All right. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Please be seated. The record should reflect that we have been joined by all the members of our jury panel. And Miss Clark, the People may call their next witness.
Thank you, your Honor. The People call Susan Brockbank.
Susan Brockbank, called as a witness by the People, was sworn and testified as follows:
Please raise your right hand. You do solemnly swear that the testimony you may give in the cause now pending before this court, shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God.
Please have a seat on the witness stand and state and spell your first and last names for the record.
Yes. I'm a criminalist and I work for the city of Los Angeles assigned to the trace analysis unit of the scientific investigation division of the police department.
Umm, I began in 1987 and in the trace analysis unit I've been there for about five years. I started there in 1990.
Initially I worked in the toxicology unit. I worked there for about a year and a half. That is the unit of the lab that analyzes things like urine and blood for drugs. And then I moved onto the narcotics analysis unit, which is the unit of the lab that analyzes bulk narcotics to identify that they are indeed narcotics and not powdered sugar or something like that. I worked there for about a year and then I moved on to the trace unit which is where I'm currently at, and I have been there, like I say, five, five and a half years.
Now, with respect to hair and trace, can you tell us what kind of training you've had?
I have a bachelor of science degree in microbiology with a minor in chemistry that is from California State University at Long Beach. And after graduating college I began--I first volunteered at the L.A. County Sheriff's crime lab. Later I worked as a student professional worker for the LAPD crime lab. Went back to the sheriff's crime lab as a laboratory technician. Came back to LAPD as a criminalist. That was in 1987. Once I became a criminalist, in the trace analysis unit specifically, I began going through on-the-job training in the areas of trace evidence. The trace unit analyzes things like hairs and fibers, shoeprints, tool marks, tire tracks, paint, glass, basically any type of physical evidence that may be found at a crime scene. The trace unit is the unit that analyzes those things. And I went through on-the-job training, like I said, in all those various areas of evidence analysis. Also in the area of crime scene investigation, part of my job includes going to crime scenes and actually collecting, preserving, identifying physical evidence. I also attended two courses in forensic microscopy.
Use of the microscope basically for doing forensic work, things like, you know, working on hairs and fibers or anything that requires a microscope. Those classes were taught by the Macrone Research Institute of Chicago, and I also attended a class in hair analysis which was taught by James Bailey of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department crime lab. And I think that about does it.
And during that five years were you--what portion of that time was devoted actually to the examination of hairs or fibers?
Umm, I didn't actually begin performing analysis on case work until about a year and a half into my--my time in the trace unit. During that time I was going through these training classes and on-the-job training, so I began doing case work about a year and a half in, so that would be for the last four years roughly I've been doing case work in hair and fiber analysis.
Now, how many times have you actually qualified as an expert am court on hair and trace analysis?
Now, do you recall when you were assigned to do the hair and trace work on this particular case?
Now, the duties that you performed in this case, were they primarily the collection of the hair and fiber from the items of evidence found at the crime scenes?
And the examination with respect to comparison of hairs and fibers, was that done by Mr. Deedrick, the unit chief at the FBI for hair and trace?
On June 21st, if you can please tell us, was that your first contact with the evidence in this case?
On June 21st I went to our evidence control unit, which is basically a secured storage facility for a lot of property that is seized and booked in various crimes throughout the city. I went to the evidence control unit and checked out two large boxes, each of these boxes containing evidence that I was interested in looking at.
Like I said, it is like a--it is a secured storage facility. When we, quote-unquote, book evidence, the evidence is actually physically taken to this room and it is kind of adjacent to the laboratory, and in this large room they just have racks and different things that they will store the boxes of evidence on.
When you went to the evidence control unit on June the 21st, you recovered, you said, two boxes?
In fact, had a hair sample even been collected from the Defendant as of June the 21st, 1994?
I believe I began with box no. 1, what I designated as box no. 1. The boxes don't have big numbers on them.
Umm, in the trace analysis lab we have basically lab benches going all around the perimeter of the lab and then in the center there is a large examination table. I performed most of my analysis on that large examination table in the center of the room.
