Wasted (28 page)

Cox next asked her about collecting evidence the following day at Kim LeBlanc’s apartment.

“I personally collected a Band-Aid wrapper, a piece of toilet paper in the bathroom trash, a cardboard contact lens box, two green rugs from the bathroom, a motorcycle helmet, and a stain on the bathroom floor,” she said.

The Band-Aid wrapper and the toilet paper had tested TMB presumptive positive. The contact lens box had tested weak TMB positive. The motorcycle helmet had not been tested there. Three towels collected by Molina had tested positive. The floor stain had tested positive. And a piece of tissue paper by the bed later had tested presumptive positive.

 

 

“Could you explain to the jury what DNA is?” said Cox.

“DNA is a chemical found in our body. It is found in every nucleated cell in our body, meaning it’s found almost anywhere in your body except for red blood cells. It’s found in white blood cells but not red blood cells. It determines who we are. We inherit half of our DNA from our mother and half from our father. That’s what makes us so unique. And we are, at the laboratory, able to look at sections of our DNA. It’s called junk DNA. It doesn’t mean anything. We can’t tell if you have certain diseases, or we can’t tell if you have blue eyes or brown hair. It’s pieces of DNA that we all have in common, but yet different. And so, those are the pieces of DNA that we analyze in the laboratory for our testing purposes.”

“Does every person have a unique configuration of the DNA?” said Cox.

“Yes, they do.”

 

 

“Okay. Now, there are scientific tests that can distinguish differences between individuals based on their configuration of DNA?”

“That’s correct.”

“And, based on that, is it possible to collect a bloodstain from a crime scene and possibly connect it to a particular person, but in a preliminary step for that [to] exclude other people as possible donors of that stain?”

“Yes,” she answered.

“Okay. Could you explain briefly the two different types of, or the different types of, DNA testing that your lab performs?”

“At our lab,” said Hill, “we do two basic types of DNA tests. We do one test that’s called the PCR test. And what that stands for is Preliminary Chain Reaction. And that’s just a big word to say that the blood is copied. It is good for small bloodstains . . . It is put into an instrument that actually copies a specific section of your DNA. We’re targeting a section of chromosome six. And that section is copied over and over, billions of times. And so that’s what we actually analyze and type. And that’s called your DQ-Alpha type. That’s one type of test we do, is DQ-Alpha.

“Another type of PCR test we do, based on that same theory of the blood being copied over and over, is called D1S80. And that is on chromosome number one. And another test where the blood is copied over and over many times, and we’re able to analyze your blood to your D1S80 type.

“A further discriminatory test is called RFLP. And this test looks at bigger sections of our DNA. Your DNA has to be in better condition. It can’t be degraded. And you have to have a good bit of it to actually perform the tests, and the tests will work. This test, however, takes some time to do, whereas, the PCR test is a fast test. It can be done within a few days.”

Hill then stated that, upon their return to the DPS lab, they had DQ-Alpha tested everything that had previously tested TMB positive.

Eventually, they had DQ-Alpha tested the blood samples of Thomas, LeBlanc, and Hartwell. On Thomas and Hartwell, they had also performed DIS80 and RFLP tests.

Thomas’s DQ-Alpha type was 1.1, 1.3. His DIS80 type was 18, 24.

Regina’s DQ-Alpha type was 2,3. Her D1S80 type was, like Thomas’s, 18, 24.

LeBlanc’s DQ-Alpha type was 1.1, 4.

Hill wrote all of that on the apartment diagram for the jurors.

Carpet bloodstains near the window and stains on the statue matched the DNA of Justin Thomas, she said. Blood on the foot portion of the black leather recliner matched that of Regina Hartwell. The stain on the arm of the recliner matched the DNA of Thomas. The blood on the top and side of the cube table belonged to Hartwell, as did a carpet stain near the end of the sofa.

In the hallway, one bloodstain matched the DNA of Thomas, another matched the DNA of Hartwell. In the bathroom, blood on the shower curtain rod matched Thomas’s, blood on the shower curtain matched Hartwell’s.

“Now,” said Cox, “of all of the bloodstains recovered from that apartment that was tested, did any of the DQ-Alpha types of those bloodstains come back matching the DQ-Alpha type of Kim LeBlanc?”

“No.”

“And how many separate stains were located that matched the DQ-Alpha type for Justin Thomas?”

“Five.”

Six matched that of Regina Hartwell.

Hill then stated that the DQ-Alpha type and the DIS80 types are not as discriminatory as the RFLP test “because there are so many types in the population of these testing, and so we are one of those possible types. It’s not picking you out from anyone else in the world. It’s only picking you out from X-number of people.”

“So really,” responded Cox, “what is being said by your results is you cannot exclude Regina Hartwell as the donor of the blood samples that were found in the locations you indicated as matching Regina Hartwell’s DQ-Alpha type?”

“That’s correct.”

“And the same goes for Justin Thomas,” said Cox. “You cannot exclude Justin Thomas as the donor of the blood samples that match his DQ-Alpha type. Is that correct?”

“Right,” answered Hill. “I can only say it’s consistent with; it’s not conclusively.”

Court recessed until 1:35 p.m.

 

 

At 1:35 p.m., Jill Hill presented enlarged photographs of the DNA strips to the court and showed how the blood in the apartment samples matched the blood of Hartwell and Thomas.

She then discussed the DNA testing from Kim LeBlanc’s apartment. The blood on the tissue paper found in the trash can by Kim’s bed matched LeBlanc’s. The blood on the toilet paper found in the bathroom matched Thomas’s.

Hill next stated that she had performed a presumptive test on the lockblade knife, which had had a positive result. But further DNA testing had produced a negative result.

“Now,” asked Cox, “if an object has been recovered from a fire and subjected to intense heat, would you expect to be able to get a DNA result on that?”

