State v. Brian Watson
State v. Brian Watson
Opinion
The defendant, Brian A. Watson, appeals his conviction by a jury for felony sale of a controlled drug with death resulting.
See
RSA 318-B:26, IX (2017) (amended 2017). On appeal, he argues that the Superior Court (
O'Neill
, J.) erred by: (1) denying his motion to suppress statements allegedly obtained in violation of his
Miranda
rights,
see
Miranda v. Arizona
,
I
A
Because the defendant has not provided, as part of the appellate record, the transcript of the evidentiary hearing held on his motion or all of the exhibits entered at that hearing, we must assume that the evidence was sufficient to support the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress, and we review its decision only for errors of law.
See
State v. Woods
,
The defendant was stopped while driving in Tilton and arrested on an active warrant for sale of a controlled drug. One of the arresting detectives told the defendant that he was going to read him his constitutional rights and then did so using a "
Miranda
Warning" card.
See
Miranda
,
The defendant was then transported to the police station. While the defendant was being booked, one of the detectives asked him whether he wanted to speak with the police. At first, the defendant said that he "wasn't sure." A few moments later, the detective again asked the defendant whether he wanted to speak with the police, and he agreed to do so.
The detectives then brought the defendant into a small interview room containing a table and three chairs. The defendant was not handcuffed during the interview and did not seem overly emotional or angry. The detectives estimated that no more than 30 minutes elapsed between the defendant's initial arrest and the police station interview. The interview lasted approximately 30 minutes.
The interview began with the following exchange:
[Detective]: Brian, you are here at the police department. You are in custody. You were arrested today for sales of a controlled drug. You were arrested on the side of the road. During that time, ... I did go over your constitutional rights with you, correct?
DEFENDANT: Yes.
[Detective]: Okay, and you understood all of those rights at the time?
DEFENDANT: Yeah.
[Detective]: And understanding those rights, you're willing to sit here and hear what we have to say, correct?
DEFENDANT: Yep.
[Detective]: Okay.
At first, the interview focused upon the sale of a controlled drug charge. During this part of the interview, the defendant made several potentially inculpatory statements regarding that charge. However, midway through the interview, the detective showed the defendant a photograph of a dead body and indicated that the police had evidence that the individual had died as a result of drugs that the defendant had sold to him. The rest of the interview focused upon the defendant's potential involvement in the individual's death. During this part of the interview, the defendant made several inculpatory statements regarding the sale of a controlled drug with death resulting charge. He was arrested on that charge after the interview concluded.
B
On appeal, the defendant argues that the trial court erred by failing to suppress his inculpatory statements because, he contends, they were obtained in violation of his
Miranda
rights. In so arguing, the defendant invokes his state and federal constitutional rights against compelled self-incrimination.
See
N.H. CONST. pt. I, art. 15 ; U.S. CONST. amends. V, XIV. We first address the defendant's claim under the State Constitution and rely upon federal law only to aid our analysis.
State v. Ball
,
The New Hampshire Constitution guarantees a criminal defendant protection from compelled self-incrimination.
State v. Roache
,
"While these so-called
Miranda
warnings are not themselves rights protected by the Constitution, they are procedural safeguards necessary to dissipate the atmosphere of compulsion inherent in a custodial interrogation."
Roache
,
The defendant first asserts that the trial court erred when it found that he voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently waived his
Miranda
rights. A waiver need not be express to be valid.
State v. Duffy
,
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, we conclude that the trial court's determination that the defendant voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently waived his
Miranda
rights is not contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence.
See
ibr.US_Case_Law.Schema.Case_Body:v1">id
Moreover, before he was interviewed, the defendant was asked three times whether he wanted to speak with the police. Although during booking he said that he "wasn't sure," the defendant affirmatively agreed to speak to the police before they brought him into the interview room and again once he was in the interview room. Although the defendant was not expressly asked whether he "waived" his
Miranda
rights,
see
The defendant next argues that the trial court erred because it failed to find that his "right to cut off questioning was not scrupulously honored in this case, as required under
Miranda
." In
Miranda
, the Supreme Court held that, if an accused is in police custody, has been informed of his
Miranda
rights, and "indicates in any manner, at any time prior to or during questioning, that he wishes to remain silent, the interrogation must cease."
Miranda
,
In the context of the
Miranda
right to counsel, the Supreme Court has held that "after a knowing and voluntary waiver of the
Miranda
rights, law enforcement officers may continue questioning until and unless the suspect clearly requests an attorney."
Davis v. United States
,
In
Berghuis
, the Court held that the same standards apply "for determining when an accused has invoked the
Miranda
right to remain silent."
