PHOENIX — A family's fight for justice is going to Arizona’s Court of Appeals after a judge tossed out crucial DNA evidence ahead of the trial in an eight-year-old Scottsdale murder.
Allison Feldman was killed in her Scottsdale home in 2015 and suspect Ian Mitcham was arrested in 2018 after DNA linked him to the case, according to investigators.
"I had two tasks," said Harley Feldman, Allison's father. "One was to find her killer and the other is to keep her legacy alive."
But weeks before a scheduled trial in February 2023, the DNA that Scottsdale police said definitively linked Mitcham to the crime scene became a big problem for prosecutors.
Mitcham’s defense argued that the Scottsdale police improperly collected Mitcham’s DNA and violated his Fourth Amendment rights in the process before he was arrested for Allison's murder in 2018.
Court records show Scottsdale police first used familial DNA to connect DNA found at the crime scene to one of Mitcham’s brothers in prison, indicating a close relative could be the suspect in Allison’s murder.
Then Scottsdale police used a blood sample they already had in evidence, collected in an unrelated 2015 DUI case against Ian Mitcham, to confirm it was the same as the DNA found at the murder scene.
But the defense argued Scottsdale Police should have gotten a new warrant to test Mitcham’s DNA instead of using the old blood sample. Plus, they added, police were supposed to destroy the blood sample 90 days after it was collected, but didn't.
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the defense, writing that the DNA evidence derived from Mitcham’s 2015 blood sample can’t be used at trial.
Prosecutors filed an appeal on the decision, arguing they would have inevitably gotten Mitcham’s DNA after he was convicted in two other unrelated felony charges in 2022. The state Attorney General’s Office filed a brief in support of the prosecution but declined to comment on the case.
Oral arguments in the appeal are scheduled for Wednesday morning.
"We feel really good about it," Harley Feldman said. "In my opinion, the argument in the other side is weak."
But the defense is ready to fight.
"They’re making a number of assumptions based on what would have happened in an alternate universe where they didn’t test this blood illegally," claimed Jared Keenan.
Keenan is the Legal Director with the ACLU of Arizona and former president of Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice. Both organizations filed briefs siding with the defense through this appeals process, arguing that all DNA collected by the government should be protected and that improper use is a violation of the fourth amendment.
"The constitution isn’t a loophole," Keenan added.
Mitcham's trial is on pause while the appeal process is playing out. Mitcham, who is facing first degree murder, burglary and sexual assault charges in this case, pleaded not guilty.
"It’s the delays that are the challenge," Harley Feldman said. "It seems to drag on forever."
Another agonizing delay will be waiting to see whether the appeals court will allow that crucial DNA back in.
"I have to trust the court system that it will come out right in the end," Feldman shared.
In Wednesday's oral arguments, each side will have 20 minutes to argue their case before a panel of three judges. The judges are not expected to reach a decision on the same day.
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