Trial of Henry Dinkins, Day 12 | Friday, Aug. 25

foreign [Music] foreign do you sort of tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth please have a seat thank you please state your name for the record and spell both your first and your last name my name is Brandon stepanski b-r-a-n-d-e-n last name s-t-e-p-a-n-s-k-i Mr staplansky where are you employed I work at the Iowa division of criminal investigations crime lab how long have you been employed with the DCI laboratory I've been working since 2019. describe your educational background I obtained a Bachelor's of Science in both biochemistry and molecular and cellular biology from the University of Arizona and then I went on to get my Master's in chemistry from the University of Utah when did you complete your formal education in 2016. um and then upon completing your formal education is that when you began your career with the DCI uh there was a moment where I was a research assistant and then I went on to the DCI all right now Define what your title is at the DCI laboratory I am a criminalist which means we receive evidence perform our analysis write the reports and then as uh requested testify are there a number of different units within the DCI laboratory who do various types of testing and or analysis yes which unit are you assigned to I am a dual role so I'm both in drug chemistry and the tracing arson section for purposes of this trial are we going to be talking about your responsibilities within the trace unit of the DCI laboratory yes now what type of work do you do in the area of Trace analysis so I am trained in general unknowns and low explosives and can you repeat the last portion of that statement General unknowns and what was the other portion low explosives low explosives all right describe the training that you received when you began your career with the DCI to do some type of Trace analysis okay so in in Trace we're trained by the module so each module will have approximately a three to four months training program which includes literature review mentorship practicals and then finally proficiency and competency tests were you involved in an investigation here in Davenport Iowa which originated as a result of a report of a child named riesia Terrell who was reported missing on July 10th of 2020. yes um but the subject was not known when the when the assignment came in certainly when did your assignment come in that would have involved tasks that you perform related to this investigation um when it exactly came in yeah would it have been after March 22nd of 2021 when her remains were recovered yes all right and then what details were provided to you um Ray um I'm going to call it the deceased individual before we knew who she was so we get a receipt form that has a request on it for Trace analysis and we have the items listed so I had the item descriptions as described by the officer that submitted the evidence okay what items were submitted for testing there were um three items of clothing and two items that were plastic bottles or remnants of a plastic bottle all right can you identify the clothing items that you received for analysis I can what were those items uh item one was a shirt um item two was and can may I refer to my notes yeah absolutely and you know let me just do this and this will make it easier I'm laying a foundation for purposes of um discussing a report that you submitted but your honor May the record reflect that I'm showing Council what's been marked as State's exhibit number 56. yeah approach you may I'm handing you what's been marked the state's exhibit 56 for purposes of identification do you recognize State's exhibit 56 yes how do you recognize State's exhibit 56 I recognize the case number I recommend the report of with my name on it then it has my signature on the following page all right let's just go through and we'll lay the foundation and then we'll discuss the items that you received all right at the top of the document how is it captioned the official report of Iowa Department of Public Safety DCI criminal six laboratory is there a laboratory case number that is affixed to this document yes is this a number that the DCI laboratory specifically assigns when they receive items for testing from a particular law enforcement agency yes for the items that were submitted related to the investigation of rieja Terrell what laboratory case number was assigned lab case number 2020-16859 and then is there a report number so we know which report this was in a series of reports that had been generated yes what report number is this what date did you generate this report August 30th 2021 and then do you indicate the type of report it is yes what type of report Trace analysis does your name appear then on the back of that document as the criminalist who did the testing in this particular instance yes all right your honor at this time the state would move to introduce States exhibit number 56. I have no objection admitted all right your honor may I publish this exhibit as we talk about it you may okay okay Mr staponski I'm going back to the items that were submitted to you for analysis were there more than one submission date or was there more than one submission date yes okay what was our first submission date uh March 25th 2021. what items did you receive for analysis I received three clothing items um lab items one two and three which would be a shirt shorts and bra respectively and then what was the second submission date March 26 2021 and then what items did you receive there two items labeled lab item 13 and lab item 16 13 was one white plastic bottle and 16 was pieces of a broken white plastic bottle now for the March 25th submission where did those items of evidence come from um the agency says the DCI well no who was the individual that had that brought those items to the DCI lab for testing on the report it says Rick Ron look at March 25th of 2021 and read right next to that oh apologies Jennifer Poland with the DC or for March 25th will be Mark Bethel the medical examiner all right so the shirt shorts and bra came from State medical examiner's office would that be fair to say yes and then for our submission date of March 26th of 2021 who was the individual then that would have um provided those items to the DCI lab for testing uh Jennifer Pullen with the DCI are you familiar with Jennifer Poland yes how are you familiar with Jennifer she's a co-worker and and does Jennifer Poland work on the um evidence response team that's what I'm going to call it but essentially the crime scene team that would go out and assist law enforcement in the processing of various crime scenes yes all right your honor May the record reflect that I'm showing Council what's been marked the state's exhibit number 60 which was previously introduced may I approach her honor you may I'm handing you what's been marked the state's exhibit number 60. I'm going to give you a moment to look at that report so that you have a perspective of what it consists of okay who is the author of that report Anna young and Jennifer Poland when you look at the laboratory case number that's assigned to that particular report is that the same report number that we have on your exhibit yes all right now we've had discussions throughout the course