Now, before you began to examine box no. 1, was there some preparation you made to clear the work area?
Yes. I washed down the lab bench with a dilute bleach solution just to clean the lab bench, and then I cover the lab bench with white butcher paper just to cover the area, and then I opened the first box and inventoried the items in that box. When I decided I was going to actually examine one of those items, I laid down another piece of white paper and used that as a clean working surface to examine each individual item. Between items that I examined I changed that paper, put down a new piece of paper.
KEY QUOTESo after you washed down the table with dilute bleach and put down the butcher paper--first of all, can you tell me this: Do you wear a lab coat when do you your examinations and collection?
And do you wear gloves when you do the examination of items of evidence for hair and trace?
So after having gowned up, got your gloves on and the table is bleached and there is paper down, what did do you with box no. 1?
I opened it just by cutting along the tape with a razor blade. The box was taped shut and there was a seal across the top signed by Dennis Fung. I opened the box and removed the various items that were in it. There were several different items in each of those boxes, and I--
One second, Susan. Excuse me, Miss Brockbank. Your Honor, we have a photograph I would like it to be marked People's 436.
Yes. Yes, it is a box. It is a little blurry in my picture. I don't know if you can focus it better. I believe that is box no. 1.
Well, except for all of the evidence tape across the top. Each time the box was closed by someone, a new piece of--it was re-taped and then an evidence seal was placed across the top. When I initially saw it, there was just one seal across the top, not several like you see there.
Umm, yes, the red tape or LAPD evidence seals and those are placed are--when someone opens the box, does something with the evidence and then recloses the box and then it is actually taped shut with the brown tape that you see kind of going around the circumference of the box, there is brown tape that is about two inches wide and we wrap the boxes in both directions just to secure that box before placing that evidence tape over the top.
And was it taped in that fashion with respect to--with respect to the brown tape and one of the evidence seals, was it taped in that fashion when you found it on June the 21st?
Was there some kind of a list that tells you, without opening the box, what it should contain?
Yes. Actually, there is a label I guess--is it better if I point to this large one? The label on the end that is down near the bottom of the screen, there is a little brown label and in the upper right corner of that brown label you see a little bar code. A lot of our evidence is tracked based on bar code, so that is why you will see a bar code on a lot of the packages. But on that brown label there is a listing of the item numbers and those are LAPD items numbers for each piece of evidence that is contained in that bag.
We have a close-up of that bag I'm going to show you, Miss Brockbank, and ask that it be marked 437-A.
That is a close-up of that evidence tag that is on that box and here you can see the--where it--on the tag it says "Describe contents briefly," you see a listing and it says "Item numbers" and a listing of each of the item numbers that are in that box.
All right. Now, with respect to the items that are listed to be in that box, which, if any, item listed in that box there contained items of hair or trace?
Umm, let's see. I only examined two items in that box; item no. 19 and I believe 58. Those were the two items that were hair or fiber evidence.
Umm, item no. 19 was a small coin envelope which contained a paper bindle which is basically a piece of paper tri-folded three ways to contain evidence on the inside and that paper bindle had some hairs in it.
Yes, I do. It is right here in the upper right-hand corner, (Indicating). That is a coin envelope here that you see in the photograph and that is the white paper bindle that was inside that coin envelope.
And we will show it to you on the monitor for everybody's comfort. Your Honor, I don't know if you want me to mark these individually. They are already depicted on the board.
And was the--you see the writing on it there, no. 19, trace removed from no. 9 and a signature?
And the coin envelope, was it sealed when you recovered it from the box that was marked as no. 1?
And the no. 9 that is referred to, no. 19, trace removed from no. 9, do you know what no. 9 is?
Okay. Now, the other items that were contained in the box with this coin envelope, you had the numbers already shown to you on the screen. Can you tell us, if you recall from memory, what item number--what items of evidence those numbers went to?
(Witness complies.) Did you just want the list of each of those item numbers or what--
Now, with respect to item 19, you said that you recovered a bindle from that envelope?