In this case, the defendant concedes that he "never expressly said he wanted to quit the interview," but asserts that his "conduct indicated that he was not comfortable speaking about the death of [the victim]." He contends that, in the face of his "obvious apprehension at going forward" with the interview, the detectives "spoke to him in a way designed to pressure him into continuing to speak" and, thereby, disallowed him from "stop[ping] the interview."
We are not persuaded.
See
ibr.US_Case_Law.Schema.Case_Body:v1">id
II
A
The defendant next asserts that he was denied his right to confront witnesses against him as guaranteed by Part I, Article 15 of the State Constitution and the Sixth Amendment to the Federal Constitution "when the State presented results from the testing performed on [the victim's] blood [and urine] through ... Isenschmid, who did not participate in such testing."
See
N.H. CONST. pt. I, art. 15 ; U.S. CONST. amends. VI, XIV. He argues that, to satisfy his constitutional right to confront the witnesses against him, the State should have produced "the analyst(s) who actually conducted the tests." We review Confrontation Clause challenges
de
novo
.
State v. McLeod
,
Because the defendant has raised his claim under both the State and Federal Constitutions, ordinarily, we would first address his State claim.
See
Ball
,
*852
State v. Brooks
,
B
The Sixth Amendment to the Federal Constitution provides: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to be confronted with the witnesses against him." "The Fourteenth Amendment renders the [Confrontation] Clause binding on the States."
Michigan v. Bryant
,
In
Roberts
, the United States Supreme Court held that the Confrontation Clause does not bar admission of an unavailable witness's statement against a criminal defendant if the statement fit "within a firmly rooted hearsay exception" or bore "particularized guarantees of trustworthiness."
Roberts
,
ex parte in-court testimony or its functional equivalent-that is, material such as affidavits, custodial examinations, prior testimony that the defendant was unable to cross-examine, or similar pretrial statements that declarants would reasonably expect to be used prosecutorially; extrajudicial statements contained in formalized testimonial materials, such as affidavits, depositions, prior testimony, or confessions; [and] statements that were made under circumstances which would lead an objective witness reasonably to believe that the statement would be available for use at a later trial.
Crawford
,
Since
Crawford
, the Supreme Court has released three decisions addressing the application of the Confrontation Clause to forensic-testing evidence. They are
Melendez-Diaz
,
*853
In a five-to-four decision, the Court reversed the defendant's conviction, holding that the notarized certificates fell "within the core class of testimonial statements" because they were "quite plainly affidavits: declarations of facts written down and sworn to by the declarant before an officer authorized to administer oaths."
In a footnote, the Court clarified that it did "not hold, and it is not the case, that anyone whose testimony may be relevant in establishing the chain of custody, authenticity of the sample, or accuracy of the testing device, must appear in person as part of the prosecution's case."
In Bullcoming , another five-to-four decision, the Court considered whether the Confrontation Clause permits the prosecution to introduce a forensic laboratory report containing a testimonial certification-made for the purpose of proving a particular fact-through the in-court testimony of a scientist who did not sign the certification or perform or observe the test reported in the certification.
Bullcoming
,
Following the defendant's appeal, the state supreme court ruled that, although the BAC report qualified as testimonial evidence, its admission did not violate the Confrontation Clause because: (1) the certifying analyst "simply transcribed the results generated by the gas chromatograph machine"; and (2) the testifying scientist qualified as an expert with regard to that machine.
*854
The Supreme Court reversed, concluding that the state supreme court had erred when it "permitted the testimonial statement of one witness ... to enter into evidence through the in-court testimony of a second person."
The Court also concluded that, even though the laboratory report in
Bullcoming
was not notarized, it resembled the reports in
Melendez-Diaz
"[i]n all material respects," and, like those reports, constituted testimonial evidence.
Justice Sotomayor wrote a separate concurring opinion, emphasizing "the limited reach" of the majority opinion.
First, this is not a case in which the State suggested an alternative purpose, much less an alternative primary purpose, for the BAC report....
Second, this is not a case in which the person testifying is a supervisor, reviewer, or someone else with a personal, albeit limited, connection to the scientific test at issue. [The testifying scientist] conceded ... that he played no role in producing the BAC report and did not observe any portion of ... the testing.... It would be a different case if, for example, a supervisor who observed an analyst conducting a test testified about the results or a report about such results. We need not address what degree of involvement is sufficient because here [the testifying scientist] had no involvement whatsoever in the relevant test and report.
Third, this is not a case in which an expert witness was asked for his independent opinion about underlying testimonial reports that were not themselves admitted into evidence.... [The testifying scientist did not] offer[ ] an independent, expert opinion about [the defendant's] [BAC]....