of trial about bleach bottles that were recovered or white plastic bottles that were recovered as well as um products of bleach that were being purchased I want to make it definitively clear as to where the items came from that you received that were the white plastic bottle and Remnants now as you look at the report of Anna young and Jennifer Poland do you see descriptors for a white plastic Beach bottle or I should say a white plastic bottle yes and then do you also see descriptors for pieces of a broken white plastic bottle yes what is the laboratory number that Miss Young and Miss Poland have for the white plastic bottle in their report and what is the lab item number that the report of Miss Young and Miss Poland have for the pieces of a broken white plastic bottle all right and so are those items the same items that you would have received yes okay foreign that was made of the trace unit for these items of evidence it was a trace miscellaneous analysis request specifically requesting bleach looking for Bleach let's talk about bleach when you said or bleach are there different Elemental compounds to various bleach products yes explain so there's two generally there's two different categories of bleach there's the chlorine based bleach and then there's the oxygen based bleach what is the difference between the chlorine based bleach versus the oxygen based bleach they're active ingredient the active ingredient for the chlorine contains chlorine compounds and then for oxygen they contain oxygen containing compounds all right now if you are asked to look for the presence of bleach on a product how would you go about that process so we have a variety of different tests that we can do both instrumental and using color tests and pH tests and stuff like that so we develop a strategy for each individual item and then we will to our best ability into the scientific standards then go through each one of those steps when these items were provided to you in the trace unit what request specifically was made of you I'm sorry what request was made of you relative to these items for you to be looking for Bleach yes specifically all right so then go ahead and then just walk us through those well first of all let's talk about you formulated a plan is that correct yes okay explain what that entails and what decisions were made relative to the testing that you did so um we look at the item I look at the items one by one and for each item I consider what the Matrix is so in this case for item one it was clothing so I have to come up with a plan to either analyze the clothing itself or to extract chemical compounds from the clothing and then perform analysis on those extractions from there I would determine which instruments or scientific techniques I want to use first considering which are destructive and which are not um and and then I work through the scientific process okay and then explain to us what you mean when you say you make a determination about the approach to take depending upon whether a particular approach is destructive or not destructive so some some testing will consume whatever you're testing so there's no there's no getting it back so you want to be careful with how much you use and and in particular leaving some for further testing in the future okay for the um shirt shorts and bra and I'm just lumping this into a general category but was clothing items recovered with the remains also submitted to the DNA section of the laboratory for analysis yes was that something that you were aware of yes and so then when you were developing a strategy is that something that you had to consider yes all right and that being said um when you were examining the shirt what decision did you make in terms of the approach that you were going to take so I examined the shirt visually first looking for any signs that might indicate an oxidizer or a bleach were present and then I chose based on my observations visually which would be the most likely to contain bleach so I chose spots that would be representative of of the sample okay so as you looked at the shirt visually did you see sections in the fabric that suggested that there was a product applied to it that had created the oxidation so I will say I noticed lightning of color or discoloration of the shirt I cannot say what that came from certainly but there was discoloration that I noted in my notes in the areas where you noted the discoloration then um did you cut samples of the fabric away or how did you approach that yes I cut samples representative samples okay and then once you chose your representative examples what was the next step in the process so I the first step was the X-ray analysis it's non-destructive so I could take the actual cutting and then perform an x-ray on it which would give Elemental data so it would tell me what kind of elements are in the sample okay now before we discuss further what is involved in your X-ray analysis let's talk about bleach itself whether it's a chlorine based product or an oxygen-based product is there circumstances under which these products whether it be chlorine Beast based or oxygen based that there are circumstances that will cause that to break down so that you would not be able to identify its presence through any analysis that you've performed yeah bleach is capable of breaking down it's also soluble in water and susceptible to elements so if this particular shirt had been Outdoors subject to the elements of nature whether it be summer fall winter and spring with just the different varying um weathering conditions under those circumstances is it going to make it very difficult to determine whether or not there had been bleach applied to this shirt you're honored I don't think it's leading at all it's like would it be difficult Overworld yes I would I would say the longer a sample is out in the elements um it would be more difficult or less likely to um find evidence of of certain compounds certainly so then let's go back to our discussion about the X-ray analysis walk us through that process so the X-ray is a machine that shoots certain forms of energy at the sample and then depending on how it absorbs and then re-releases that energy it gives us information about what elements are in that sample it's non-destructive and it will give us basic Elemental data so that means does it have in this case chlorine and it doesn't have Metals magnesium gives us that sort of information okay when you perform the X-ray analysis on the sections of the shirt that you had cut away describe what you noted um if I may refer to my notes so I get it correct your honor May the witness referred to his notes amen so for the for item one I took three different cuttings for each of the cuttings the primary elements that I found were silicon calcium aluminum and iron there are very Trace very small amounts of chlorine in each of the items okay all right then having said that so there were Trace elements of chlorine having noted that there were Trace elements of chlorine then can you take that next step or make that next step to say say that those um elements or in fact bleach no okay and then help us understand what more you would need if you're identifying chlorine-based elements what is the difficulty that was presented where you can't then