10th Circuit Affirms Exclusion of Accident Reconstructionist in Kidnapping / Murder Case

The Tenth Circuit has published a decision upholding the trial court's exclusion of testimony from an accident reconstructionist, offered by the defendant in a murder and kidnapping trial. From the opinion:

Of the nine opinions set forth in the defense expert's report to the court, only numbers three and four arguably relied on some mathematical reasoning or Dr. Watts's expertise in accident reconstruction. Conclusion number three relied on a series of force and impact calculations to conclude that "even an 'average size' person" could have delivered the blows to Dale's face and head, since none of her facial bones were broken. The point of this testimony, by Watts's own admission, was to show that the blows to Dale's face need not have been delivered by the 6'3", 400 lb. Gabaldon, but could have been inflicted just as well by his accomplice Begay, who was seated next to Dale in the back of the car.

Although the district court excluded this conclusion as unhelpful to the jury because it was "not scientific and fell into the category of speculation," the larger problem is that this conclusion is utterly obvious and is not something for which expert testimony is needed. As Watts conceded on the stand, the average juror would know that a woman of Dale's size could be hit by a man smaller than Gabaldon in such a way as not to break her facial bones. Watts's calculations might have been relevant if the conclusion reached was that Gabaldon could not have delivered the blows to Dale's face; his conclusion that Begay could not be ruled out is of no help to the jury, especially where Begay admitted at trial that he had in fact struck Dale. The district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding this piece of the expert's proffered testimony.

Watts's fourth conclusion stated that the internal geometry of Gabaldon's car would have made it difficult for him to reach Dale to deliver the blows that knocked her unconscious and ultimately contributed to her death. Watts claimed this statement relied on published data on the 1996 Buick LeSabre, to calculate the distance between the front seat and the far corner of the rear seat and to find that Gabaldon would have had to lean back between the two front seats to reach Dale with his blows. Watts then asserted that the act of leaning back and holding on to the front seat would have prevented Gabaldon from striking Dale with much force, but offered no scientific support for that statement.

The district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding this conclusion as lacking in "sufficient methodology and reasoning." Watts's opinion about Gabaldon's effective reach and ability to land forceful blows while holding on to the front seat back was entirely conclusory and unsupported by any scientific evidence or reasoning. Watts conceded that his theory could have been tested by placing Gabaldon in a 1996 LeSabre and taking measurements, but no such testing was done.

See United States v. Gabaldon, No. 03-2233 (10th Cir. Nov. 16, 2004) (Ebel, Tymovich, & Heaton, JJ.).