Felony DUI, Blood Samples, and Chain of Custody

In a recent SC Court of Appeals case, State v. Rowell, the court had to analyze the chain of custody of several blood samples from the defendant. Defendant was in a car accident and had to be airlifted to a hospital. During this time, he had several blood samples taken and he also had blood transfusions.

The defense objected to the the admission of the blood samples because of the issues with the chain of custody:

The court of appeals affirmed the admission of the Sample A because it complied with the rules for chain of custody. First, the court explained that fungible evidence requires the chain of custody to be complete as far as practicable:

The court then held that Sample A complied with these chain of custody rules:

See this post for a deeper dive into Chain of Custody:

https://www.everydayevidence.org/post/chain-of-custody-and-authentication