This trial started November 24, 2003 and is ongoing.

February 02, 2004
by
dll

9:07am - All attorneys present.  One person in a suit in the gallery, looks to be a potential witness.  Other than that I'm the only spectator here.  No press whatsoever.  No judge yet... or jury.

9:10am - Song and Veronica discuss witness order.  Davidheiser carrying boxes of evidence to the front of the courtroom from behind his table.

9:12am - SB & AR arrive in court escorted by three guards.  AR in high spirits.  Smiling big and talking to Veronica.  SB sits down and pours water for himself.  SB in maroon shirt and gray pants.  AR in hounds-tooth jacket and pea green pants.

9:15am - Judge enters.  Says no trial Tuesday the 17th of Feb.  Prosecution says they are still preparing for the day and need 10 more minutes.  Judge Mertel leaves. 

9:20am - SB & AR are eating snacks.  I've never seen them eat in the courtroom before.  

9:22am - Two of the three guards are discussing home improvement projects and shopping at Lowe's.  The other guard is sitting on the other side of the courtroom, looking at some official looking paper.

9:24am - James & Jeff discussing next witness.  Sounds like it is a blood spatter expert of some kind.  AR talking with Veronica and Marc.  SB reading a piece of paper and writing with a pencil.

9:30am - Roger getting computer screen ready.  Jeff notices it's a Power Point presentation, just like Jeff and Song used last Thursday.  Roger says, "Yeah, it's the Power Point arms race!"  Jeff says, "There will be no Power Point gap!"  Laughter all around.  Roger's Power Point seems to be about blood evidence.

9:32am - Judge Mertel enters.  Jeff talking to judge about next witness, Mr. Croteau (thought it was "Froto" at first).  Said one speck of blood was found on the back of SB's t-shirt, that was taken off of him the night of the crime, as evidence.  It was DNA typed as not belonging to any known victim or defendant.  He wants it excluded from evidence.  

Roger is saying it is relevant as an "Educational tool" for the jury.  To explain what "trace evidence means and what it doesn't mean."  He mentions a hair found in the house that was not DNA typed to any one of the victims or defendants.  Judge Mertel asks Jeff if he is going to bring that hair into evidence.  Jeff says yes.  Jeff does argue that Roger can explain DNA without mentioning this blood stain.  He says the jury might think SB was involved in something else that involved someone bleeding.

Marc argues that the shirt is mobile and was outside of the house for a while and that the bed that the hair was found on was not mobile and was part of the crime scene, and that is the difference between the two.

Judge rules for the prosecution.

9:55am - Jury enters.  Judge reads "stipulation of evidence" to jury.  basically he reads a long list that sounds like this:

"One pair of shoes worn by the defendant AR, taken by him the night of July 13, 1994 at 2:10am"

As far as I can tell they are simply entering items into evidence in mass fashion.

There are currently over 400 items entered into evidence, and they predict there will be over 600 by trial's end.

10am - Roger calls Michael Croteau to the stand.  Judge swears him in.  Croteau works for the Washington State Patrol in Marysville as a forensic Scientist.  His specialty is DNA testing.

Rogers questions Croteau about how DNA works.  How it is tested.  How many times he has done certain types of testing, ad nauseam.

10:47am - 15 minute break called.  Lasted 30.

During break I overheard that there is no court Feb. 16th for President's Day.

11:17am - Roger resumes questioning.  He is having Croteau take certain items out of evidence bags, such as "pants worn by SB on the night of the murders" and telling the jury if he found any blood evidence.  He questions him about 50 or so different pieces of evidence, most of which did not have blood found.  I don't understand the significance of telling the jury there was no blood found on the backside of a random light switch.  But I guess that's why I'm not a lawyer.

The most dramatic moment of the day came when they rolled a very large (probably 6' by 8') piece of evidence over to the jury that had been facing the wall.  It is a piece of the wall that was behind the bed of Dr. Rafay the night he was murdered.  It is covered in the most horrific blood spatter.  

Croteau talks about how one part of the blood looked watery and the theory was that whomever killed Dr. Rafay got blood in his mouth and spit it at the wall.  They therefore checked that particular part of the blood stain for DNA other than that of Rafay.  None was found.

12:20pm - Break for lunch.  Judge says we will resume at 1:45pm.

1:45pm- Not many people in the courtroom.  Burns team absent.  Roger offers people mints.  First his witness, Croteau, then Rafay's team, then the gallery.  No one accepts his kind offer.  Veronica sitting with head down on desk, "napping."

1:52pm- Song and Jeff arrive.

1:55pm- SB & AR are brought in.  AR does not take off his tie as he leaves and is wearing it again when he enters the courtroom.  Either it's a clip-on tie or SB is on suicide watch.  My guess is the former.

1:56pm - SB goes for the water.

2:02pm - Roger resumes questioning witness Croteau.  More "do you recognize this bag?"  And "Yes, it has my seal on it."  "What is it?"  "It's a swab of the inside of the shower."  etc.  None of this evidence makes much sense yet as we don't know how much blood there was when they found it, or if it was typed to anyone.

2:30pm - Roger ends questions.

2:35pm - Jeff starts cross examination of Croteau.  He mainly focused on some underwear that were found in the washer.  They were tested for blood and it came out negative.  He asked Croteau if that meant that he was implying there was blood on them but the test didn't work.  Croteau said no.

3:10pm - Jeff finishes and I had to leave for the day.  Marc was up next and I missed that.  Court usually ends at four PM so it is my guess that I didn't miss any other witnesses this day.