photo of the Xbox unit that included a partial serial number.
ACE-V stands for analysis, comparison, evaluation, and verification.
On August 28, 2017, amendments to section 490.065 became effective addressing the standard for admission of expert testimony in Missouri courts. The trial of this case occurred prior to this change and the amendments to section 490.065 are not relevant to this appeal.
All statutory citations are to the Revised Statutes of Missouri 2000 as supplemented through December 31, 2016.
While use of the NAS Report was prohibited, the trial court did not preclude defense counsel from using information contained in the report during cross-examination so long as no reference was made to the report itself.
Carter did not call an expert to establish the NAS Report was an authoritative writing.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.