scene, including one that showed the location of the backpack. They were taken by other responders to the scene.)
As the trial date neared, defense counsel arranged to meet with the prosecutor at the Sheriff's Office on January 15, 2010, to view the evidence. The prosecutor canceled the meeting at the last minute and it was rescheduled for January 19, which was the next business day. (A holiday weekend intervened.) On the morning of January 19, the prosecutor called defense counsel and told him she had learned that the only items of evidence the Sheriff's Office still had for the case were the marijuana and cocaine that were found in the backpack and the money that was seized from the appellant's pants pocket in the hospital. Everything else hadbeen either returned to the appellant's girlfriend or destroyed.
At the outset of the proceedings the next day, defense counsel moved to dismiss all charges on the ground that the appellant's due process rights had been violated by the State's destruction of evidence.[1] Defense counsel complained that the State had destroyed the backpack, personal items in the backpack, and the 11 crash scene photographs. The prosecutor responded that some of the items of evidence had been destroyed mistakenly by the Sheriff's Office in the course of routine purging of its evidence room. She offered to call as a witness Corporal Brian Donohoe, the property and evidence supervisor for the Sheriff's Office. The court agreed and Corporal Donohoe was called to the stand. He testified as follows.
Every item of evidence