The Arizona Supreme Court hears arguments in the controversial DNA murder case

PHOENIX (AZFamily) – In an extremely rare case, the Arizona Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday on whether or not a suspect's DNA could be used in the high-profile Allison Feldman murder case.

Feldman was killed in her own home in Scottsdale in 2015. In this case, it's not about whose DNA was at the crime scene.

The big controversy here is whether Scottsdale police illegally obtained suspect Ian Mitcham's DNA for testing, and whether something called an inevitable discovery means they would have gotten his DNA at some point. no matter what happens later.

Mitcham's blood was already in the police evidence vault from a previous DUI case, so they decided to test it against the Feldman crime scene and got an exact match, but that DUI DNA was only supposed to be kept for 90 days.

“Due to the disposal notice, storage beyond this was problematic,” defense attorney Mikel Steinfeld told the judges on Thursday.

The defense also argued that Mitcham only agreed to have his blood used for alcohol and drug testing, not to have his DNA extracted and entered into the Combined DNA Index System database.

“A single government official made a decision about what he wanted to do without consulting the prosecution, without looking at the legal situation,” Steinfeld said.

Judge Clint Bolick seemed to agree and brought it up when questioning the prosecution.

“The behavior of the police here is extremely disturbing to me,” said Judge Bolick.

The state had an answer.

“There is no legitimate expectation of privacy in an STR DNA profile created based on evidence lawfully possessed by police,” said Nick Klingerman, special agent in charge of the Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors point to the doctrine of inevitable discovery.

Mitcham committed further crimes and was sentenced for them in 2022.

By law, convicted criminals' DNA must be stored in the CODIS database so that police would eventually receive a DNA match to the Feldman crime scene just years later.

“I could take another sample today and the result would be the same profile,” Klingerman said.

Allison's father, Harley Feldman, never imagined he would end up on the Arizona Supreme Court.

“As a victim, it's frustrating to constantly watch time go by,” said Harley Feldman

Harley Feldman said it can be difficult to listen to a protocol controversy when everyone agrees that the DNA at the crime scene matched Mitcham.

“I didn't expect anything like this to ever happen, but I'm doing this for Allison and I'll be here every day to make sure her case is decided correctly,” said Harley Feldman.

There is no information on when the court will make its decision or how prosecution will proceed if the DNA cannot be used.

Harley Feldman said his legal team told him the state Supreme Court takes an average of eight weeks to make a decision.

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