The victim's family in a decade-old murder case is dealing with more hurdles in court.
Two judges have recused themselves back-to-back in the high-profile death of Allison Feldman.
A battle over DNA evidence previously stalled the case against defendant Ian Mitcham. Currently, a trial date is set for October, but the DNA battle still isn't over.
LOOK BACK AT DNA BATTLE
In 2015, people in the Scottsdale community were left scared after Allison was found murdered in her Scottsdale home near Loop 101 and Pima Road.
Police said Feldman died of head trauma. According to court documents, she was found nude, and her body smelled of bleach.
Her case marked the first in Arizona where familial DNA was used to help track down Mitcham. Despite the 2018 arrest, court documents said investigators couldn't find a connection between Allison and Mitcham.
Just before trial, a judge tossed out Mitcham's DNA sample and said it couldn't be used as evidence because it was collected as part of an unrelated DUI case.
The lower court said it shouldn't have been available for testing. According to court documents, the testing process was done without a warrant.
But then an appeals court reversed that decision.
The Arizona Supreme Court listened to oral arguments in late September and announced a decision in December 2024. The Arizona Justices said the warrantless search did violate Mitcham's Fourth Amendment rights, but believed police would have inevitably obtained his DNA lawfully since Mitcham is now a twice-convicted felon.
The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year denied a review of the case.
NEW COURT BATTLES
Just before an evidentiary hearing in June, Judge Kristin Culbertson said she would most likely have to recuse herself from the case. Culbertson said she knew one of the state's witnesses.
Weeks later, Judge Max Covil also noted an issue with being familiar with the people involved in the case. In court, he said he knew the defense attorney and possibly the case agent.
The case has now been reassigned to a different judge, Sunita Cairo, but Allison's dad called the recusals "frustrating".
Harley Feldman said the decade-long journey is tough with so many variables out of their control.
"The pressure is on all the time, because you don't know where it's going, don't know where the next motion is going to come from, don't know where the next decision is being made," said Harley. "And so it's the uncertainty that's really hard."
The battles in court aren't over; Mitcham's attorneys are once again pushing back at the use of the DNA evidence.
New court documents state a motion was filed to suppress the evidence despite the previous battle.
"They're going to try to bring it up over and over, because they believe that it'll help their case," said Feldman.
Mitcham is due back in court on August 8 for a status conference.
He has pleaded not guilty in the case.
