Summary
This published opinion from the Washington Court of Appeals addresses the admissibility of blood alcohol test results obtained using vials past their manufacturer expiration date. The appellant argued that RCW 46.61.506 and Chapter 448-14 WAC implicitly require compliance with manufacturer expiration dates to establish a proper foundation for admission. The court held that statutory and administrative rules do not mandate testing before expiration, concluding that any impact of expired vials goes to the weight of the evidence rather than its admissibility, and affirmed the trial court's ruling.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the expiration of blood‑collection vials requires exclusion of the test results under RCW 46.61.506 and WAC 448‑14‑020.
- Whether the appellant preserved a Frye challenge to the admissibility of the 2022 blood test results.
Holdings
- The expiration of the vials does not, by itself, render the blood‑test results inadmissible; admissibility is governed by the plain language of the statute and the administrative code, which do not require compliance with the manufacturer’s expiration date.
- The Frye challenge was not preserved because the appellant failed to make a timely and specific objection at trial; therefore, the issue is not subject to appellate review.
Key quotations
“Thus, we follow the reasoning of our Supreme Court in Keller and hold that the requirements for establishing the proper foundation for the admission of blood evidence in a criminal conviction are confined to the plain language of the relevant statute and code.”
“The failure to make a timely objection to the admission of evidence precludes appellate review.”
Factual background
In January 2020, Eric Leer was involved in a head‑on collision that killed two occupants of another vehicle. A search warrant authorized a blood draw, which was placed in two grey‑topped vials containing sodium fluoride and potassium oxalate. The vials were not expired at the time of the draw, but the label obscured the expiration date. The State later retested the blood in September 2022 using the same vials, which by then were past the manufacturer’s two‑year "use‑by" date. The State introduced the 2022 test results at trial, and the jury convicted Leer.
Procedural history
The trial court admitted the results of a 2022 retest of the appellant's blood sample despite the vials being past their manufacturer "use‑by" date. The appellant was convicted of two counts of vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault. The appellant appealed, asserting error in the admission of the evidence and failure to preserve a Fry Frye challenge.