Hamilton County Chief Homicide Prosecutor Michael Dowd on Friday ripped the TBI Crime Lab for slow handling of ballistics cases.
He made the comments during discussion of a murder case that was indicted in March 2021. The ballistics results are not back yet in the matter in which Donyell Holland is charged with murdering Randall Leslie.
Prosecutor Dowd told Criminal Court Judge Amanda Dunn that when he called the TBI Lab earlier this week "I shut the door to my office because I was talking loudly."
He said, "I come from a state (California) where there is much more crime and it takes much less time to get ballistics results back.
To me, what is happening here is unconscionable. To me, it's border line a joke."
Prosecutor Dowd said he told lab personnel, "If you won't do your damn job, I'll do the testing. I've done ballistics tests before."
He told the judge that, if return of tests took that long in California, "the head of the lab would be sitting in that chair (witness chair) answering why they should not be held in contempt of court."
He said, "It is unfortunate that, in some respects, we are all being held hostage."
The trial is set to start on May 23. The prosecutor said he was told the results may be back "by the middle of May."
Defense attorney Ryan Wheeler said if the results come back that close to the start of the trial he would not have time to hire an expert to examine the findings from a defense viewpoint.
The 33-year-old victim in the case had not been seen since May 27, 2020. He was reported missing to Chattanooga Police Missing Persons Unit the next day.
On June 21, 2020, the Marion County Sheriff's Office contacted the Chattanooga Police Department's Homicide Unit to inform them a body was found that fit the physical description of Randall Leslie. A positive identification was later made through forensic means.
Holland was already in custody in Hamilton County on other, unrelated charges when he was indicted.