definitively say that it was bleach so I'll be I'll be careful with my wording sure because I am typically unable to identify bleach in general I would be able to give a chemical and physical comparison that would be consistent with a chemical all right however in this case and in all cases my analysis will the conclusion will be a culmination of all of my testing in general not not just one item very rarely does one testing indicate something conclusively so it would be a culmination of all of the testing I did and at the end of it be able to rule out everything else and say this is consistent with particularly this and there's no other explanations so that would be the difficulty in saying it's consistent with and saying I couldn't find one way or the other thank you but at least at the X-ray analysis stage you did identify are we calling those chemicals elements elements you did identify elements that are consistent with chlorine yes all right what's our next step uh so then I I took an extraction of the sample so that just means I took in this case water I rinsed the the cuttings and then I took that that extract is what we call it and I tested the pH of it all right all right explain the import of pH when you're testing the pH balance of any type of um you know I I guess extraction that you've been able to make from fabric okay so when I say pH I'm referring to like the acidity or the basicity of a compound so when you think of that you think like soaps on the basic side or acids on the acid side and bleach is typically known as a basic solution and I did and I did take our known samples of bleach that we had in our laboratory and tested the pH along with it so I had a baseline of what to expect of the pH to be of a basic of a bleach solution what did you note when you tested the pH pH balance they were roughly around seven which is neutral or water okay and would that be consistent with bleach-based products no no uh so uh sorry a bleach-based product would be around a pH of 10. okay all right and then so if a bleach-based product would be around a pH of 10 again if we talk about articles of clothing that have been out in the um elements um for significant significant period of time will that alter the pH balance yes and and to keep in mind that dilution also affects it okay so I myself diluted it technically by extracting it um but it depends on how much bleach was there to begin with so there are factors that influence what the pH would be all right if a shirt was subjected to snow that has melted would that affect the pH balance potentially if a shirt has been exposed to rain is that going to affect the pH balance potentially all right um does Sun have any impact on pH balance sorry does the Sun have any impact on pH balance should not okay so anything such as snow or rain that would affect it yeah I will um correct myself a little bit I suppose with taking into account the sun evaporating certain aqueous Solutions or Solutions in general that could affect pH all right all right then what was your next step I went on to perform uh color tests on the extracts what are you looking for in a color test if you are trying to determine the presence of bleach okay so there's a lot of color tests to perform this one in particular is looking for oxidizing agents so it is a certain chemical that changes color in the presence of certain oxidizing agents which bleach generally has it also changes color in the in the presence of nitrates which can be found in soil okay all right and then what did you determine when you perform those color tests so on the first cutting there was a very faint blue color change which the positive bleach sample that I used changes to dark blue okay so there's a light blue color change in one of the cuttings uh comparing to a dark blue all right and if we go back to our earlier discussion if that fabric has been out in the elements where it's been subjected to snow and rain um would that certainly impact it yes okay what did you note next so I then performed a infrared spectroscopy analysis on the sample so I dried down the water and then ran the instrument what did you note there I was unable to get a very strong match these instruments results give you a Spectra or a series of Peaks and valleys sort of thing and we compare it to a variety of reference samples in libraries I was unable to identify anything that matched strongly with with the sample all right continue that that finished my analysis for that particular item all right now when we go image to the second counting walk us through that second cutting of what you noted oh I'm sorry that was for all three of the cuttings oh that was for all three the only difference between any of them was with a color test one of them turned light blue the others have no change I understand now thank you so much all right so um then based on what you had noted what did you report by way of findings I was unable to identify bleach all right but certainly in terms of just the varying findings that um you know you were able to establish um were their findings that would be consistent with the use of bleach if that fabric hadn't been submitted to the outdoor elements and maybe that's not an appropriate way to say that and you can correct me if you want to so um I'll explain it you know so my my conclusion States my my scientific conclusion of all of this data which takes into account the different elements that could possibly be in bleach and would be consistent with the chemical or physical components of bleach but it also takes into account what kind of environment it was in and other environmental effects and and ruling out everything else to say that this was definitively from this particular compound in this case due to the limited amount of sample or the diluted sample potentially and the fairly weak results for a lot of these samples I can't say conclusively whether it was consistent with bleach or not because there are other elements that could be explaining these factors thank you I appreciate that now did you analyze the shorts for the presence of bleach I did not or the bra I don't know Wayne why not so we when we were coming up with the initial testing plan we knew that these samples were going to be um they were I guess out in the environment for a very long time we knew that it wasn't going to be a actual sample like liquid bleach and with our current instrumental in and scientific capabilities we knew it was going to be difficult to obtain data that would that would be consistent with for an identification or comparison so we disability strategy in which we tried to find the most likely items being one of the clothing items of the shirt and then the bottle that would presume to have maybe held a compound and with the results that we obtained we did not think any further analysis would indicate any useful information thank you I appreciate that so then let's go ahead and let's go down to the second submission um what was the strategy that was developed for the white plastic bottle and then the pieces of the broken white plastic bottle that came in so I analyzed the whole plastic bottle with the idea that it would contain the chemicals longer potentially than a broken bottle it may have spilled and be open to the elements more so I figured the intact plastic bottle would be protected from the elements more so than the other items so I chose to analyze that item in particular can I ask a question when that white plastic bottle came in did it have a lid on it or was there no lid associated with that container there is no it that I found all right and then my second question would be this um was there any contents within the plastic bottle itself or was it empty there was what appeared to be soil and debris all right so walk us through that same discussion so the same strategy applied to this bottle in terms of the scientific steps that I took the only difference being instead of taking a cutting and an extraction I rinsed the inside of the bottle with water and then continued on just like I did the previous item okay after you had rinsed the inside of the bottle and you were able to collect liquid from it then did you analyze um the water itself to determine whether or not there were any elements within it yes okay what findings did you make I apologize the X-ray was not done on the water extract of the the bottle okay all right gotcha all right so um what various tests did you perform so um outside of the X-ray I did the pH test followed by the color test and then the infrared spectroscopy okay what did you know during the pH test it was around a pH of seven all right what color there was a light blue color and some fizzling okay and then what do you mean by fizzling It produced bubbles sure um does bleach produce bubbles it can okay all right and then finally with respect to the infrared pestrok petroscopy boy spell that for our record okay uh i n f r a r e d s p e c t r o s c o p y there we go all right and what were your findings there again I was unable to find a strong match for any of our reference libraries did that conclude your involvement in this matter yes your honor I have no further questions Mr Waters Mr stapanski I'll just cut right to the chase every item that you looked at or tested and there was no bleach found on any other right correct I was unable to come to a conclusion consistent with bleach okay so no compound consistent with bleach was found on any one of those items overall yes yeah I mean your results as bleach could not be identified on the shirt or white plastic bottle right correct okay as part of your profession or your job or you asked to try to identify bleach often not often perhaps other compounds cleaning supplies or are you ever asked to do this yes you've done it other than just this case right yes okay and the first time or the only time you were requested to test anything in this case was March 25th and 26th of 2021 looks like you didn't author your report until August 30th of 2021 is that all sound correct yes okay and at no point prior to March of 2021 where you asked to test any other item in this case right correct okay so those five items that we're looking at in this report are the only thing you were ever asked to test correct okay and who who requested these items is it just this Mark Bethel with the medical examiner it appears there's two different submissions so Mark Bethel would be the first submission of the three items and then Jennifer Poland would be the following two items okay so those two people today request this from your agency and this is assigned to you yes okay and those two people never requested anything prior to March of 2021. from me no okay anybody else in your agency I would have to look at the assignments I know there were several assignments for this particular case okay are you the only person who was ever requested to test for Bleach yes okay and you were asked a little bit about you know how the elements sunlight water May you know dilute bleach you remember that line of questioning yes for example I mean you would expect a car uh you know with its windows up to not be exposed by sunlight or water would you agree with that statement potentially water sunlight Through the Windows maybe sure but the point here is that nobody ever gave you like a cutting or a swab of you know fabric from a car right correct I mean you weren't given any other piece of clothing from Mr Dinkins himself or anybody else this one's very clear I was only given the items of clothing that were in this report that's all I have thank you Mr stapanski relative to your findings you did detect the presence of elements in the fabric that would be consistent with elements in Bleach would that be fair to say yes there were elements that could be found in Bleach as well okay and with respect to the pH balance test that you ran you came up with a page balance of seven correct bleach would have a pH balance of 10. correct keeping in mind that water is seven so neutral right and certainly the extraction process would dilute the pH balance that you would have engaged in potentially it could it's a consideration and then even being exposed to environmental factors can impact that pH balance correct yes and then finally as for your findings on the color test there was a light blue that was noted with bleach it would have been a darker blue correct correct um I I do want to specify though because we're getting into the specifics of my actual testing that there are other explanations for these color changes and for the pH for example the color change could be explained by nitrates and there was the presence of soil on the items so I just want to be very clear that just because it changes colors does not indicate specifically that chemical certainly and then when you talk about the issue of nitrates with the presence of nitrates how would that impact the development of any color that you would see in the fabric as far as I know nitrates themselves would not change the color of the fabric know specifically what I meant is when you're performing a color test how does the presence of nitrates impact results sorry I misunderstood it would change the color to a blue okay all right so that's also a possibility as well yes so we're looking at two well at least two possibilities with the color test would that be fair to say yes and of course this search I'm shirt had been recovered outdoors and there was certainly dirt within the fabric itself yes okay I have no further questions investor you honor the state calls criminalist Mike Schmidt to the stand [Music] do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth nothing about the truth yes I do please have a seat please state your name for the record and spell both your first and your last name Michael Nathan Schmidt m-i-c-h-a-e-l-s-c-h-m-i-t Mr Schmidt where are you avoid I work at the Iowa division of criminal investigation criminalistics laboratory in Ankeny Iowa what is your title there at the laboratory I'm a criminalist how long have you been employed at the DCI laboratory 25 years which section of the laboratory are you assigned to I'm assigned to the casework section of the DNA unit of the crime lab and then do you do analysis on items for the presence of DNA then yes could you describe your educational background attended the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul Minnesota I received a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology with minors in chemistry and psychology when did you complete your formal education 