Arizona Supreme Court hears DNA arguments in Allison Feldman murder case

PHOENIX (AZFamily) – The Arizona Supreme Court will hold oral arguments Wednesday on whether DNA can be used in the 2015 murder of Allison Feldman.

The DNA from the crime scene matched that of a man named Ian Mitch. However, it is questionable how this DNA was obtained.

Mitcham was arrested for the murder of Feldman, who was sexually assaulted, strangled and beaten to death in her Scottsdale home in February 2015.

We spoke to Allison Feldman's father, Harley Feldman, on the eve of the hearing about his daughter and the case.

He remembered how she decided which college she wanted to go to.

“She came to me on Monday and said, 'Dad, I think the University of Arizona,'” Harley Feldman recalled many years ago.

Harley was so proud of his daughter who graduated from UofA and eventually became successful in medical equipment sales in Scottsdale.

But in 2015, the 31-year-old's life was stolen in an instant.

“The call was from the detective,” Harley recalled. “He said, 'Are you driving?' And I said yes. He told me to pull over. And I knew what was going to happen next.”

According to police, Allison Feldman was murdered in her own home. Her boyfriend, Alex Sukhodolov, found her minutes before police arrived at the scene.

“They interrogated Alex for a long time, didn't think he was innocent, but didn't believe it was him either,” Harley said.

Three years later, there was a turning point in the case.

“I got a call from (Scottsdale Deputy Police Chief Scott) Popp. He just said we found him,” Harley said.

Using family DNA, Scottsdale police have found a lead to a man who is already in prison.

They suspected that the inmate's brother, Mitcham, might be the suspect, and a DNA test showed a match.

Mitcham was arrested in 2018 for Allison's murder.

“To your knowledge, was there any connection at all between Ian and Allison before she died?” asked True Crime Arizona correspondent Briana Whitney.

“No,” said Harley.

“Today, nine years later, do you still not know the motive?” asked Whitney.

Harley shook her head.

Then an unexpected twist that would change the entire case.

“At the last pretrial conference, another of his attorneys brought up the issue of DNA from the drunk driving arrest,” Harley said.

It turned out that Mitcham had been arrested for drunk driving in 2015 before Allison was killed.

The police took a blood sample for testing.

“When someone is arrested for drunk driving in Scottsdale, they are told their DNA will be kept for 90 days,” Harley said. “And in fact, they kept it for two years.”

“He agreed to be used for drug and alcohol testing, but not for DNA profiling?” Briana asked.

“That’s true,” said Harley.

When police made family contact with Mitcham's brother, they searched the evidence room again and found Mitcham's blood and DNA profile from his 2015 drunk driving arrest without obtaining a warrant.

In December 2022, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled that the tax had been improperly collected.

However, Mitcham was convicted of other serious crimes in 2022 after Allison's death, so his DNA would have eventually entered the system and police would not have stumbled upon Feldman's crime scene until years later, prosecutors argued.

This is called the doctrine of inevitable discovery.

In August 2023, the Arizona Court of Appeals overturned the decision, finding that there was probable cause to arrest him and that the DNA profile was lawfully in the state's possession after he pleaded guilty to the charges.

Mitcham's defense appealed, and in May the state Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and decide whether the DNA case should be used.

“Do you hold a grudge against the Scottsdale Police Department for breach of protocol?” Briana asked.

“I was with them. They were trying to do the right thing and believed it was legal,” Harley said.

Nine years after his defeat to Allison, Harley never expected to find himself before the state Supreme Court.

“You expect to lose your parents because they're older and that's a natural progression and I call that the loss of the past. When you lose your child, you lose your future,” Harley said. “My focus is to get a result and a verdict against the man who killed my daughter. And that's what keeps me going.”

No word on when the court will make a decision.

Have you discovered a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a recent news story? Send it here with a short description.

All rights reserved.