It is in the upper right-hand corner of the--of the monitor. It is the white thing that is kind of folded. You can see the "19" and I think it is "D.F." On it.
Umm, I took it over to our stereomicroscope, which is a low power microscope, which is on the lab bench, one of the lab benches around the periphery of our lab--not the large one in the middle, but one on the side--and on that lab bench under the microscope I had laid down some white paper. I opened the bindle and examined the hairs that were inside. If I could just look at my notes for just a second?
(Witness complies.) And then I mounted those hairs on a microscope slide with some water. Basically what that involves is just taking a clean microscope slide, just a piece of glass about so big, (Indicating), about one-inch-by-three-inches, put a little dab of water on it to secure the hairs. Placed the hairs on. Again I had gloves on my hands when I did this. And placed the hairs on the slide using my hands, and then covered that with a coverslip, which basically is another piece of very thin glass, and that allows me to examine it on the microscope. I take that over to a microscope, which will magnify things on the order of 100 to 400 times, and I examined those hairs on that microscope.
Now, at the time that you did this, were there any other items of hair or trace pertaining to this case in the vicinity?
Were there any items of hair or trace at all around these--around the coin envelope and the bindle marked as no. 19?
Now, with respect to the mounting in water, is that something that is favored? Is that a good idea, to mount hair or fibers on water?
For--for a microscopic examination of hairs water is a poorer mounting medium because of what's called a refractive index which is what allows you to see through something. Basically there is a number assigned to different objects. Water has a refractive index of around 1.25. It is a number--but what happens is hair, when you are looking at that under a microscope, you need to mount it in a refractive index that is close to the refractive index of hair, and water is very far from a hair, so when you examine it under the microscope you don't get to see all of the really important details of the hair that help you to get a real good identification of that hair.
Does it have any impact on your ability to see accurately the color of the hair you are looking at?
To some degree it can affect that. Basically what you get is kind of a--when you look through the microscope, kind of a black border around everything, so it obscures a little bit of everything that you see.
So after you examined the hair from no. 19 under the microscope in that water mount on the slide, what did you do next?
Umm, I just made some notations on my note sheet and then I unmounted the hairs, basically the reverse of mounting them. I took that coverslip off, removed the hairs from the slide, put them back into the paper bindle, folded that up, put it back into the coin envelope and folded the flap of the coin envelope so that it was closed, and that was the end of my examination at that point.
Just by folding the bindle. Like I say it is a tri-fold thing. I mean, if you have a piece of paper like this, you basically fold it three times and your hairs first will be placed in the center of that bindle, so you fold the edges over and the hairs are now in the center of those pieces of paper, and then you fold these other two edges over and then the hair is secured on the inside of that bindle.
Now, after you got done, after you did that, what did do you with the slide that you had the water on?
Did you notice anything unusual about the water in which the hair had been resting on the slide?
Umm, yes. Actually the water had kind of a reddish tinge to it because all of those hairs appeared to be encrusted with blood when I was examining them. There was a lot of blood on them.
KEY QUOTEAfter that examination, did you look at the butcher paper on which you had done your exam of item 19?
Just to make sure that nothing had escaped the bindle when I was examining it, and there was nothing on the butcher paper.
Basically the same reason. I checked my gloves periodically whenever I do an exam just to make sure that I don't get any hairs or fibers on them adhering to my gloves rather than on the slide or in the bindles that I'm working with.
And this whole examination that you conducted of item 19, was that done with clean gloves on the clean butcher paper?
After you completed your examination, you examined the paper and the--and your gloves, what did you do next?
Umm, well, I returned that coin envelope to the box and then I began examining some other items.
Well, it is a box. I believe it is box no. 2, but again, that photograph is kind of blurry. I can't really read the tag.
Now, that shows that there were--the same as the other tag, that there is a description area for the contents of the box?
Number 9--numbers 1 through 9--let me just single out some of the items in it so that we don't have to do a laundry list.
Umm, yes. It was kind of a cap with a little brim on it. I think it was like brown, maybe like a checkered design.