1997. all right and I'm doing the math so then what you have started with a DCI after you concluded your formal education I had a full-time job as a criminalist in the DNA section of the lab in June of 1998 and I've been there since then thank you when you started with the DCI describe the training that you received I had about six months of training by the senior criminalists in the DNA section of the crime lab those were people that had been working there for decades I was trained in the DNA analysis methods examining evidence for blood stains and semen stains and also I was sent to a couple of classes one was at the company that manufactures the DNA kits that we use in the crime lab they were in San Francisco California at the time I had a week-long course in PCR the polymerase Chain Reaction DNA amplification and typing and I've had continuing education at least eight hours every year since then with the exception of 2001 when there were budget cuts what is DNA DNA is the building block of life it's found in the nucleus of every cell in your body that has a nucleus if you arrange it a certain way the end result is a tree if you arrange it a different way you'll have a an insect or or even a human okay where do you find or how do you examine items for the presence of DNA in the lab with some evidence you can see items that are stained that have blood stains on them we look at a lot of blood stains in the crime lab we also work a lot of sex assaults and sometimes you can see semen stains with your naked eye but a lot of times you can't you have to use an alternate light source or a forensic light to help you visualize the stain and we also examine some items that might have your saliva on them for example in burglaries people eat cigarette butts or pop bottles or beer cans behind we can swab the mouth area of those items and attempt to develop DNA profile from saliva or cells that are left behind on that item okay now before we talk about the processing of items for the presence of DNA first of all educate us about where we get our DNA half of your DNA you get from your mother and the other half you get from your father your biological mother and father um it's passed down to you that way the sperm cell is going to have half the half of your DNA and the egg that the mother has has the other half of the DNA they come together and you have the full 48 to set the chromosomes that that make up your DNA okay when you receive items in the laboratory to test for the presence of DNA then how is it that you um well I say well let me do this let's talk about the steps that you take then to process DNA samples first I'll examine the actual item of evidence in the lab basically looking for semen stains or blood stains most of the time then I'll take a small cutting of that stain I'll put that cutting in a small plastic test tube and add some chemicals to that heat it up and that breaks the cells open releasing the DNA into a solution that we can use once I have the DNA into solution I'll do what's called quantitation and quantitation tells us how much DNA is there the testing we do right now the lab requires a very specific amount of DNA a target of approximately one nanogram of DNA so that's why we need to quantitate the samples before we amplify the DNA that is there the next step in the process and then can I ask a question relative to the topic of quantification so if there is not a sufficient sample then that does the analysis essentially stop there um once we start our DNA process if we do do a quantitation we usually carry it all the way through other crime labs in the country they will stop it if the quantitation is telling them there's not a sufficient amount or there's no DNA there we are working towards developing that and implementing that but we are not there yet all right all right so then after the quantification stage describe then what's involved in amplification amplification is is taking the DNA that's there and making many copies of it if you imagine a copy machine take starting with one piece of paper and then you hit the copy button about a million times so that's kind of what we're doing with the amplification process in DNA we need enough DNA that can be detected by our analysis instrument all right and then once you've gone through the amplification process then what's the next step before you start the process of comparison uh we we load the Amplified DNA onto analysis instrument and that instrument measures differences in the lengths of fragments of DNA basically we're looking at 21 different locations in a person's DNA on their chromosomes looking for DNA factors there and the instrument it most of the fragments are between 60 and 460 base pairs long and there's a laser in the instrument that can measure differences in length as the DNA travels through a capillary or a small glass tube and passes through the detection window where the laser Shines on it and and takes all the measurements for us now Mr Smith speak to this particular topic recognizing that we get half of our DNA from our father and half of our DNA from our mother I pose the question is DNA unique to each of us as individuals if you look at enough different locations most people are going to have a different DNA profile the exception would be identical twins they're going to have the exact same DNA profile okay all right and then once you have developed areas of the DNA to test then how would you compare DNA of an individual to any locations of items of evidence for the presence of DNA to determine if there is a match I will have a printout of the crap the crime scene evidence the DNA profile developed from a crime scene and then I'll have uh another piece of paper with a profile printed out of potential or alleged victims and suspects in cases and I will do a side-by-side comparison to see if I can either match or make an elimination okay between the samples that being said um I want to direct your attention to a death investigation specifically arising out of a report of a child identified as briasia Terrell who was reported missing in July of 2020 and then we had recovery of remains on March 22nd of 2021. did Rick Ron of the Iowa DCI reach out to the DCI laboratory to assist in identifying skeletal remains that had been found and then collected on March 23rd of 2021 out north of Clinton and I know you probably aren't aware of the area but did he contact the DCI lab to help us identify who those remains belonged to yes all right now did you um perform a number of different analysis after the recovery of those skeletal remains yes as far as your first involvement in this case what were you tasked with um uh first the body had been found and they asked the the DCI lab to assist in the identification of the body so the lab received a bone from The Remains and I was assigned with trying to develop a DNA profile from that bone your honor made the record reflect that I'm showing counts what's been marked the state's exhibit 57. may I approach your honor amen I'm here to you what's remarked the state's exhibit 57 for purposes of identification I'd like for you to look at that report and tell me if you recognize that report yes this was the first DNA report I wrote for this case okay how was that document captioned at the top in the