All right. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Please be seated. Let the record reflect that we've been rejoined by all the members of our jury panel. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
THE JURY: Good morning.
All right. Mr. Gregory Matheson, would you resume the witness stand, please.
Gregory Matheson, the witness on the stand at the time of the evening adjournment, resumed the stand and testified further as follows:
Mr. Matheson is again on the witness stand undergoing direct examination by Mr. Goldberg. Good morning, Mr. Matheson.
Mr. Matheson, you are reminded, sir, you are still under oath. Mr. Goldberg, you may continue with your direct examination.
Ladies and gentlemen.
THE JURY: Good morning.
DIRECT EXAMINATION (RESUMED) BY Mr. GOLDBERG
Mr. Matheson, when we left off yesterday, we were talking about the creation of fitzco cards from the reference file. Do you recall that?
I wanted to show you what we previously marked as 163-L for identification, see if you can tell us what this type of item is.
This is an example of a type of blood swatch card that we purchase. It has an outer envelope for protection. Inside contains an area where you can record some information about the items and then four circles that are in a filter type paper approximately an inch in diameter where you put the blood.
Your Honor, would it be permissible to mark another exhibit while the jurors are--
I would like to mark as People's 1--excuse me--211 for identification, that's 211-A what appears to be a photograph of item no. 60.
Mr. Matheson, I would now like to show you the photographs that have been marked as 211-A through C for identification. Is the resolution high enough for you to see those on your screen?
I can see the items and what's displayed there. The writing is difficult to discern.
Did you take a look at these photographs prior to coming into Court today, last night?
All three items are cards similar to the type that was just displayed in the courtroom here that are used to preserve liquid blood samples. Portions of a liquid sample is applied to the four different squares of the card. Best way to preserve a sample is dried and frozen so that way, we have portions of the blood rather than just keeping in a vial in the best possible form.
Do you do your testing or some of your testing from these cards as opposed to the blood vials themselves?
As far as the conventional typing goes, it's all done directly from the blood vial. These we started using in our laboratory with the advent of DNA typing.
All right. Now, in many of the photographs that we've seen of the packaging materials in this case, there are these cards at the bottom. What are those, the ones that have the DR number and the date?
Those cards are placed in there by the photographer. They have the DR number, date and what's call a "C" number, which references back to the order number for the photography.
Is that something that's standard when your SID photographer is taking photographs such as these?
Well, it's standard for something like that to show up in at least one frame of a roll of film or a sequence of photographs regarding the evidence.
And with respect to the photograph that's 211-A, on the bindle, there are some initials, if you can see them, that are "C.Y." Can you see that?
The "C.Y." Are the initials of Collin Yamauchi, a criminalist that works in the serology unit.
C-2 refers to a designation that we gave the initial exemplars that were involved in this case. It was decided that due to confidentiality, we would give an arbitrary indication, C-1, C-2 and C-3 to the exemplar, portions of the exemplars that were submitted to cellmark diagnostics for analysis.
Your Honor, object on foundational grounds previously stated. Continuing objection.
Okay. Thank you. Now, I was also going through the board that we marked as People's 177, the evidence disposition.
And I would like to mark as my next exhibit, that's 212, a document that says "Serology Item Description Notes."
Sir, directing your attention to People's 177, and this is the exhibit that has 59 through 82 on it, looking at item no. 78, the packaging, did you do some testing yourself on that item?
Okay. Now, in reviewing the records in order to verify this board, did you see a record that pertained to the entry 78 swatch and the date 7-20-94 with Mr. Yamauchi's name?
Yes, I did. The name appears on the board here. I recognize the document as one prepared by him.
This is a serology item description note page filled out by Mr. Yamauchi indicating the swatching or sampling of some stains under the--what appears to be the left shoe from item no. 78.
And you've previously described this type of document. Is this type of document actually generated at the time that the actual analysis or swatching is being performed?
And does the analyst sketch out or try to sketch out where the swatch or cutting came from when they're taking a swatch or a cutting?
Is there a sketch on this particular document indicating where the swatches came from?
All right. And I wanted to ask you another question about the items that were recovered by you from the carpet from the Bronco that was People's 172, if we could see that board again.
It's People's 172. Sir, directing your attention back to People's 172 for identification and the photograph in the middle on the bottom that has the number 293 in it, do you recognize what's depicted there?
And when you collected this item, 293, did you collect it from the carpet that's depicted in that photograph?
And you previously discussed how you did that. You used the method of just cutting rather than cloth swatch?
Now, in terms of the swatching that was done on the console of the Bronco that you said that you could see prior to when you did your swatching, do you feel that more sample should have been taken from those areas, 30 and 31?
Yes, I did. Upon seeing the blood that was present, I believed that probably more should have been taken originally.
Well, there was stains present on the console, and--that's a hard surface. It's a non-pore surface. Blood is just sitting right on top. It's fairly easy to remove, but it also can be fairly thin. Would have--probably the best thing to have done would have been to remove more of the sample originally on the first search.
When you removed more sample from those locations, was all of it gone by the time you were finished?
If you're removing staining that covers a fairly large area on a wall, for example, how do you decide how much of that stain to remove if it's a smear that covers maybe a square foot?
Well, given the different types that are available to us now, I would, in a situation like that, would probably want to collect four or five swatches and maybe quarter-inch square swatches, something like that. Maybe a little more. Depends on whether there's other evidence available.
I'd like to mark as People's next in order the additional LAPD evidence disposition board. That's 213. Maybe Mr. Fairtlough could put that up for us while he's there. Oh, I'm sorry. I think we previously marked this before we started as 209.
Sir, directing your attention to what's been previously marked as People's 209 for identification, do you recognize that?
And have you had the opportunity to look at this document to verify it against the records that are maintained by the Scientific Investigations Division?
Did you go through the same type of verification process that you described yesterday afternoon when I was asking you about the other evidence disposition boards?
Now, with respect to item no. 6, was a control swatch of item no. 6 sent somewhere on February 17th?
Well, there are a number of notes that were made by the individuals that prepared and sent those samples. