All right, sir. You were indicating that based on your prior experience and previous case work that you saw something unusual in the carpet fiber--carpet fibers that were recovered from the knit cap, from the glove and from the items that were taken out of the Bronco; the towel, the shovel and the plastic. And what was that?
Well, it was the cross-section of the fiber, right. I had--I have worked for many years with carpet fibers and I had not seen this particular cross-section before.
And that was, I think you described it to us earlier, was that the tri-lobal aspect you described?
Right. It was a three-lobed nylon fiber that had little knobs on the--knob on the end of each lobe. I called it the jack cross-section.
KEY QUOTESir, did you ever examine a piece of carpet from--taken from the Defendant's Bronco known as item no. 33, LAPD identification number?
I have a photograph that was previously marked as People's 440 that I would like to show to you, as well as People's 439. And ask you if the carpeting depicted in People's 440 and 439 appears to be the same as the carpet piece that was sent to you at your request?
Well, the piece that I got was not this particular piece. I did get vacuum sweepings from it--from this particular item. The actual sample came from different areas within the vehicle, right.
So you--can you tell us, sir, what exactly you requested with respect to exemplars--with respect to carpet samples taken from the Defendant's Bronco?
Well, I requested samples from all the fabric surfaces that were present within the vehicle. And an interior of a vehicle is often comprised of a lot of different fabrics. It is a little world in itself. There is carpeting, there are floor mats, there is door panel fibers, there are seat cover fibers, in this particular case I believe they were leather, and there is also seat back fibers. There was a back portion of the vehicle, cargo area, that had fabric, so an interior of a vehicle is a source of many different types of fibers, and I asked for all fabric surfaces and I--and I received samples from several areas.
All right, sir. When you received those samples--when you received those samples, sir, can you tell us whether you conducted some form of comparison with respect to the fibers collected from the towel, the shovel, the plastic, the knit cap, the blue knit ski cap, the glove found at Rockingham?
Yes. Initially tests that were conducted before I got the known material were done on the--on just the material taken from the inside of the Bronco, as well as from the--from the knit hat and from the--from the Rockingham glove. A number of tests were conducted there. Ultimately I wanted to get samples from the vehicle. Those were submitted in about a week later or so, and I did--I did the entire battery of tests again on all of those--of the known standards. In the carpeting, the main body of the carpeting of that vehicle was the nylon, tri-lobal, rose beige, jack cross-section fiber.
Of all of the carpeted surfaces, right. The door panels were different, seat backs were different. One was polyester, one was an olefin fiber, but all of the actual carpeting was--was the same type.
Manmade fibers. First a visual comparison under the comparison microscope, polarizing microscope, fluorescent microscope, microspectrophotometry, FTIR, and SEM, which is scanning electron microscope.
With the use of all of those methods, when you perform the comparison from the known carpet sample from the Defendant's Bronco to the fibers you found on the knit cap, the Rockingham glove, as well as the towel, the shovel and the plastic, what conclusion did you reach?
Well, all of those fibers, the questioned fibers from the--from the towel, the shovel, from the plastic, from the Rockingham glove and also from the knit hat could have originated from that Bronco.
KEY QUOTEWell, tapings are used to collect trace materials, just like a vacuum sweeper might be used. A piece of sticky tape when placed onto the surface of a fabric will cause loose fibers and hairs to adhere. These--these tapings would--could be placed on a number of different surfaces. They could be placed on clear plastic sheets. In this particular case they were placed on petrie dishes, plastic petrie dishes, and then covered over.
And is it commonly used for the collection of samples, for known samples, to compare questioned items to?
It can be used for that purpose, right. When actual known samples are not collected, you will pick up actual fibers from that surface on the tape, as well as questioned material.
When you--and after having examined the tapings, the known samples collected by the tapings from A.C. Cowling's Bronco, can you tell us, sir, whether or not the fibers that were found on the knit cap, the carpet fibers that were found on the knit cap, the Rockingham glove, could have come from A.C. Cowling's Bronco?
Now, did you prepare a chart, sir, that shows the fiber associations that you've just told us about, the carpet fibers on those items we have listed?
All right. If you wouldn't mind stepping down, sir, and take the pointer and please explain to us what you are showing us on this chart.