middle official report of Iowa Department of Public Safety DCI criminalistics laboratory is the lab case number attached to your report that was assigned to this investigation and submissions that came into the DCI 4 analysis yes the lab case number was 2020-16859 and as far as varying reports that were generated by the DCI what report number is assigned to this report report one what date did you complete your findings and off of this report March 30th 2021 and does your report identify what type of report this is yes this is a DNA report and is your signature attached to this document as the criminalist who did the DNA analysis yes your honor of the state would move to introduce States exhibit 57. exhibit 57 will be admitted may I publish your honor amen all right in looking at States exhibit 57 what we're doing Mr Schmidt is just trying to give everybody a perspective of what came in so that we know what items of evidence that you were working with do you um have three separate sections through showing three different submissions that came in yes all right the first entry give us the information as to date and what individual with what agency had submitted items and what those items consisted of okay on March 25th of 2021 Mark Bethel with the State medical examiner's office submitted a shirt shorts a bra and a box containing a left femur bone all right for our next section what was our submission date for the second item of evidence and who was responsible for that submission on March 25th of 2021 Mark Bethel from the State medical examiner's office uh submitted an item containing tissue from the left leg talking about earlier sub s so that tissue have come from that the tissue came from the left leg it was in a small plastic test tube okay and then for our third submission what is the date who made that submission and what item was that on March 26 2021 Evan Obert with the Davenport Police Department submitted the known Buckle swab from Aisha Lankford all right let's talk about the known buccal swab of Aisha Lankford we're going to go back in our education so that we can set our perspective I would represent to you that Aisha Langford is the mother of Brie Asia Terrell now what is a buckle swab a buckle swab is basically a cotton tipped swab basically a Q-tip except it just has cotton at one end of the swab not both now to get a known DNA sample from someone an officer detective or sheriff's deputy we'll take that swab and rub it on the inside of a person's mouth against their cheek or their cheek wall there are a lot of cells present in that area and that's usually plenty of DNA for us that we can develop a DNA profile from that swab when the swab from Aisha Langford came into the DCI laboratory did you in fact develop a DNA profile for Miss Langford yes I do all right now why did you need to develop a DNA profile from Miss Langford in order to make a comparison to the unidentified remains that were found in this case um we there we do have a DNA database that we have access to uh it's a national DNA database but it contains DNA from crime scenes and convicted offenders um we I could if if we didn't know who the person's mom was we had no idea who the body was I could uh put that profile from the body into the database and see if they're was a match somewhere um but most of the time we we do ask for known samples from the decedents possible parents or their children in order to make a comparison um we basically don't want an innocent person's DNA in the database if we don't have to if we can make an identification in another way and basically children aren't going to be in our DNA database certainly and then so then did you take the tissue from the left leg and develop a DNA strand from that I attempted to um that I was unable to develop a DNA profile from the tissue sample from the left leg and then can you explain why um when a body is left out in the Iowa and seasons pass that body is subjected to the extreme weather Sun rains snow ice wind the heat if you ever find a dead bird in your yard when you're mowing the lawn a couple days later it stinks really bad and it decomposes really fast that's just the way Iowa weather is now in other places it's not like that like in Arizona in the desert the bodies dry out pretty quickly and are kind of preserved a lot better than they are here from the Midwest and so when bodies are subjected to those extreme conditions the they decompose and then therefore the cells also decompose and the DNA in those cells degrades and eventually gets to the point where we can't detect the DNA that's there because it's been either completely degraded inhibited or destroyed okay so then does that take us to the left femur were you able to develop any DNA from the left femur yes I was all right and describe um I took a cutting from a section of the femur uh from the from the Adolescent dough and I was able to develop a DNA profile from that based on the comparison of the DNA profiles of adolescent dough and Aisha Langford adolescent dough could not be eliminated as a possible daughter of Aisha Langford the probability of kinship is 99.998 as compared to randomly chosen unrelated untested untested individuals okay it's the language that you've used in your report where you indicate that she could not be eliminated as a possible daughter and this is just for sake of discussion let's assume for sake of discussion that Aisha Langford had three daughters when you report this type of finding what is the import of this type of finding if she were to have three daughters um I would need the other two daughters to determine if she could be included as a possible mother of those two daughters um I can say that that Aisha Langford is definitely included as a possible mother of the unidentified remains in this case Okay were those findings then reported to the State medical examiner's office yes and then so with that since Aisha Langford was identified as a biological mother of this female child would that then require the State medical examiner's office to obtain dental records to make a definitive determination as to who which female child these skeletal remains were yes um my role is to develop DNA profiles and do the comparisons and issue my report in body identification cases the medical examiner or State medical examiner has jurisdiction over the body they are the ones that ultimately make the identification decision even when we have a match in a database we still issue our DNA report to the medical examiner and they decide whether the body has been identified or not okay let me go ahead and take that exhibit from you and we'll go on to the discussion of our next report how many reports in total did you author three for for this case two others on a cross-referenced case okay and we'll set the discussion aside for the cross-reference case a little bit later on we've had discussions about that but as far as your second report your honor made the record reflect that I'm showing Council what's been marked as States exhibit number 58. foreign State's exhibit number 58 for purposes of identification do you recognize State's exhibit number 58 yes how do you recognize State's exhibit 58. this was a DNA report that I issued in on April 19th of 2021 and in this report what is it that you