Finally, this is not a case in which the State introduced only machine-generated results, such as a printout from a gas chromatograph. The State here introduced [the certifying analyst's] statements, which included his transcription of a [BAC], apparently copied from a gas chromatograph printout, along with other statements about the procedures used in handling the blood sample. Thus, we do not decide whether ... a State could introduce (assuming an adequate *855 chain of custody foundation) raw data generated by a machine in conjunction with the testimony of an expert witness.
More recently, the Court decided
Williams
, which involved a DNA profile produced by a private laboratory.
Williams
,
The plurality of Justice Alito joined by Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Kennedy, and Justice Breyer "concluded that the testimonial evidence was used to support the expert's opinion and not for the truth of the matter asserted" (that the DNA profile came from semen found in the victim).
McLeod
,
Alternatively, the plurality decided that, even if the report containing the DNA profile produced by the private laboratory had been admitted into evidence for the truth of the matters asserted therein, the Confrontation Clause would not have been violated because the report "was not prepared for the primary purpose of accusing a targeted individual."
Williams
,
Justice Thomas disagreed, opining that the report's admission did not violate the Confrontation Clause solely because the testimony's implicit reference to an un-introduced report was not sufficiently formal to be considered "testimonial."
Because each of the opinions in
Williams
"embraces a different approach to determining whether the use of forensic evidence violates the Confrontation Clause, and there is no narrow rule that would have the support of a majority of the Supreme Court," we agree with other jurisdictions that have concluded that its
*856
"force, as precedent, [is] at best unclear."
Michaels
,
C
We now turn to Isenschmid's testimony. Isenschmid is a forensic toxicologist for National Medical Services (NMS), a private laboratory based in Pennsylvania. According to the State's Chief Medical Examiner, in all autopsy cases, his office sends specimens from dead bodies to NMS for "a comprehensive screen ... for any drugs or poisons." In the instant case, the medical examiner requested that NMS "do an expanded post-mortem toxicology panel" that "tests for about 230 different drugs and [for] alcohol." To test for alcohol, NMS uses a gas chromatograph machine, and to test for drugs, it uses "immunoassay" and "liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry." The medical examiner's office informed NMS that it was suspected that the victim had died because of "drug abuse," potentially involving heroin and/or fentanyl.
As a fact witness, Isenschmid gave a general overview of the process that NMS uses for samples that arrive from out-of-state. He testified that the specimens are in a sealed box that is delivered overnight directly to a "secure processing area." At that point, NMS "start[s] a chain of custody," recording into a computer the condition of the box, the seals, and the specimens themselves. A portion of the original sample is then transferred into a tube and sent to a different area for testing. NMS documents "who made that transfer to the tube, and who received it." NMS then has "a chain of custody on who prepared the sample for analysis, who initially reviewed the results, and who did the secondary review of the results." The first person, who reviews "the data that comes off the instrument[,] ... checks to make sure that all of the calibrations and controls worked properly." The first reviewer "verifie[s] all the quality assurance data" and enters the results into the computer system. The second reviewer checks "to see [that] all the data that the first reviewer put into the computer system was all properly transcribed and properly entered." "[F]inally, after all the laboratory testing is complete[,] a toxicologist[,] such as [Isenschmid,] will then review the entire case in the context of all the work that was done to issue a final report that's provided back to the client." According to Isenschmid, approximately 12 NMS employees handled the victim's blood and urine samples: five employees "dealt with the sample[s] coming in" and another seven prepared the samples for testing.
Isenschmid testified that when he reviews a case, he "look[s] at all the documentation," including "the chain of custody" and the "requisition," and he "make[s] sure everything has been entered properly into the computer system." Isenschmid testified that "if the sample had to be repeated for whatever reason, ... [he] check[s] to see why it was repeated." If there is "a control failure," he "want[s] to know why" it occurred "and what was done."
*857 He then "review[s] all of the instrument tracings to make sure that what was reported was in fact what [NMS has] in those tracings." Isenschmid defined "instrument tracings" as "the actual instrument data." Isenschmid testified that he "log[s] into [the] computer and look[s] at those instrument tracings ... to verify the results." Isenschmid explained that NMS is "a paperless laboratory," such that "all of [its] analytical work is interfaced into [its] computer system."
With respect to the samples at issue, although Isenschmid did not "do the laboratory work" on the victim's blood or urine or supervise those who did, he "actually review[ed] all of the testing results that were generated by [NMS]" in this case, and issued and signed the report describing those results. The report, Isenschmid testified, accurately reflected his conclusions and findings.