Showing you People's 439, can you tell us if you recognize in this photograph the cap you were describing?
And with respect to the piece of carpet that you saw, item no. 33, do you recognize anything in this photograph as consistent with a piece of carpet that you saw and recognize as item no. 33?
Do you see an area on this carpet that you recognize as like the one--the piece that you saw in the box no. 2?
Umm, the rubber mat area that you see here, which is part of that--that piece of carpeting, that was--item 33 had that rubber mat and also a stained area which I think you can see in the upper left corner of this photograph just vaguely, there was a stained area there that appeared to be blood stain.
Now, going back to the label on that box, People's 438, now, those items that we have just itemized; 9, 13, 27, 33, 38--excuse me, one more--item no. 37, was that also in the box?
If you can tell us, ma'am, how those--were all of those items individually packaged?
Each of those items were individually packaged in paper bags which had been folded over and taped closed.
With respect to the piece of carpeting that we have referred to as no. 33 that you just pointed out to us in a photograph, how was that packaged?
That item was wrapped in white paper and the paper was sealed with that--that two-inch tape that I referred to earlier, that brown tape.
So there was no openings in the container, the paper that was wrapping the item no. 33 carpet?
Now, the other items that are listed in the--as being in that box, were any of those items either hair or fiber items?
And with respect to the--then everything in the box was individually wrapped; is that correct?
Some of the items were in coin envelopes. The items mentioned before were, you know, item 33 was wrapped. The other items were in brown paper bats and the rest of the items were in coin envelopes which were also taped closed.
With respect to the gloves, item 9, item--let me ask you this: This box no. 2, did you get this from shelf storage or from the freezer?
Was there anything else in this box other than the items--the item numbers that are shown here?
I didn't make any notation of specifically what they were containing, but they were individual coin envelopes and they were all individually sealed and numbered.
Umm, I referred to a property report to look and see what item listed on that property report corresponded to the numbers that I saw, and they were listed as red stains.
(Witness complies.) Umm, I wrote on my notes just "Red stains," but I don't know exactly how they were listed in the property report, if they were red stains or cloth swatches.
Did you--did you do--did you make an effort to look at the property report at the time that you had contact with this box on the 21st to verify what was in those coin envelopes?
For items 1 through 8 and then items 11 through 14 and then items 20 through 34, 37 to 39, 41 to 45, 47 to 52, 54 to 57.
And what is--what is the description of what was contained in the coin envelopes that you used to conduct the inventory?
Umm, the description in the property report is "Cloth watch or cloth swatches used to"--
And those were all sealed up in their own coin envelope in that box marked "Red stains"?
The other items that were not cloth swatches, were any of those hair or trace or fiber items?
Again, all I saw was the outer packaging. I didn't know at that time what was in those packages. I only found out by checking the property report and seeing "Stick."
Okay. All right. Now, the plaid cap, the picture of that you saw on the Bronco, and the blue knit cap, were those individually packaged and sealed when you contacted them in the box?
Were there any hair samples of either victims Ron Goldman or Nicole Brown or the Defendant in that box?
Now, when I say "Hair sample," are you familiar with the collection--the manner of collection of hair samples from victims of the homicide at the Coroner's office?
And are those samples--are samples taken from victims of homicides and packaged by the Coroner's office and sent to you for examination on a routine basis?
Now, the item of carpet, the no. 33 that you referred to, and you identified in the Bronco, did you touch that item on June 21st?
Umm, the touch--I touched it just in the course of inventorying what was in that box. It is a rather large item and I moved it around a little bit to get to some of the other items that were in the box, but I didn't actually take it out of the box.
All right. After doing the inventory of the box, did you assure yourself that it did contain what it was listed to contain on that tag?
Yes. Again I covered lab bench. I put out a clean piece of white paper and then I removed the item 27 from the box, which was a paper bag, which was taped, you know, folded over and taped, opened the bag over that white paper, and removed from the bag that brown cap.
Now, at the time that you begin that kind of examination, what is your purpose? Why are you examining that item of evidence?
