VERO BEACH — The prosecution continued Thursday morning with its first-degree murder case against accused killer Michael David Jones, with more testimony about Jones’ movements in June 2014, and also more discussion of forensic evidence.
Wednesday afternoon Brevard County Medical Examiner Sadiq Qaiser finished up his lengthy time on the stand describing graphic autopsy photos depicting what he said were bruises from blunt-force trauma plus defensive wounds on the body of 26-year-old Diana Duve, who police say Jones killed on June 20, 2014. Qaiser also pointed out numerous signs of manual strangulation on and inside Duve’s neck, including bruising, hemorrhaging and fractures to bones and cartilage.
The defense challenged Qaiser on an amended autopsy report he filed, and whether he went into the exam with what Assistant Public Defender Stanley Glenn termed “cognitive bias” because he knew some details about the case. Qaiser said his findings were not affected by things he was told about the case or about Duve by his investigator.
The last witness Wednesday, a loss prevention manager with Wal-Mart, described and explained security video clips played for the jury showing a man matching Jones’ physical description driving up to Wal-Mart on Malabar Road the morning of June 21, 2014 in a black car resembling Duve’s Nissan Altima, then entering the store to purchase a flip phone and a card to activate minutes on the phone. The man paid cash then exited the store. A receipt for the phone and card, provided by Wal-Mart, matched the time on the video.
Clothing and a hat the man in the Wal-Mart video wore appeared to match clothing Jones was wearing when arrested, testified Det. Brad Kmetz of the Vero Police Department.
Following Jones’ alleged movements on June 21, 2014, a cab company owner and cab driver testified that Jones called the cab company from the cell phone purchased at Wal-Mart and rode in the cab to Vero. The can driver at the time picked Jones out of a six-man photo lineup at the Melbourne Police Department.
A video of that photo lineup process was shown to the jury, and Assistant Public Defender Dorothy Naumann called the ID into question because she said the cab driver hesitated and seemed uncertain. The photo showed Jones with facial hair and the cab driver said the number two photo looked like his passenger — but with no facial hair.
Former Vero crime scene tech Laura Gregg testified about conducting three searches of Jones’ Carolina Trace townhome, located on 16th Street, taking swabs of suspected blood samples from the garage and collecting a suspect clump of hair.
Gregg said techs had to return a second time to search because a reagent they used the first time, a chemical called BlueStar, was out of date. When working properly, BlueStar sprayed on blood will blioluminesce or light up with a blue color light.
Three different locations in the garage reacted to the BlueStar on the subsequent search. Gregg said the reagent can also react very briefly to metal, or to detergents and the defense on cross-examination reminded jurors that Jones’ washer and dryer were in the garage, but Gregg said the laundry appliances were not near where the BlueStar reacted.
Gregg said no evidence of blood was found anywhere else in Jones’ three-story townhome where police say Jones killed Duve in a brutal way.
Last up before the lunch break was Earl Ritzline, now retired from the Indian River Crime Lab. Ritzline processed the DNA evidence collected from the scene at Jones’ townhome. Ritzline told jurors about his experience and training, and explained the science of how DNA is collected, isolated and prepared for testing, and then analyzed.
When the trial resumes after lunch in Judge Dan Vaughn’s courtroom on the third floor of the Indian River County Courthouse, it is expected that Ritzline will continue his testimony and open the results of DNA testing done on samples taken from Jones’ townhouse.
