This trial started November 24, 2003 and is ongoing.

February 12, 2004
by
dll

9:12am - Everyone is in the courtroom except the judge and jury.  One guard talking to Song about Australia.  Veronica on phone.  The "press" are back.  Two of them anyway.

9:15am - Roger gives Jeff a "QuickTime" CD that Jeff left behind the other day  Roger said security gave it to him last night and that he did NOT look at it.  They are joking around about this.  Jeff said he was looking for that last night

9:17am - Judge enters  Lawyers talking about entering more photos into evidence.  SB & AR whispering to each other.  To see them interact at all is a rare thing.

9:22am - Jury enters.  James starts direct examination of a Ross M. Gardner.  A hold-over from yesterday.  He is a "blood spatter consultant."  He is talking about a "bat-like stain" found on the comforter of Tariq Rafay's bed.  Said it looked like blood on a bat was wiped off onto this comforter.  Now showing picture of it on the big screen.  To me it looks like a flat line at the top, and dripping blood.  I drew a picture.

(insert picture)

Gardner is now saying that the reason the stain is shaped the way it is (possibly) is because there wasn't a lot of blood on the bat.  And also because the comforter could have been folded over on the bat.

9:34am - Now showing picture of Basma's pillow.  Shows a blood pattern.  They think it is another bat impression, but with the bat in motion, like it was hitting at something.

James is asking why this blood stain looks so different from the other one.  Gardner says it depends on several things: how much blood is on the bat, what sort of motion the bat is making, texture of the material the blood is being transferred onto, the color of the material, etc. 

9:43am - Gardner testifies that there is a "contact stain" on Basma's bed in Tariq Rafay's blood.  Which I assume means Tariq was killed before someone attacked Basma with the same weapon. 

9:47am - Gardner testifying that a mix of Tariq and Basma's blood was found on the wall of Basma's room.  This is consistent with the theory that only one weapon was used in the killings.  Instead of saying there were three different killers with three different bats, you could conclude that there was only one killer with only one bat.  

10:05am - Gardner continues to testify about blood stains found on walls and clothing and also holes in the walls in the house.

10:30am - Break.  Veronica talking with a reporter about how cold it is.  Also how Marc gave her a cold.  She says his system is inherently weak and he's always getting colds and giving them to her.  She's joking around with all this cold talk.

10:57am - Direct continues of Mr. Gardner by James.  Talking about blood stains in Basma's room.

11:13am - Gardner now talking about blood spatter in the shower, "Hundreds of tiny particles."

11:20am - Now James and Gardner discussing AR's jeans and a tiny spot of Tariq's blood found on the lower, back, left cuff.

11:37am - James ends question of Gardner.  Song starts her cross-examination.  Song gives him his final "Blood Analysis Report" and asks him some questions about it.  She is asking him how far he says two stains were from each other.  In his report it says two feet.  Looking at the picture of the scene on the big screen he says that can't be right.  Song continues to point out inconsistencies and omissions in his report that contradict the picture on the screen.

11:53am - Song asks Roger to put up exhibit 425H.  It's a picture of Sultana's body with various objects around her.  Song asks about a particular object, if Gardner can identify it.  He cannot.

Song getting Gardner to say he cannot exclude that more than one weapon could have been used, since he could not determine what weapon was used on Sultana.

12:05pm - Lunch break.

1:43pm - Marc starts his cross-examination of Gardner.  Marc enters a photo into evidence.  It's a blood stain glowing from some chemical reaction, designed to bring out latent blood spatter.  This photo is projected onto the big screen and James turns out the lights.  Marc asks several questions regarding the size of this blood stain.  

Marc now questions Gardner why he can only conclude that there was only one bat.  Gardner is really snotty and indignant to Marc and his questions.  It's not until now that I realize how coached Gardner seemed during direct examination.  When challenged he seems put-off and put-out.  He seems to be purposefully missing the point of many of Marc's questions.  Even when Marc makes a good, obvious point, Gardner will deny him.

Example (paraphrased as I don't write really quickly)

Marc - In Tariq's bedroom you said there was evidence of two people being there during the crime.

Gardner - That is the only room I can say there is definitive evidence of more than one person.

Marc - So if there are two people in Tariq's room, couldn't it be possible that both of them carried a weapon?

Gardner - No, I don't believe so.

Marc then holds up AR's jeans and has AR come up in front of the jury.  The jeans, where the tiny blood drop is found, rests on the ground when held up to AR's waist.  This is significant, because the Prosecution stated that the blood must be spatter from the crime scene and that AR must have been in the room WHEN his father was killed.

2:15pm - Marc is done with Gardner and James now starts his redirect.  He asks Gardner if he was aware of the boots AR wore the night of the crimes?  And were you aware that no blood was found on the shoe anywhere?  Getting his point across that AR didn't step in blood so the stain must have come from something else.

2:30pm - James continues his redirect of Gardner.  Gardner seems to be getting edgy.  He continually says, to James' questions about blood spatter, "It's not a matter of volume.  It's a matter of time and size."  

2:32pm - As James ends his redirect and sits down, and as Song is getting ready to question Gardner again, Judge Mertel jokes to the jury, "Now don't go home and try any blood spatter experiments at home..."  Courtroom erupts in laughter.  He then adds, seriously, "But that is true.  You are not allowed to seek out independent evidence."

Song starts questioning Gardner again.  Song asking if he has read any statements by AR or SB?  He says he has.  She hands him a letter he wrote to the Prosecution on May 28, 2001.  Said that it was the "initial" report on the blood spatter evidence before the DNA evidence came back.  Says that on September 23, 2001 the final report was done and was basically the first report with the DNA evidence put into it. (I keep wondering why it took them seven years to do DNA testing, especially while two young men were rotting away in jail.  They did not find evidence that someone else committed the crime, but they could have.)

She asks him about any meetings he has had with anyone from prosecution's team.  He said he came in from out of town on Saturday and met with Roger, James, Gomes, Sweeney, Johnson and Nichols.  Song points out that in his report he states that "an object or person" with blood on it/them was washed in the shower.  Now he's saying it was a person.

3pm - Song ends her questions, Judge calls break.  End of day for me.