State v. Mitchell, 1408017353A

Mitchell was stopped in Laurel, DE; his license showed suspended and the vehicle was registered to another person. He fled, led police on a high-speed chase, crashed, and discarded a Foot Locker bag later recovered containing a large quantity of suspected heroin and packaging.
A loaded, stolen handgun was found in the abandoned vehicle; the gun was sent to Wilmington for ballistics testing and was not returned; the car was disposed of.
Mitchell was convicted at jury trial on most charges, but the court granted a new trial because the Pennsylvania lab (NMS) used an unreliable method for testing large quantities of heroin; State later planned retesting using an approved hypergeometric sampling method.
After multiple pretrial motions (including Daubert and Lolly-DeBerry requests) and denials, Mitchell pled guilty to one count of Drug Dealing (Class D) and was sentenced to six years (five at Level 5, one at Level 3 suspended) on November 23, 2015; he did not appeal.
Mitchell filed a timely Rule 61 postconviction motion alleging ineffective assistance of counsel (several subclaims) and that the State destroyed/preserved evidence (driver’s license, car, gun). The court held an evidentiary review on the record and denied relief.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Ineffective assistance for failing to move to exclude drug evidence	Mitchell: counsel should have excluded drugs due to improper testing	State/Court: counsel filed motions (JOA, new trial, Daubert motion, in limine) and challenged testing; judge granted new trial previously	Denied — counsel actively litigated testing; representation not deficient and plea was voluntary
Ineffective assistance for not requesting concurrent sentence	Mitchell: counsel failed to ask that sentence run concurrently with his other sentence	Court: decision to order concurrency is judicial, not counsel; no persuasive reason to order concurrent given record	Denied — no deficient performance; court would not have made sentences concurrent
Ineffective assistance for not challenging search warrant for cell phones	Mitchell: counsel failed to suppress phone evidence	Court: suppression would require Mitchell to claim ownership of phones, which would undercut his defense that he was not in the car	Denied — strategic decision; no deficient performance and would have undermined defense
Constitutional claim for destruction/non-preservation of evidence	Mitchell: State failed to preserve driver’s license, car, and gun, violating due process	Court: missing evidence issues were raised and litigated; Mitchell knowingly waived trial rights in plea colloquy and Truth-In-Sentencing form	Denied — plea was knowing, intelligent, voluntary; waiver forecloses relief

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) (establishes two-prong ineffective assistance of counsel standard)