VANMETER, Judge:
Delmar Partin appeals from an order of the Knox Circuit Court denying his motion for post-conviction relief. For the following reasons, we affirm.
Following a jury trial, a judgment was entered in 1994 convicting Partin of murder. He received a sentence of life imprisonment. His conviction and sentence was affirmed on direct appeal by the Kentucky Supreme Court.
In 2008, Partin moved the trial court to order and fund DNA testing of hair evidence presented in his 1994 trial. Specifically, Partin sought testing of hair found on a paper towel in Partin's home trash. Since Partin had already directly appealed his conviction and moved for RCr 11.42 relief, the trial court treated his motion as a motion for CR
Partin claims the trial court abused its discretion by denying his motion for CR 60.02 relief. We disagree.
On appeal, we review the denial of a CR 60.02 motion for an abuse of discretion. The test for abuse of discretion is whether the trial court's decision was "arbitrary, unreasonable, unfair, or unsupported by sound legal principles." Commonwealth v. English, 993 S.W.2d 941, 945 (Ky.1999) (citations omitted).
As an initial matter, we note that while the evidence of Partin's guilt was circumstantial, that evidence as a whole was sufficient to uphold the jury's verdict and the trial court's denial of a directed verdict. 918 S.W.2d at 221. Specifically, Partin and the victim had been engaged in an extra-marital affair which the victim had recently ended; the victim was fearful of Partin; Partin was seen by numerous witnesses at Tremco laboratory, where
With respect to the hair evidence which Partin now claims requires DNA analysis, the hair was found in Partin's kitchen trash. However, while the state police forensic examiner testified certain hair was similar to the victim's hair, she also testified that other hair dissimilar to the victim's hair was found on paper towels in Partin's kitchen trash. The jury, thus, was aware at the time of trial that hair in Partin's trash may or may not have belonged to the victim.
Against this background, we examine Partin's claim of error. KRS 422.285 permits post-conviction DNA testing under certain circumstances. Specifically, KRS 422.285(1) provides:
Since Partin was not sentenced to death he was not entitled to DNA testing and analysis per KRS 422.285(1). However, Partin maintains that the recent case of Bedingfield v. Commonwealth, 260 S.W.3d 805 (Ky.2008), permits DNA testing under KRS 422.285 in non-capital cases in which the defendant is not sentenced to death.
In Bedingfield, the Court vacated Bedingfield's sentence pursuant to CR 60.02 and granted his motion for a new trial based upon newly discovered evidence. Bedingfield's CR 60.02 motion was presented to the Court after he had obtained the release of certain physical evidence, including the alleged victim's rape kit and other physical evidence, and subjected the semen samples contained therein to forensic testing under methodologies evidently not available at the time of his trial. Thus, Bedingfield was not requesting DNA testing under KRS 422.285. Rather, he claimed that the results of the DNA testing performed on the forensic evidence definitively excluded him as the source of the semen recovered from the alleged victim
The plain language of KRS 422.285 allows a person convicted of and sentenced to death for a capital offense to request DNA testing and analysis of evidence. Since Partin was not entitled to post-conviction DNA testing under KRS 422.285, he failed to present a known grievance which necessitated a hearing under KRS 31.185.
Finally, in Bedingfield, the Court addressed the effect of DNA evidence which was exculpatory, albeit non-exonerating, along with other testimonial inconsistencies in that case. The Court stated that the new DNA evidence "would probably induce a different conclusion by a jury" and serve to warrant a new trial to avoid a miscarriage of justice. 260 S.W.3d at 814 (citing RCr 10.02). Partin's case, however, is different. Even if DNA analysis excludes the victim as the source of any hair in Partin's kitchen trash, even if a third person's DNA shows up among the evidence at the Tremco laboratory,
The order of the Knox Circuit Court is affirmed.
ALL CONCUR.