Lawyer seeks hearing on expert's testimony
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A disgraced police fingerprint expert tainted the retrial of a Tucson man convicted of killing a disabled man, a defense attorney says.
Attorney Brick P. Storts III filed a motion Thursday in Pima County Superior Court asking for a hearing on whether former crime lab coordinator Steven Skowron's substance abuse affected his testimony or whether he was intoxicated when he testified in November against Ronnie Gene Sartin Jr., 31.
Skowron resigned from the Tucson Police Department on April 10 after admitting he stole and used drugs that were held as evidence from December 2004 to January 2006.
On April 18, Pima County Chief Criminal Deputy Attorney David Berkman notified Storts that Skowron's fingerprint analysis in Sartin's case could be re-examined. Similar notices were filed in about 280 cases.
Storts said the information about Skowron is newly discovered evidence that, at the very least, merits a hearing on whether it affected Sartin's case.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Howard Hantman will decide whether to hold a hearing after prosecutors respond to Storts' motion.
Storts said had he known about Skowron's conduct, Sartin's defense might have been drastically altered enough to affect the outcome.
For instance, Skowron failed to seek certification with the International Association of Identification in 2006, which violates TPD's minimum standards set for crime lab analysts, according to a TPD internal affairs report.
Had Storts known that, he could have challenged handprint evidence that was used to prove felony murder, according to the motion.
Sartin was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1999 for the 1998 slaying of Marc Truesdell, 29. The Arizona Court of Appeals ordered a retrial after changes were made to the law on how premeditation is explained to jurors.
Sartin vigorously protested his retrial, saying the original prosecutor, David White, who died in 2003, committed misconduct to the extent that another trial amounted to double jeopardy.
Hantman ruled in pretrial hearings that White didn't commit misconduct.
Hantman sentenced Sartin in December to life in prison without parole.
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