will be speaking to this was the shirt shorts and bra submitted by Mark Bethel from the medical examiner's office all right your honor this well let me ask you this what report number is this five does it bear the same lab case number yes what date did you generate this report April 19th of 2021 and again does it identify the nature of the report that you authored yes it's a DNA report and does your signature appear at the back of the document as the criminalist who did this analysis and generated this report yes your honor the state would move to introduce States exhibit 58. no objection exhibit 58 will be admitted may I publisher honor you may all right so as we look at States exhibit 58 then are we simply focusing on the three items of evidence for that first submission that we saw in the earlier report yes okay and for purposes of our written record just establish that again uh this was a shirt shorts and bra submitted by Mark Bethel from the medical examiner's office on March 25th 2021 okay now describe the type of DNA analysis that you were doing on these articles of clothing these articles of clothing I I was screening for evidence of sperm or seminal fluid basically sex abuse type evidence okay Mr Schmidt can you speak to the impact of environmental factors if in fact there was sperm or seminal fluid on an article of clothing that had been located Outdoors over the course of multiple seasons um the chances of me being able to develop a DNA profile from that type of item if it's left outside in Iowa weather for multiple seasons are pretty slim for me developing any kind of DNA profile from it the reason I was able to identify or develop a profile from the bone for this case is because the DNA is basically a lot more stable in bones in bodies um that it's the DNA is trapped in the crystallized calcium structure of the bone and it takes a lot of a lot of time a lot of energy uh take to release the DNA out of those crystallized hardened calcified bone cells all right can you also speak to the topic of bleach um how would bleach impact the ability to detect sperm or seminal fluid on an article of clothing if it was poured over that clothing um bleach it destroys DNA we use a solution 10 bleach in our lab to to clean our work areas and that's just a 10 diluted bleach solution but that's good enough to clean our working surfaces to to clean the surfaces of any DNA that way we're not contaminating items in between examinations okay all right so walk us through your findings in this particular case um I attempted testing on two stained areas of the shirt I both screening tests were negative for seminal fluid in those areas and I did not find any sperm microscopically and either either of those samples I attempted DNA analysis on the sperm and epithelial fractions for both cuttings I was unable to develop any DNA results from the shirt I want to stop you right there now you have mentioned two terms you talk about the sperm fraction it's obvious but Define um when we look at a sample that contains seminal fluid or possibly contains seminal fluid we attempt to separate out two different fractions from that sample uh in the end result we're going to have our attempt to have one tube that has DNA from skin cells or blood or or saliva and then in another tube we're going to have just the sperm cells or DNA from sperm cells that are there our lab calls those the sperm fraction and the epithelial fraction other forensic Labs call those the forensic one fraction or F1 and the forensic two fraction or F2 it's it's just a naming thing just because I call the sperm fraction doesn't mean it contains sperm there and that's probably why the other labs call it an F1 fraction because it doesn't always contain sperm okay and so then that explains the difference between sperm fraction and the epithelial fraction yes all right now let's also speak to this term um rheumatozoa tell us what you mean by spermatozoa is just a plural for sperm cells if there's just one sperm cell then we'll call that a spermatazzoon if there's two or more then we will say spermatozoa okay then let's go back back and let's circle the wagons and start where we were at before I had you give us those definitions of a sperm fraction versus an epithelial fraction okay um I was unable to develop any DNA profiles from either the sperm or epithelial fractions of both samples from the shirt I also tested stained area of the crotch liner of the shorts and a stained area from the seat area on the interior liner of the shorts again for those two samples I both of those sample screen negative for the presence of seminal fluid I did not find any sperm in either of those samples and I was unable to develop DNA profiles from the sperm or epithelial fractions of both samples okay I want to make sure that we understand what you're saying all right when you say that you are unable to identify any sperm is being present again if clothing is out doors and is subjected to the elements will that destroy the sperm it can alright so then when you say that you are unable to identify sperm do we have to consider the environment within which those articles of clothing were located and what they had been subjected or exposed to yes okay continue um I also examined uh what well a bra that was found in two pieces uh I attempted DNA analysis on the interior cups of the bra I also screened at the cuttings that I took from the cups of the bra both of those screen negative for seminal fluid and no sperm were found in either sample and then again I was unable to develop any DNA profiles from the sperm or epithelial fractions of both of the cup samples okay are these findings consistent with what you would expect to find if you had articles of clothing laying Outdoors through a summer fall winter and spring month yes okay let's talk about your third report that you generated your honor made the record reflect that I'm showing Council that's been marked to State's exhibit 59. foreign States exhibit 59 do you recognize States exhibit 59 yes how do you recognize State's exhibit 59 um this was the DNA report that I issued on July 29th of 2021 okay and then does this contain the same lab case number that you've previously referenced yes 2020-16859 what report number is this seven what date did you generate the report July 29th of 2021 what type of report is this this is a DNA report and does your name appear on this document as the author yes your honor at this time the state would move to introduce States exhibit number 59. no objection exhibit 59 will be admitted your honor again may I publish Ed what was the nature of the submission as noted in States exhibit 59. uh this was an additional submission from Mark Bethel with the state of medical examiner's office on June 30th 2021 Mark submitted fingernails or a parent fingernails okay now what type of fingernails did you say that he submitted to did you say parent fingernails I'm not sure that I understood you correctly yes I I couldn't determine if if they were real fingernails or the fake fingernails oh I understand what you're saying what was the nature of the request then that was made for the fingernails that had come from the State medical examiner's office um just if I could develop any DNA profiles from the fingernails okay and then describe what you um were able to determine or not I was unable to develop a DNA profile from the swabs of the fingernails okay thank you I'll go ahead and take that report I'd like to set the stage for our um further discussion now um were you asked to to do DNA analysis on some items of evidence which would have included like a child's white medium tank top as a result of a murder that DCI agent Rick Ron was involved with it was a collateral invest well I shouldn't say a collateral a completely separate investigation from the investigation of brieta Terrell yes there was a a separate homicide from Clinton County that the DCI was investigating okay Joanna may I ask what our last exhibit number was our highest exhibit number would be 156. 