Appellate Court Overturns Lower Court Ruling Rejecting Defendant's Motion To Suppress Blood Test Res

By Author: Malcom Bloczynski
Total Articles: 4
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In the matter of Guardardo vs. The State of Florida the 4th District Court of Appeal reversed the defendant's judgment and sentence for DUI manslaughter & Unlawful Blood Alcohol Level (UBAL) & ordered a new trial.

The defendant was involved in a 3-car collision. Both passengers in defendant's vehicle were killed. A state trooper noticed defendant in the driver's seat with injuries to defendant's face; the other two individuals did not appear to be living. The defendant was extracted from the car and taken to the hospital, where the trooper requested that blood samples be taken from defendant. A 6 count charging document was filed charging defendant with two counts of DUI manslaughter; two counts of DUI manslaughter unlawful blood alcohol level; as well as two counts of DUI with damage to property.

Defendant filed a written plea of not guilty to the two charges of DUI manslaughter unlawful blood alcohol level. The state informed defendant that the State of Florida wanted to subpoena defendant's medical records. The defendant objected, but the trial court granted the State of Florida the authority to subpoena ...
... the medical records based on the State of Florida's compelling interest. The defendant submitted an amended motion to suppress, contending that the State of Florida's motion to subpoena the records was based solely on the results of the blood draw completed at the request of Florida Highway Patrol.

During the hearing regarding defendant's motion to suppress, the state agreed that the trooper didn't have probable cause to take the legal blood. The State of Florida also stipulated that there was no information in the State of Florida's file that could have constituted independent probable cause at the time the medical blood subpoena was issued. The trial judge entered an order suppressing the legal blood draw & denying the suppression of the medical blood results, ruling the relevance of the medical blood results was clear & that a compelling state interest existed in order to support the admission.

Due to the Motion to Suppress the legal blood being denied, Defendant then entered a nolo contendere plea, reserving the right to appeal the circuit court's ruling on the dispositive motion to suppress. The defendant was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in Florida State Prison, followed by five years probation on each count, with the sentences to be served concurrently.

On appeal, the defendant argued that the trial court erred by failing to suppress the medical blood since the subpoena issued for the medical blood was based exclusively on the legal blood, which the State of Florida admitted was illegally obtained. The defendant additionally stated that the state failed to establish the relevance of the medical blood since it failed to show a link between the medical blood & the accident. The State of Florida argued that the trial court properly found that the medical blood was relevant because even if the medical blood evidence was originally released pursuant to a subpoena based only on the unlawfully seized legal blood results, any error was harmless in that the other information in the probable cause affidavit would have also justified the issuance of a subpoena. The State of Florida also argued that any accident together with a loss of life always makes medical blood relevant.

The District Court of Appeal ruled that, aside from the unlawfully obtained legal blood evidence, the state failed to establish a nexus connecting the medical records subpoenaed & the pending investigation. Instead, the State of Florida simply relied on the inadmissible legal blood in order to get the medical blood. The State of Florida did not depend on any lawfully obtained results which showed any nexus between the defendant's medical blood & the accident investigation. The State presentedno police reports, arrest affidavits, or other documents to the circuit court.

The district court also stated that the state's theory, that a crash together with a fatality always makes medical blood relevant, was not the law and has been held to create only part of the basis to show relevance. The Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that, although the state correctly contended it could rely on the probable cause affidavit & argument to show relevance, there was no evidence that the State of Florida actually relied on the probable cause affidavit at the hearing on defendant's objection to the issuance of the subpoena.

The appellate court reversed the trial court's ruling denying the suppression of the medical blood because the state didn't establish a nexus between the medical blood and the collision. The 4th District Court of Appeal ordered that, on remand, the state would not be precluded from again seeking medical records through a subpoena if it proffered evidence which tended to demonstrate the relevance of medical blood evidence, because State of Florida's actions didn't rise to the level of bad faith.

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