LAKEPORT — The prosecution rested its case against alleged murderer John Gray Thursday afternoon, concluding its case after the testimony of a DNA analyst and a criminalist.
Thursday marked the eighth day of the prosecution”s case, which began at the start of the jury trial on Oct. 13.
Judge Arthur Mann presided. Deputy district attorney Art Grothe represented the Lake County DA”s Office and attorney Kevin Ikuma represented Gray.
Gray faces a murder charge and two special allegations, inflicting great bodily harm and using a deadly weapon, after he allegedly bludgeoned to death Eric Joaquin, his then-roommate, 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. on Feb. 28, 2009.
Deanna Kacer, a DNA analyst from the state Justice Department laboratory in Sacramento, testified first on Thursday, interrupting the testimony of criminalist Richard Waller, which began Wednesday afternoon and was completed after Kacer”s testimony.
Waller, a senior criminalist at the Justice laboratory in Santa Rosa, testified Wednesday that he collected cotton swabs and cut pieces of fabric from stained items relevant to the case and sent them to the Justice laboratory in Sacramento for DNA analysis.
Kacer said Thursday that she received and analyzed seven items from the Justice laboratory in Santa Rosa relevant to the Gray case.
The items included cotton swabs taken from inside a right shoe, from outside a right shoe and from a baseball bat. Kacer said she also received a cutting from the toe area of a white sock and a cutting from the front of a denim jacket.
Previous testimony established that the shoes, socks and jacket were removed from Gray”s possession at the time authorities took him into custody. The bat has also been established as the alleged murder weapon.
Waller testified Wednesday that he found what appeared to be droplets of blood and blood stains on the socks, shoes and jacket and a significant amount of blood on the barrel of the bat.
Tests on the swabs and cuttings came back positive for blood, leading to DNA analyses of the items, which were then compared to reference bloodstains of Joaquin and Gray that had also been provided, Kacer said.
DNA tests on the swabs from the inside and outside of Gray”s shoe, the swab from the bat and the cuttings from the denim jacket and sock found that primary male DNA profile present on those items matched Joaquin”s DNA profile at worst, into the quadrillions, Kacer said.
This means that, at best, the chance is one-in-one quadrillion that a person other than Joaquin would leave a DNA profile like the primary DNA profile present on the items. Kacer said there is “strong evidence that Eric Joaquin is the source” of the blood found on the shoes, socks, jacket and bat.
Kacer said that secondary DNA was found on the swab from the inside of the shoe and the swab from the bat. The test results did not exclude Gray as a possible source of the secondary DNA, she said.
Secondary DNA could appear on an item as a result of everyday use, provided it has been kept at or below room temperature and has not been thoroughly washed, Kacer said.
Waller retook the stand around 11:30 a.m., completing his testimony from Wednesday.
Waller, whose expertise includes crime scene reconstruction, described the series of events during the attack on Joaquin.
Waller said he analyzed video footage and nearly 900 photographs taken by Lake County Sheriff”s Office investigators to help form his reconstruction.
There were “areas of heavy blood soaking and saturation” on the bed, which sat north to south in Joaquin”s room, according to Waller. Blood spatter was visible on the headboard and items located at the north end of the bed, he said.
Waller said the blood staining and spattering led him to infer the beating began while Joaquin was on the bed.
The significant amount of blood staining on the carpet and blood droplets on furniture on the west side of the bed led to the conclusion that the bleeding body next laid on that part of the room, according to Waller
Blood staining on the carpet, blood spatter on the walls, door and underneath the bed indicated that Joaquin was again beaten while laying on the floor in the south portion of the room, Waller said.
Joaquin”s body was discovered on the floor at the foot of the bed.
Waller said he examined the autopsy photographs and identified a number of “pattern injuries” that could have been made by a baseball bat.
Under cross-examination, Waller said he wrote in his official report that some of the injuries were thinner bruises and scrapes that were possibly caused by a different weapon.
Grothe concluded the prosecution”s case after Waller”s testimony. The defense will begin presenting evidence when the trial reconvenes Tuesday at 9 a.m.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