156 thank you Johanna made the record reflect that I'm showing Council what has been marked as State's exhibit 157. um foreign ER you may I'm handing you State's exhibit number 157 for purposes of identification do you recognize State's exhibit 157 yes how do you recognize State's exhibit 157 this is a DNA report that I wrote January 21st of 2023. all right what is the case number associated for this laboratory case number about the DCI lab case number for this case is 2020-17232 [Music] is that a completely different lab case number as compared to the lab case number assigned to the brioja Terrell case yes it is all right all right so then let's just go back for the riasia Terrell's case what was our lab case number again 2020-16859 all right now by virtue of that homicide that had occurred in Clinton was the lab doing um a number of different analysis based on submissions that came in through that case yes okay um was some of the evidence collected in that investigation turned over to Davenport just to submit to see if there was any connection at all with this case yes all right um and then as we look at this what date was this report generated again January 21st of 2023. what type of report a DNA report does your name appear as the criminalist on this report yes and um does this set forth a listing of items that came in through Davenport asking you to test yes your honor the state would move to introduce States exhibit number 157. no objection exhibit 157 will be admitted okay may I publish your honor you're right all right now I'm handing or I'm putting forth States exhibit 157 under the Elmo if you could let's again go back to the section of the report that gives us a date who the submitting officer was in a description of the items that came in on November 28 2022 AJ Poirier with Davenport Police Department submitted Haynes crew style white medium T-Shirt One children's white medium tank top and some hairs sealed in tape all right if the body in this particular case was recovered on March 22nd or discovered on March 22nd of 2021 then this report was offered authored when January 21st of 2023. all right and do you know when that particular homicide took place um I do not that's okay when these items came into the laboratory what were you asked to do to see if it had any Tire connection to the bridge of Terrell investigation there were some small shirts child size shirts so I I was just asked to see if there was any DNA that could be either eliminated or matched to uh and Henry Dinkins okay was there some type of blood or other bodily fluids on that child's t-shirt yes what was it there was blood on the Child t-shirt and three stained areas DCI item two I was able to develop DNA profiles from those areas the DNA profile developed came from a male source and later on Henry Dinkins was eliminated as the source of the DNA profile and Brie Asia Tyrell was also eliminated as the source of the DNA profile and so the male Source how is he designated in this report male a and has Mel a been identified to date as who the contributor would be for that blood on that child's t-shirt no he wasn't Mr Waters Mr Schmidt you were asked to line up questions about how the elements sunlight rain snow whatever it may be is or has the ability to destroy DNA you remember that line of questioning yes okay so you would agree then that those elements can destroy DNA sperm whatever it may be yes okay does it isn't it just as explainable uh that there was just never sperm or DNA on those shirts yes I did not find sperm on those shirts so that that's possibility yes wouldn't that just be the easier explanation um it you could go either way on that there's no way for me to to know that I can only say that I didn't find anything there and that's fair you know I'm not trying to trip you up but then what we just talked about those shirts uh I think it was found from a black challenger a car right do you remember that it was found in a car I know that um I think it was just maybe one shirt or two shirts two two shirts and was blood visible on those shirts stains were visible to me it didn't look like blood but it did screen positive for blood um could have been vomit we don't have a screening test for vomit it could have been diarrhea there's just all I can say is the the the the stain screen positive the stains screened positive for blood sure and then your assignment with those items that we just looked at was simply to test or compare the DNA from male a to Henry Dinkins and brieza Terrell my understanding that correctly that's right okay at no other time did somebody request to look at any other person of interest other than barisha Terrell and Henry Dinkins no had I developed an unidentified mail profile from um praise His clothing especially if it came from a sperm fraction or sperm DNA and Henry Dinkins was eliminated I would have put that profile into CODIS because there shouldn't be sperm on a child's clothing that would at least be an act of sex abuse and so that profile would have been put into the database and would have eventually been compared to suspects throughout the nation so it's it's just that in this case I was only given knowns from from two people sure and male a we don't know who that is that's right okay that's all I have okay just kidding here yes thank you Mr Schmidt um do we also have to recognize that you didn't find riesia's DNA on any of the articles of clothing that's right okay and I'm talking about the articles of clothing um to include the shirt shorts and bra that were found out um in the elements on March 23rd of 2021 yes I didn't find her DNA on any of the clothes from either of the cases okay and so under that circumstance again presumably if an individual is wearing clothing is there going to be a transfer of our DNA on that clothing usually yes all right and with those articles being out in the elements does that help us to understand why you would not be able to identify any of rageous DNA on those articles of clothing yes I have no further questions thank you thank you you're honor this is all of the evidence that the state has to offer at this time as we indicated yesterday detective Hamas would be our last witness but she's going to take a significant period of time we think all right thank you very much um I wouldn't is the defense asking that we start at 9 30 again on Monday please please we will thank you thank you you're welcome have a nice weekend everyone thank you yep

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Published: Fri Aug 25 2023