I was asked to examine these items and remove any trace evidence, things like hairs and fibers or other debris that were on any of these items.
And in order to collect hair and fibers from a given item, do you have some kind of container that you always use?
I use a paper bindle, so I have basically a white pad of paper that I use, I tear off sheet and before I started I kind of pre-folded some, so that I had bindles all ready to go, and those were set aside, and so, umm, I took one of those bindles, had it out on the lab bench when I was examining the item.
And that is the cap that you--that was the first item that you examined in this case?
I'm sorry, yes. Item 19 was--when you examined that item, that had already been removed from a piece of evidence, correct?
So is this the first piece of evidence item that you yourself examined in this case?
Yes, I'm sorry. Thank you. And what is the method that you used to collect hair or fibers from this item?
Umm, basically it is picking--just using my hand, sometimes tweezers if my hands just don't quite have the dexterity I need, and picking off the hairs and fibers that I see. When I'm dealing with garments, things like hats, clothing, I will actually kind of physically roll the item and look very carefully across the top surface and see hairs or fibers that are kind of protruding, pick those off and place them into the paper bindle. And when I'm done picking everything that I can see, then I will just gently kind of shake and scrape that item over that white piece of paper. If anything falls off, then I also add that to the bindle.
And did you--the bag--excuse me, the cap, when you first retrieved it from the box, you said it was contained in a bag that was taped shut?
Before actually examined the cap, what, if any, did you do with that bag that it was in? Did you look inside it?
Umm, as I'm removing the cap from the bag, I looked inside to see if there are any loose hairs or fibers in the bag as well. Sometimes hairs or fibers will fall off of an item and remain in the bag.
And did you see any items of hair or fiber or trace remaining in the bag when you removed the cap?
After you collected the fiber and hair from the cap in the manner you've described, into the bindle, what did you do next?
When I was done with my examination I replaced the cap into its paper bag and then I basically fold the white examination paper that I'm--that I'm working on, I will fold it and tap the side so any loose fibers or hairs that may be there will kind of fall in based on kind of like a funnel effect. Tap the side and gravity helps and the things fall down into that crease and I crease it the opposite way so that I get everything in that very localized area on that white piece of paper and take those items and place them in the bindle.
You literally pick up whatever debris has fallen into the funnel created by the crease?
Right. Make sure there is nothing else remaining on that white piece of paper, and the bindle is placed into a coin envelope. I mark the bindle with some identifying information. I mark the coin envelope with some identifying information, place the bindle into the coin envelope. I fold over the top flap and then I remove the white piece of paper, discard it along with my gloves, and go on to the next item.
Before folding it up do you check your gloves to see if there is any remaining hair or trace remaining on them?
Do you check the paper that the cap had been on and the bindle had been on before you fold up the bindle?
Umm, not specifically, but probably something like, you know, "Hairs and fibers removed from cap, item 27," my initials, the date, the DR number.
Okay. This is the item no. 111 that is already on the board marked People's 436, your Honor.
Well, this is--shows the back of that coin envelope and then the bindle, which is a little difficult to read.
It is in the lower right-hand corner just above the ruler, that white kind of square piece of paper with a lot of writing on it.
The white envelope is an analyzed evidence envelope that I then place that coin envelope into.
It says "Trace evidence removed from cap, item no. 27, by S.A. Brockbank, E9110 on 6/21/94."
Umm, that is writing placed on there by Doug Deedrick and his initials are below that.
That is the item number that--that these hairs and fibers were later booked as by me.
So you take an evidence item from a crime scene, for example, in this case, the cap, okay, item no. 27. When you remove hair and fiber you give that hair and fiber that you recovered from that piece of evidence a new number?
All right. After you repackaged--after you packaged this actually into the bindle and into the coin envelope, where did you put the coin envelope?
Umm, the coin envelope then went into that larger analyzed evidence envelope that you see and then that was set aside on my work bench while I went to the next item.
Umm, the cap had already been replaced into its paper bag, which was folded over and taped closed, and I returned that to the box.
