PHOENIX β A man arrested seven years after a slaying in Tucson could get a new trial because the judge blocked testimony from one of his expert witnesses, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The justices said Joseph Javier Romero should have been allowed to contest the claims by prosecutors that shell casings found at the scene of the 2000 murder of Skeets Matthews matched a .40-caliber Glock pistol.
Chief Justice Scott Bales, writing for the unanimous court, said the evidence Romero wanted a jury to hear was relevant because it might have convinced jurors that the methods used by the stateβs expert witness are not entirely scientific.
The ruling does not guarantee Romero will get another chance to prove his innocence.
Instead, the justices sent the case back to the Court of Appeals to consider whether it would have made any difference to jurors had they heard the evidence that was excluded.
Matthews, 43, was found shot to death in a mobile-home park on the 1600 block of East Roger Road in 2000. Near his body police found a cellphone and six shell casings.
Nearly a month later, police stopped Romero on an unrelated matter and found him in possession of a .40-caliber Glock magazine. They also found a .40-caliber Glock, without its magazine, along the path Romero had been traveling.
Seven years later, information from that cellphone led investigators to Romero.
A firearms expert testified for the state that the indentations the gun left on the shell casings matched those found near Matthewsβ body.
But Pima County Superior Court Judge Deborah Bernini ruled that a witness for the defense, Ralph Haber, was not qualified as an expert and precluded his testimony.
Bales said precluding the defense expert was a mistake.
