State v. Landon, 370 S.C. 103

Summary

The South Carolina Supreme Court held that the State Law Enforcement Division's records did not satisfy the statutory requirement to maintain detailed records concerning breath-testing devices. However, suppression of the defendant's breath-test results was improper without a finding of prejudice. The court held that the defendant made a prima facie showing of prejudice and shifted the burden to the State, reversing and remanding for an evidentiary hearing.

Holdings

1. The State violated section 56-5-2954 because the records maintained by SLED did not contain the detailed information about malfunctions, repairs, complaints, or other problems that the statute requires. The statute requires records to be maintained by both SLED and the individual law-enforcement agency, but the location requirement was satisfied because SLED's records were accessible at the testing site.
2. Suppression was improper without an evidentiary determination of prejudice. Once the defendant makes a prima facie showing of prejudice from the State's failure to provide the required detailed records, the burden shifts to the State to prove that the defendant was not prejudiced, either by producing records showing that the machine was functioning properly or through other contemporaneous evidence.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the State violated South Carolina Code section 56-5-2954 by failing to maintain detailed records concerning the DataMaster breath-testing machine.
2. Whether suppression of the breath-test results was proper without a finding of prejudice and, if prejudice was shown prima facie, which party bore the burden of proving or disproving prejudice.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded