Police found blood stains on the front door of 2607 Maryland Ave., residence of the accused murderer of Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn. (VoB Photo/Alan Z. Forman)
OF ACCUSED MURDERER OF STEPHEN PITCAIRN
BELONGED TO VICTIM, COURT IS TOLD FRIDAY
By Alan Z. Forman
UPDATE MON. AUG. 15: HOMICIDE DETECTIVES TESTIFY
AT PITCAIRN MURDER TRIAL
Primary detective Gregory Boris tells court murdered man’s mother said her son had “voluntarily offered up his wallet and cellphone.” Gwen Pitcairn listened tearfully as Boris testified late in the afternoon Monday upon conclusion of DNA analyst’s testimony earlier in the day.
DNA analysis of blood stains found at the residence of the accused killer of Stephen Pitcairn — who was stabbed to death a year ago last month in Charles Village — was today linked by a police forensics expert directly to the victim.
As nearly a week of testimony in the murder trial of John A. Wagner, 38, drew to a close late Friday afternoon, BPD Forensic DNA Analyst Kelly Miller told a Circuit Court jury her analysis of blood found on a Nike tennis shoe and at the entrance to a house on Maryland Avenue where Wagner shared a Section 8 apartment with seven other adults — most of them addicted to crack-cocaine — revealed an extremely high likelihood the blood belonged to Pitcairn.
He would have to be considered a “major contributor,” Miller said — her term for the overwhelming odds the blood was Pitcairn’s.
Throughout the week the court has been told by witness after witness — roommates of the accused — the shoe belonged to Wagner, as well as other articles found by police, including blood-stained shorts disposed of shortly after Pitcairn’s murder on the night of July 25, 2010 as he walked home alone from Penn Station talking on his iPhone with his mother who was in Florida.
Pitcairn’s tearful family, including his mother Gwen, has been present in the courtroom since the trial began.
KILLED FOR WALLET & CELLPHONE
On Thursday Wagner’s girlfriend testified she was his accomplice in the robbery/murder, asserting that they killed Pitcairn to get his wallet and cellphone.
In riveting testimony, Lavelva Merritt, 25, described how they jumped the 23-year-old Johns Hopkins University researcher from behind — after following him for several blocks — and how she turned him around as Wagner stabbed him in the chest, killing him.
Merritt then punched Pitcairn in the head to get his cellphone as he lay bleeding on the ground in the 2600 block of St. Paul Street, just over two blocks from where she and Wagner lived on Maryland Avenue.
The couple then ran back to their apartment, she said.
She is currently serving 15 years of a 30-year sentence for the crime, having plea-bargained the time in half by agreeing to testify against her boyfriend of 18 months at the time of the murder.
Earlier on Friday the prosecution presented testimony from a Baltimore City Crime Lab criminologist, an expert in serology — a science dealing with reactions and properties of serums such as blood — who described for the court the methodology of analyzing forensic evidence.
KNIFE TESTED POSITIVE FOR BLOOD
The serologist, Ryan Coley, said he took apart a folding knife with a black handle found in the apartment by police and that one of the stains on the knife tested positive for blood.
On Wednesday, the second day of testimony, a police department technician described how forensic evidence is gathered using swabs, specifically how to prevent contamination. However the prosecution has not yet attempted to link Pitcairn’s DNA specifically to Wagner, opting so far in the trial to methodically reveal to the jury the careful steps taken by police to gather and analyze evidence.
Miller was presented to the court as a Baltimore Police Department (BPD) “expert in forensic DNA analysis” and is scheduled to continue her testimony Monday.
Also testifying Friday morning was Howard Michael Martin, one of the nine residents (including a baby) of the Maryland Avenue apartment and the boyfriend of Lavelva Merritt’s mother Earline Thomas, who said he was drinking vodka and watching movies the night of the murder.
Defense counsel attempted to poke holes in Martin’s testimony by questioning seemingly minor contradictions, such as whether Thomas was asleep or not when Wagner and Merritt returned to the house after allegedly killing Pitcairn.
‘TOSSED A KEY OUT THE WINDOW’
Martin — an admitted alcoholic who drinks heavily every day — variously said Thomas was asleep but at the same time “tossed a key out the window” to Wagner and Merritt the night of the murder.
The defense previously (on Thursday) tried to pinpoint contradictions in the testimony of another resident of the house — Kevin Cosby — who, along with his girlfriend and housemate Tyrine Williams described using Pitcairn’s credit card to sell gasoline to unsuspecting motorists at half price in return for cash.
It has been the defense strategy to offer up Cosby as an alternative suspect to Wagner as the murderer.
“Wouldn’t you do anything to protect your boyfriend?” Assistant Public Defender Gregory Fischer asked Williams on cross-examination Wednesday when she emphatically denied that Cosby had anything to do with the murder other than using Pitcairn’s credit card, which she said had been given to them by Wagner.
Following a weekend recess the trial will resume Monday at 9:30 a.m. in the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse.
alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org
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January 1st, 2014 - 4:31 AM
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