People v. Morris (199 Cal. App. 3d 377, 1988)

Opinion

GILBERT, J.

Defendant Tim Dale Morris appeals his judgment of conviction of murder, robbery and burglary. We affirm and hold that the prosecution established that electrophoretic multisystem testing of bloodstains is generally accepted by impartial scientists within the scientific community.

Facts

During the evening of March 14, 1985, the Nye home, sited in rural Ventura County, was burglarized. William Nye, an elderly, deaf, one-legged man, was beaten to death as he lay in bed. Between 10 and 10:30 p.m. that evening, a neighbor noticed lights in the Nye house, an unusual occurrence during that time of evening. When Nye’s cook arrived the following morning, she discovered Nye’s body and the house furnishings in disorder. When she telephoned from the Nye residence for assistance, she noticed that the telephone receiver was greasy.

Sheriff’s officers discovered a bloodstained and broken table leg, taken from the Nye stable, in the house and a fireplace poker a few yards from the house. A pathologist opined that Nye died of multiple blows to the head between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. that evening and that his injuries could have been inflicted by a table leg and fireplace poker.

The intruder had broken a living ro'om window from the outside to enter the house. A bloodstain lay on the concrete porch beneath the window. A sheriff’s department criminalist collected and froze the bloodstain the day following the murder. Approximately 19 days later, she analyzed the bloodstain for ABO antigens and for certain polymorphic enzymes. She also analyzed the blood of the victim and the defendant and concluded that although the defendant, the victim and the bloodstain had type O blood, other genetic characteristics of the bloodstain matched those