As an expert forensic toxicologist, Isenschmid testified that, according to the toxicology tests, there were three compounds found in the victim's blood: "[o]ne was a breakdown of marijuana," another was fentanyl, and a third was norfentanyl, a "metabolite breakdown product" of fentanyl. He also testified that the victim's urine tested positive for marijuana and opiates. He further testified that the level of fentanyl in the victim's blood was "21 nanograms per milliliter," which, he opined, is "a relatively large concentration of fentanyl," and that the level of norfentanyl was "2.2 nanograms per milliliter." Isenschmid then opined that the difference between the fentanyl and norfentanyl levels in the victim's blood indicated that the victim ingested a large dose of fentanyl and that he died "very shortly" after doing so. 1
D
The defendant argues that his confrontation rights were violated because the analysts who tested the victim's blood and urine samples did not testify. He asserts that "[t]his inability to cross-examine the actual analysts who performed the testing prevented [him] from inquiring as to whether or not the quality control procedures, spoken to generally by ... Isenschmid, were actually followed in the preparation and testing of the samples relating to this particular case or whether such testing was even performed." He contends that had the State called the testing analysts, he "would have had the opportunity to ask them about their observations at the time of testing" and "could have inquired about the integrity of the sample." Moreover, he argues, he could have cross-examined the analysts "about past issues regarding competency or disciplinary problems."
"We note at the outset the factual differences between this case and
Melendez-Diaz
and
Bullcoming
."
Michaels
,
"Second, the forensic report and testimony admitted in this case differs in several respects from what happened in
Bullcoming
."
In this case, Isenschmid reviewed "all the documentation" in the case, including the chain of custody, and ensured that all of the information had been correctly entered into the NMS computer system. Isenschmid personally reviewed the "actual instrument data" and made sure that the data were accurately entered into the NMS computer. Further, he "actually reviewed all of the testing results." He also issued and signed the toxicology report that described the testing results and testified that the report accurately reflected his findings and conclusions. His "participation in preparing the report and developing the substantive conclusions contained therein was real and direct." Id . at 674. The fact that Isenschmid was testifying regarding his own report "distinguishes him from the co-analyst in Bullcoming , who merely presented a blood alcohol report prepared by another [laboratory] co-employee." Id . Isenschmid "was not repeating the findings and conclusions of the analysts who manned the gas chromatography /mass spectrometry devices." Id . at 675. "Rather, the findings and conclusions contained in the report and to which he testified were his own." Id . As he testified, it was his job to review and verify the results of the tests performed on the victim's blood and urine samples. See id . We conclude, therefore, that the defendant's confrontation rights were not violated by Isenschmid's testimony. See id .
Our conclusion is consistent with
McLeod
.
McLeod
involved the testimony of three expert witnesses: a fire investigator who investigated an apartment building fire when it occurred in 1989, and two special agents from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, who reinvestigated the fire in 2010.
McLeod
,
One of the issues on appeal was whether the occupant's testimonial statements were admissible through the experts' testimony.
Id
. at 46, 48,
We decided, however, that the experts' opinions need not be excluded because each of the three experts "applied their independent judgment to [the occupant's] statements" and were "not acting as mere 'transmitters' of testimonial hearsay."
Id
. at 54,
Here, as in McLeod , the Confrontation Clause does not preclude Isenschmid's testimony because, like the McLeod experts, he testified to his own, independent conclusions.
Although the defendant focuses primarily upon the failure of the analysts who actually tested the victim's blood and urine samples to testify, his argument appears to be broader. According to the defendant, Isenschmid "impliedly represented that the samples were received in the proper manner, that [they] were not compromised in any way, that certain tests were actually performed on those samples, that the machines used in the testing were properly calibrated, and that the analysts who performed the testing did so according to NMS ... protocols and provided accurate and honest results." Yet, the defendant asserts, he "was unable to cross-examine
anyone
who performed or witnessed such tests and reviews as the State did not produce them." Taken to its extreme, the defendant implies that all 12 NMS employees who handled the victim's blood and urine samples must be produced in order for the State to introduce Isenschmid's testimony and report.
See
Michaels
,
Although contrary authority exists,
2
we note that our decision today comports with those of at least seven federal courts and 21 state courts, which, in opinions issued since 2012, have found no Confrontation Clause violation under similar circumstances.
3
For all of the above reasons,
*860
therefore, we affirm the trial court's decision. All issues that the defendant raised in his notice of appeal, but did not brief, are deemed waived.
See
State v. Berry
,
Affirmed .
HICKS, BASSETT, and HANTZ MARCONI, JJ., concurred.
At trial, the defendant did not dispute that the victim had fentanyl in his system when he died.
See
McCord v. State
,
See
Grim v. Fisher
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The STATE of New Hampshire v. Brian A. WATSON
- Cited By
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