LAKEPORT — Three evidence analysts testified Tuesday at the Lake County Courthouse during the sixth day of the John Gray murder trial.
Gray faces a murder charge for allegedly bludgeoning his then-roommate Eric Joaquin to death with a baseball 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 home around 9:30 a.m. that day.
Judge Arthur Mann presided. Attorney Kevin Ikuma represented Gray and deputy district attorney Art Grothe represented the Lake County DA”s Office.
Richard Johnson, a fingerprint analyst from the state Department of Justice, was the first witness called Tuesday.
Johnson said he examined the black baseball bat recovered from Gray”s house at the request of the Lake County Sheriff”s Office.
Gray”s girlfriend, Barbara Wallace, testified on Oct.19 that 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 had a blood-like substance on it and was subsequently determined to be the murder weapon.
Two types of print impressions were found on the bat: one patent, or visible print, and one latent, or hard-to-see print, Johnson said. Neither print was clear enough to input into an automated computer system for comparison against the Justice fingerprint database, he said.
Johnson said he removed a copy of the latent print using chemical processing and compared it to Gray”s fingerprints, finding no positive match.
Both prints found on the bat have not been identified, according to Johnson.
Detective Jerry Pfann, evidence detective for the LCSO, was the second witness to testify Tuesday, completing the testimony he began Oct. 20. Pfann”s testimony was interrupted on Oct. 21 to accommodate the schedule of the doctor who performed Joaquin”s autopsy.
Pfann testified Oct. 20 that he and evidence technician Elona Porter processed the crime scene, which was Gray”s house on Del Monte Way.
Grothe continued to show Pfann photographs taken at the crime scene the day Joaquin”s body was found. Pfann analyzed more than 30 photographs Tuesday, after describing some 200 photographs on Oct. 20.
One photograph taken on Feb. 28, 2009 showed a black cylindrical object near the front door of Gray”s house. Pfann said the object in that photograph was later determined to be a baseball bat, rolled up in a black plastic bag.
“We didn”t know the bat was there and we didn”t notice that when we were taking our documentation photographs,” Pfann said about the investigators not finding the alleged murder weapon during their initial investigation.
Pfann testified under cross-examination that he could not be positive that the “dark colored cylindrical object” shown in the photographs from Feb. 28, 2009 was the same bat he recovered from Gray”s house in May 2009, saying, “I don”t know.”
The majority of the photographs shown to the jury Tuesday were images from Joaquin”s bedroom. Significant amounts of apparent blood spatter were visible on the walls, pieces of furniture and carpet in Joaquin”s room, Pfann said.
The carpet also had significant staining from blood and appeared “in places” to be saturated with blood, according to Pfann.
Porter, a civilian who works with the LSCO as an evidence technician, was the final witness called Tuesday.
Porter said she arrived at Gray”s house around 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2009 and collected evidence from three individuals who were present at the house when the authorities first arrived.
Garrett “Cody” Watts testified on Oct. 14 that he had been living at Gray”s house and discovered Joaquin”s body around 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2009.
Cody Watts said after discovering the body, he drove to house of Joaquin”s mother, where he had slept the night before, to inform his brother, Maurice Watts, and Joaquin”s sister, Winter Thomas.
Cody Watts said he then drove Maurice Watts and Thomas to Gray”s house, where Maurice Watts attempted to revive Joaquin and Thomas called the authorities. The three were present at Gray”s house when the LCSO and medical assistance responded.
Porter said Tuesday that she photographed and collected fingernail swabs, DNA swabs, and clothing from the Watts brothers and Thomas. Cody Watts”s vehicle was inspected by Porter, but she “did not find anything of evidentiary value in it,” she said.
Grothe showed Porter 23 photographs of a denim jacket, which Porter said had been removed from Wallace”s Clear Lake Riviera house, where Gray had been taken into custody by the LCSO, on Feb. 28, 2009.
The denim jacket appeared to have several markings on the front, back and sleeves from a substance that was “possibly blood,” according to Porter.
Porter said she and Pfann processed Gray”s house on the day Joaquin”s body was discovered. The carpeting in Joaquin”s bedroom was “pretty wet” and “saturated,” she said.
Porter said she took the photograph of Gray”s living room on Feb. 28, 2009 in which the black cylindrical object, that Pfann said was later identified as a baseball bat, was visible.
“The house was a mess; there were a lot of items,” Porter said about the fact the item depicted in the photograph, and later determined to be the murder weapon, was not thoroughly examined that day. “It happens at times, yes, unfortunately.”
Under cross-examination, Porter said, “I can”t be 100 percent sure” that the object depicted in the photograph was the baseball bat found at Gray”s house in May 2009.
The trial recessed after Porter”s testimony and will reconvene today at 9 a.m.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
