LAKEPORT — Two investigators from the Lake County Sheriff”s Office testified for a combined five hours at the Lake County Courthouse Wednesday during the fourth day of the John Gray murder trial.
Sgt. Corey Paulich and Det. Jerry Pfann, both of the LCSO, were the only two witnesses called by the prosecution Wednesday.
Judge Arthur Mann presided. Attorney Kevin Ikuma represented Gray and deputy district attorney Art Grothe represented the Lake County DA”s Office.
Gray is charged with murder and two special allegations of inflicting great bodily harm and using a deadly weapon for allegedly beating to death his then-roommate Eric Joaquin with a metal bat during the early morning hours of Feb. 28, 2009.
Joaquin”s body was found on the floor of his bedroom in Gray”s Clear Lake Riviera house around 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2009.
Paulich was the first witness to testify Wednesday morning, continuing his testimony from Tuesday. Paulich said Tuesday he was the lead investigator of the LCSO”s investigation of Joaquin”s death.
Grothe showed the jury Tuesday a DVD recording of a portion of the LCSO”s interrogation of Gray on Feb. 28, 2009. Paulich conducted that interrogation.
Paulich testified that Gray had been taken into custody the afternoon of Feb. 28, 2009 and that his interview of Gray took place in an interrogation room later that evening. Paulich also said he had conducted a walk-through of the crime scene prior to interviewing Gray.
Gray appeared to be fidgeting and coughing and answered Paulich”s questions with short answers, often along the lines of “I don”t know,” according to the DVD shown Tuesday.
Paulich testified about that interrogation Wednesday, saying one of his impressions of Gray during that interview was that, “I suspected he might be under the influence of methamphetamine.”
Grothe said in his opening statement Oct. 13 that the evidence in the case would show that Gray bludgeoned Joaquin to death between 2 and 4 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2009 while under the influence of methamphetamine.
Paulich said that the LCSO investigation did not develop a motive for Gray committing the alleged murder.
Pfann was the second witness called, spending nearly three hours on the witness stand Wednesday.
Pfann said he is an evidence detective and crime scene investigator for the LCSO and conducted a walk-through of Gray”s house on Feb. 28, 2009. He said he and another evidence technician videotaped and took still photographs of the scene prior to evidence being collected.
Grothe showed Pfann upward of 200 photographs that had been taken during the initial investigation. Pfann analyzed and described each photograph for the jury.
The photographs depicted evidence collected in every room of Gray”s house, including the kitchen, living room, spare bedroom, master bathroom, guest bathroom, Gray”s bedroom and Joaquin”s bedroom.
Grothe showed Pfann three separate close-ups of one picture taken in Gray”s living room. The close-ups each had an arrow, which had been added after the picture had been taken, pointing at a black cylindrically shaped object near Gray”s front door.
Pfann said that the black object had not been thoroughly examined on Feb. 28, 2009. Pfann testified that the same object depicted in the photograph was identified in May 2009 as a baseball bat in a black plastic bag.
Gray”s girlfriend, Barbara Wallace, testified Tuesday she found a baseball bat at Gray”s house in May 2009 while cleaning the premises and that the authorities collected the bat the same day she discovered it.
The bat was subsequently determined to have a blood-like substance on it and has been classified as the murder weapon.
Grothe asked Pfann if investigators had simply “missed the bat the first time around,” to which Pfann replied “yes.”
Pfann also testified about photographs of the hallway in Gray”s house, the several walls of which were determined to have blood-like substances on them.
Pfann analyzed nearly 140 photographs of Joaquin”s bedroom taken on Feb. 28, 2009. Joaquin”s body was shown in many of the photographs.
The body lay between the foot of the bed and the wall, on a patch of walkway no wider than Joaquin”s shoulders. Joaquin was on his back and wearing only underwear briefs.
Joaquin”s body had significant bruising on the head, neck, shoulder, chest and feet. The bruises appeared red, purple and black in color. Joaquin”s body also had several lacerations, including a cut on the back of the head, which Pfann described as “pretty deep.”
The photographs showed several stains that appeared to be blood on the ground near the body and blood-like substances on three of the walls and most of the furniture in the room.
The walls and ceiling appeared to have blood spatter and blood transfer, according to Pfann.
The objects in Joaquin”s bedroom that Pfann said appeared to be blood included the bed frame, fish tank, computer, keyboard, storage truck and closet doors. The bed also had pillows, sheets and blankets that had significant amounts of what appeared to be blood on them, according to Pfann.
Judge Mann called for the evening recess during Pfann”s photograph analysis. The trial will reconvene today at 9 a.m. and continue Pfann”s testimony.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