Before you looked at it, did you take any precautions to make sure the area was clean from anything that you might possibly have missed after creasing, folding and everything else?
Yeah. I--well, I discarded that white piece of paper that I was working on, changed my gloves, placed down a new white piece of paper and put on new gloves before I looked at the next item.
Umm, similar to how I examined the first cap, I removed the--the knit cap from the bag, placed it on my white piece of paper, again rolling it and looking, you know, very carefully over every inch of the hat, I removed hairs and fibers from the exterior of the hat, placed those into a paper bindle. And then I turned the cap inside out and I removed, you know, using the same process, removed hairs and fibers from the inside of the cap. I placed those in a separate paper bindle, marked the paper bindle from the inside, "Hairs and fibers removed from inside of cap," marked the paper bindle from the outside, "Hairs and fibers removed from outside of cap."
Before you even looked at the outside of the cap did you look into the bag that had contained the cap?
After you--you created the bindle for the--let me ask you this: You recovered hair and fiber from the exterior of the cap by picking?
Umm, not initially, not until I had already looked on the inside of the cap also. I didn't want to disturb any--anything that might be loose on the inside of the cap, so I removed everything I could by picking first from both inside and outside and then I went back and just gently kind of scraped and, you know, saw if anything came off.
So when you first looked at the exterior and the interior, you did not shake or scrape the cap?
After you picked off whatever you could see from the exterior of the cap, you put that into a bindle, did you?
Umm, I was still examining the same item. There was really no reason to change gloves. Nothing that I saw.
Did you make any effort to examine the paper or your gloves after you picked off the exterior trace of hair?
Yes. There was nothing remaining on the paper and nothing remaining on my gloves.
Did you fold up the bindle containing the exterior hair or trace before you moved on to the interior?
Umm, yes. That bindle was folded up and placed into a coin envelope, kind of set aside while I looked at the other--the inside of the cap.
Okay. And then after you looked at the inside of the cap, did you examine the paper and your gloves for any remaining hair or trace that might not have been collected into the bindle?
Umm, when I had it inside out, I actually did do the little scraping. There is no sense in turning it inside out, you know, twice, so I just did that and placed that in the bindle, then I folded up the bindle.
Then I turned the cap right outside and kind of gently scraped and shook the outside.
What did you do with the hair and trace that came off when you did the last scraping of the outside?
And after--okay. So you picked off the exterior, then you turned it inside south and picked off the interior?
After you scraped the interior and completed putting everything into that bindle, you examined the paper and your gloves for hair and trace?
All right. After that, did you examine the paper and your gloves for any hair or trace?
Umm, then the cap was--well, I kind of forgot, I--I always initial the evidence that I examine, so on item 27, before replacing the cap into the bag, I put my initials on--usually I try and mark on the tag of the item, so I marked that cap, but then on 38 there is a tag on the inside which I marked with my initials, then I replaced it into the bag that it came from, fold it over and tape it closed.
So you initial the actual evidence items themselves when you examine them for hair and trace?
With respect to the bindles that you created, did you put them both in one coin envelope?
I'm showing the photograph, your Honor, that is already depicted, I believe, on our chain board.
I'm sorry, on the knit cap I believe I separated the interior from the exterior and put them in separate coin envelopes, not the same coin envelope.
All right. This is the photograph for item no. 113 on the chain board which shows hair and trace from no. 38, we have referred to the blue knit cap. Are you looking at that photograph?
You see there is a blue thing down at the bottom of the photograph in the lower left-hand corner?
Umm, we call them slide mailers. It is basically a container that we place mounted slides, those are slides with hairs mounted on them, to protect the slide, so that, you know, you don't just drop a glass side into an envelope and expect it to stay intact, so it can get broken very easily, so we have these plastic containers and we also have some cardboard containers that we will place those slides into to protect them when they are being transported and stored and that sort of thing.
That is just from the chain board. I'm not marking those individually because they are already on 426.
I have a photograph, your Honor, ask that it be marked People's next in order, 442.