“Not always, no,” she replied.

“Can intense heat degrade DNA?”

“Yes, it does.”

She then testified that DQ-Alpha testing on the blood found in Kim LeBlanc’s Jeep matched the blood type of Justin Thomas.

The witness was passed to the defense.

 

 

“One of the questions the prosecutor didn’t ask you, but I’m going to,” said Patrick Ganne, “is that in your report you talk about the proportion of how many people—”

“I can tell you, sir,” Hill interrupted. “I have it.”

For Regina Hartwell’s DQ-Alpha type, 4.69 percent of Caucasians match it, 2.25 percent of Blacks, and 3.57 percent of Hispanics, said Hill.

When combined with her D1S80, approximately one in 119 Caucasians matches, one in 198 Hispanics, and one in 1,301 African-Americans, she said.

For Justin Thomas’s DQ-Alpha match, 1.63 percent of Caucasians have the same, .55 percent of Blacks, and .82 percent of Hispanics. When combined with D1S8, one in 342 persons matches.

But Ganne then pointed out that that one-in-342 figure applied to only one piece of evidence—the statue—not all of the samples of blood evidence. Hill agreed.

He then focused on the knife.

“And you can’t tell us whether it was human blood or any other kind of blood [that tested positive TMB presumptive]?”

“That’s correct,” replied Hill.

 

 

Ganne changed topics. “Have you told us, for example, have you presented any evidence that Justin Thomas was involved in the murder of Regina Hartwell?”

“I have told you that blood that is consistent with his blood was found in the apartment.”

“Did you know, for example, or would it factor in your equation, that Justin Thomas lived in that apartment for a period of time?”

“That has no bearing on what I have to say,” said Hill. “All I can say is that it’s there.”

“Does the fact that he’s lived there give some explanation for it?” he continued.

“It could.”

“It certainly ... if a person claimed never to have been there, your testimony would cast a different light on it, would it not?”

“That’s correct.”

“Ms. Hill, as always it’s always a pleasure to spend time with you. I thank you for your testimony.” And Ganne passed the witness.

Gregg Cox looked at Jill Hill. “Now, earlier Mr. Ganne asked you some question about whether or not you could say that was human blood [on the knife].”

“Right.”

“And you can’t. Is that correct?”

“No.”

“But is there any way you can say that there’s no possibility that that was human blood?”

“No. I don’t know.”

“So it’s possible it was.”

“It’s possible. I don’t know.”

He then returned to the DNA statistic of one in 342. “That basically means [if] you have 342 people, you are going to be able to eliminate 341 of them as the donor of the blood. But Justin Thomas, you could not eliminate. Is that correct?”

“That’s correct.”

 

 

At 2:25 p.m, the State rested its case.

 

 

I know white trash when I see it,
thought Jeremy Barnes. He looked at Bonnie Thomas and her nephew Josh. Of course, Barnes was prejudiced. He knew it and he admitted it. He believed Regina was dead at the hands of their kinsman.

At 10 minutes after nine the following morning, the defense presented its first of only three witnesses—Justin Thomas’s cousin Josh Mollett, a senior at Bowie High School in Austin.

Mollett stated that Justin came over to his house around eight a.m. on the day Regina Hartwell was murdered and that they spent the morning watching TV. Around 11:30 a.m., he drove Thomas over to Kim LeBlanc’s apartment.

He also said he had met Kim and Regina a few times and that they had acted like “friends or sisters.” He was then asked if he had ever overheard conversations about LeBlanc not being able to make her Jeep payments.

“Uh, no,” said Mollett.

Even with cross-examination by Gregg Cox, Josh Mollett was on the stand for only five minutes.

“I need a clerk because his principal at school requires a subpoena,” said Ganne. “We call Bonnie Thomas.”

 

 

Pat Ganne looked at Bonnie Thomas. It was tanned face to tanned face. Beautiful blue eyes to beautiful blue eyes. They were a team. Bonnie had bonded with Ganne’s wife, K. C. Anderson, Justin’s first attorney.

Ganne smiled at Bonnie to reassure her. She was nervous and did not want to be there. And that was obvious to the courtroom. There wasn’t a single flicker of joy in her face.

But why should there have been? Bonnie’s nephew, the boy who called her Momma B, who had once told her she was more of a mom to him than his own mother had been, was on trial for murder.

“Do you recall,” said Ganne, “a particular incident, and help us if you can, place it in time, when Justin injured his hand?”

“It was a Saturday or Sunday.” Her voice was gravelly from too many hard years. She wanted to look at Justin. She didn’t. “I want to say close to the Fourth of July. And he wanted to get down and go out and see what was on the other side of the river.”

“Did he go over there for a particular purpose?”

“I don’t think so. He just wanted to know what was on the other side.”

“Did you see him before he left?”

“Yeah.”

“Did he have any type of injuries that you could see?”

“No.”

“Did you see him when he came back?”

“Yes.”

“And tell the jury what you saw”

She started to look straight at the jury. In any other situation, Bonnie Thomas would have. Bonnie Thomas was a straightforward type of woman.

“Well,” she said, “we were very upset because he had, I don’t know, fell across the fence or something, and he had a great big gash, and he was bleeding badly, and we wanted him to go to the doctor for stitches and he flat refused.”

 

 

Ganne picked up the eight-foot length of chain. It rattled throughout the courtroom. He talked about Justin Thomas’s father’s broken truck that needed towing for repair. “Did you attempt to tow it with [your] tow bar?”

“Yes, sir,” she answered.

“Were you successful?”

“No, sir.”

“Was an alternative plan used, developed?”

“Well,” said Bonnie, “not being able to use the tow bar, we just decided to get a chain and tow him in town with the chain.”