All right. This chart, which is titled "Known carpet fibers from O.J.'s Bronco" indicates the top three photographs being from--actual fiber standards from the interior from the carpeting. K14 is one source of fibers and I don't recall specifically if it was from the rear floorboard or the front floorboard, but that--these are fibers from the floor carpeting. K9 in the center, that is a cross-section that was done using the scanning electron microscope of a carpet fiber from the interior of the Defendant's Bronco. The photograph on the lower left, 3C, that is a fiber from the glove recovered at Rockingham. On the right-hand side is a picture of a fiber that was recovered from the knit cap that was found at the Bundy scene. The center picture is a section of that fiber on the left-hand side and it is a photograph using a scanning electron microscope just to show you what the cross-sections look like for both of them.
So the photographs shown in the center of this chart, the upper one labeled K9, first of all, that one, that is from a known sample taken from the Defendant's Bronco?
The one below it, which is labeled "Q3C fiber from the Rockingham glove, SEM," is that the photograph taken with the scanning electron microscope on the questioned fiber that was found on the Rockingham glove?
Right. It would have been this fiber here, (Indicating). There is only one fiber that was recovered from the glove as well as one fiber from the knit cap.
And when the witness referred to this fiber, here, your Honor, he was referring to the photo to the far left on the bottom row as you face this chart.
Now, you can--I see some spots up here on the SEM picture of K9, the known sample of the Defendant's carpet, brock carpet fiber, that I don't see down here, (Indicating). Can you explain what that is and why that didn't preclude you from saying that these fibers could have come from the Defendant's Bronco?
Well, you don't--you don't see them here on the bottom picture of 3C from the Rockingham glove simply--you see a couple, but not the same number that you see on the top picture from the carpeting and it could have been just from the source. That area was dirtier. Tri-lobal fibers are used for that purpose. They tend to hide dirt very well. That is why you have them inside your house as well as in vehicles, so dirt often collects down in the lower portion of the lobes and in a vehicle they often tend to get pretty dirty, so this happened to be where that particular fiber came from.
All right. Now, what significance, sir, does the finding of fibers consistent with those of the carpet in the Defendant's Bronco on the Rockingham glove and the blue knit cap have?
Well, it is significant from the standpoint of transfer. That is, if you are trying to find a relationship between items recovered from a crime scene or from an area from the Defendant, with a particular item that may be associated with the Defendant, it becomes significant in that regard, because it is possible then to possibly link all of these items together.
And given what you told us earlier, sir, about how easily fibers are moved around, does that play any part in the significance of your finding of those carpet fibers on the blue knit cap, the Rockingham glove--
Well, there is going to always be loose fibers that are present on the seats, on consoles, in different areas of a vehicle just because they--they shed. They get loose and they are moved around. Finding them on the seat of a vehicle that--that looked just like the carpeting is not significant, but it becomes significant when an individual may have contact with the surface of that interior of the vehicle, like a seat, and then through--through secondary transfer then actually picks up the fibers on the clothing and then may deposit them on items--other item. So fibers tend to move a little bit and again they only move so far--
Carpet fibers are big, they are actually pretty big fibers. One would not expect to find an awful lot of carpet fibers transferred between items unless you have a dead body laying in a car and then dumped out of a car you might find a few more.
I'm sorry, sir. How does the largeness of the fiber impact on its mobility, how easily it will be transferred or fall off an item?
The bigger the fiber, the more likely you are going to brush it off. It is not going to become lost in all of the hundreds of fibers that may be found and actually become part of the fabric. It will tend to lay on the surface of the fabric as opposed to becoming part of it.
Smaller fibers will tend to make their way into the fabric. Because of the contact and the force that may be applied between two fabrics, it tends to go within it more, whereas a carpet fiber is big, it is actually pretty big, and you can see it with the naked eye pretty easily. It will lay right on the surface, and depending on the nature of the fiber, it may be brushed off more easily.
All right. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to take our recess for the noon hour. Please remember all of my admonitions to you. Don't discuss the case amongst yourselves, don't form any opinions about the case, don't conduct any deliberations until the matter has been submitted to you, do not allow anybody to communicate with you with regard to the case. We will stand in recess until 1:00 P.M.
All of those fibers, the questioned fibers from the towel, the shovel, from the plastic, from the Rockingham glove and also from the knit hat could have originated from that Bronco.
Could not have.
One would not expect to find an awful lot of carpet fibers transferred between items unless you have a dead body laying in a car and then dumped out of a car you might find a few more.
It was a three-lobed nylon fiber that had little knobs on the end of each lobe. I called it the jack cross-section.