Umm, there is--at the top of the screen there is a large--well, larger coin envelope with my markings, 94-0817431, item no. 113 and S.A.B., which is an envelope that I placed the other envelopes, which aren't on the screen any more, but were on the screen a second ago.
Right. Off to the left is a large white paper bindle which I removed--that is actually a bindle that I placed debris. I believe there were like leaves and plant material on the exterior of the hat, and I placed those into that bindle.
Umm, those are--are three bindles that--well, when I initially examined the hat, I put the hairs from the exterior in one bindle and the hairs from the interior in a separate bindle and then each of those bindles went into those two coin envelopes that you see in the lower right portion of the screen.
So did you separate then the bindle for the exterior from the bindle from the interior into separate coin envelopes?
Right. Then there is a third bindle there. Did you create that at some later point?
Well, at a later point I was asked to separate the darker pigmented hairs from the lighter ones. There was some hairs that appeared to be blond in color, very light, and then there was some dark black to brown hairs. I was asked to separate those from the animal hairs, so there became now three bindles instead of just the one. One has the dark-colored hairs in it and one has the light-colored hairs in it and one has the animal hairs in it.
Did you somehow designate, when you did that, where those hairs came from on the cap, when you had to regroup them?
Umm, well, I marked each of those--each of those bindles, and I--the markings are there, and you know, very basic descriptions of the hairs. The top one you can see: "Seven blond lightly pigmented hairs, no roots from outer surface of knit cap, item 38, separated by S.A.B.," those are my initials, "On 6/23/94." Those were separated from the original bindle and placed into that bindle. And then the second bindle down, thank you: "Four dark brown to black hairs, including one with fleshy root intact." I was also asked to see if hairs had roots or if they were just fragments of hairs which meant they were broken or cut or in some way the root detached from them, so I noted that there was one with a root. And then: "From outer surfaces of knit cap, item no. 38, separated by S.A.B., 6/23/94." And then the third bindle you can't really read what is on it, but it is--you can see part of it. It is "Animal hairs and fibers."
All right. Did you make notations on the coin envelopes depicting what was--which bindle was in which envelope?
On the coin envelopes? I noted that--well, the one on the right you can see, says "Inside cap surfaces." The one on the left is covered up by one of the bindles, but it said, "Outside cap surfaces" which were exterior of the cap and interior of the cap.
All right. After you put the one--at that point it was just two bindles; one bindle in each?
Coin envelope and you wrote on the coin envelope. What did you do with them, the coin envelopes?
I folded over the top of the coin envelope, placed those in that analyzed evidence envelope that I had set aside, when I--when I examined the first cap, placed it in there with that cap. Actually--well, it was inside that larger--I'm sorry, those two went inside the larger and the--let me start over. The two coin envelopes and the bindles inside them, along with the larger white bindle you see on the left, were all placed in that larger envelope up at the top of the screen, then that was placed into the analyzed evidence envelope that I had set aside after examining the first cap.
Had you at this point opened that package containing the Bronco carpet, item no. 33?
Had you touched or had you opened that carpet--that piece of carpet, item no. 33 that you described earlier as being encased in paper?
It was placed back into the paper bag that it came from and the tape bag was folded over, taped closed and put back into the box that it came out of.
Umm, again that piece of paper, my working surface from the previous item was discarded, my gloves were discarded, and a new piece of paper was laid down and I applied new gloves. And then I took that glove, item no. 9, removed it from the bag and began my examination on it.
The water had kind of a reddish tinge to it because all of those hairs appeared to be encrusted with blood when I was examining them. There was a lot of blood on them.
No. 9 is a glove... I believe that was the glove recovered from Rockingham.
I washed down the lab bench with a dilute bleach solution just to clean the lab bench, and then I cover the lab bench with white butcher paper... Between items that I examined I changed that paper, put down a new piece of paper.
I marked the paper bindle from the inside, 'Hairs and fibers removed from inside of cap,' marked the paper bindle from the outside, 'Hairs and fibers removed from outside of cap.'