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Monday, October 19, 2009

Ind. Courts - "CSI Indy? Not in Hamilton Avenue slayings case: It's unusual -- but not unheard of -- for a grisly murder case to yield no physical evidence linking a suspect to the crime"

Updating earlier ILB entries, the "Hamilton Avenue slaying trial" is now in its second week. Jon Murray and Heather Gillers of the Indianapolis Star have this lengthy, front-page story today about physical evidence at a crime scene. Some quotes:

Turner's trial resumes today. Prosecutors, midway through the two-week trial in Marion Superior Court, have set out to prove their case in a more traditional way, building what Brizzi hopes will be a compelling circumstantial case. Marion Superior Court Judge Robert Altice is weighing the evidence in a bench trial.

Concerns about the lack of physical evidence were so great that Brizzi was willing to drop his pursuit of the death penalty last month in order to entice Turner, 31, to give up his right to a jury. Brizzi is seeking a life sentence.

Prosecutors worry that jurors are more likely to have television-bred expectations for concrete evidence, even more so when a defendant's life is at stake.

"For example, there's an episode of 'CSI' where they retrieve fingerprints from a body," said Scott Newman, Brizzi's predecessor as prosecutor, the founder of a DNA testing lab and most recently Indianapolis' public safety director.

"It's very difficult to do that," Newman said. "But jurors may expect that fingerprint to be on the neck of the victim, and they will misconstrue that as reasonable doubt if it's not there."

Even if Brizzi lost the potential emotional impact on jurors of grisly crime-scene and autopsy photos, he hoped to gain the sober reasoning of a judge who can sort through varying witness statements to find proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Convictions based on circumstantial evidence still happen in criminal cases, even murder cases.

Newman said more than half of slaying scenes probably include some type of forensic evidence, from something as simple as fingerprints to microscopic skin cells that require sophisticated DNA analysis. Still, he estimated DNA evidence might be found in 10 percent to 20 percent of cases.

A lot depends on how the victim died -- and, sometimes, the luck of the perpetrator.

"If the defendant didn't shed blood or hair or skin," said Linda Chezem, a former Lawrence County trial court judge who also served on the Indiana Court of Appeals, the chances of a forensic break decrease.

"If the defendant wore gloves, if they don't drink anything, if they don't spit. We don't shed as we walk," said Chezem, who teaches a course at IUPUI in forensic science and the law.

If prosecutors are right that Turner and an alleged accomplice, James Stewart, were responsible for the killings on Hamilton Avenue, that means they spent 10 minutes or less inside the house, ransacked the place and fired off shot after shot, all without leaving an identifiable trace of their presence. * * *

Prosecutors may wrap up their case by midweek, Brizzi said. Possibly on tap: police detectives, testimony about Turner's actions after the killings and some physical evidence that they hope will buttress their case even if it doesn't solidly implicate Turner. That includes the recovery of unfired bullets -- the same type fired at Hamilton Avenue -- from a house where Turner had stayed, and Turner's clothes found soaking in a bathtub.

But DNA testing on those clothes found genetic material only from Turner, not the slaying victims, defense lawyers point out.

For current coverage, check Jon Murray's blog and tweets here.

For more on the trial, see Austin Considine's daily posts / videos here.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 19, 2009 12:35 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts