Attorney asks Supreme Court to review DNA decision in Scottsdale murder case

PHOENIX — A suspect in a high-profile Scottsdale murder case is trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to review his controversial case, according to his attorney. 

Ian Mitcham has had pending charges in Allison Feldman’s murder since 2018.  Feldman was murdered in her Scottsdale home and her family has been fighting for justice for nearly a decade.

RELATED: Court rules contested DNA evidence can be introduced in Scottsdale murder case

The trial has been repeatedly delayed as the case has been tied up over a controversy regarding how police obtained DNA evidence to link Mitcham to the crime.

Police identified Mitcham as a suspect in Allison’s murder after DNA collected from the scene showed a familial match to a DNA profile on record with Mitcham’s incarcerated brother. Police then learned a vial of Mitcham’s blood was in law enforcement’s possession from a 2015 DUI arrest.

Without obtaining a new warrant, Scottsdale police analyzed the blood in the vial and created Mitcham’s DNA profile, which investigators say matched the unidentified DNA profile in the Feldman case.

But in 2022, when the case was about to go to trial, Mitcham’s defense team filed to throw out the DNA evidence.  They claimed Scottsdale Police violated Mitcham’s Fourth Amendment rights by using the old blood sample from a different case, a sample that records show should have been destroyed years earlier.

The trial court judge agreed and tossed the state’s key evidence. But an appeals court overturned that decision and earlier this year, the case went to Arizona’s Supreme Court. 

In December, justices with the state’s highest court unanimously found that Scottsdale Police violated Ian Mitcham’s 4th Amendment rights, but still said the trial court erred in suppressing the evidence.  

At the time of the DNA search in 2018, Mitcham was facing DUI charges unrelated to Feldman’s death. Mitcham later pleaded guilty in that case in 2022, which would have resulted in Mitcham submitting a DNA sample that is entered into a law enforcement database. 

The Arizona Supreme Court ultimately ruled that DNA can be introduced at trial.  

In early February, Mitcham’s attorney Jeffrey Kirchler told 12News over email that he filed for Mitcham’s case to be heard by the Supreme Court of the United States.  It would be up to the Court to decide if they take the case. 

Harley Feldman, Allison Feldman’s father, continues to fight for justice in not only his daughter’s case but other cases across the country.  He’s on the National Board of Trustees for the organization Parents of Murdered Children.  He’s also involved with the local chapter in Phoenix.  He said he’s also become involved in a similar DNA-related case in New York.

“I’ve learned that helping others is helping me,” Feldman shared in a December 2024 interview. “When I help people I feel better. I’m accomplishing something for them.”

He shared that Allison continues to help people, too. They have a scholarship in her memory at the University of Arizona that helps students study abroad. He considers the ruling in Mitcham’s case to be precedent-setting.

“Even though we lost her, she’s leaving something on this Earth,” he said.

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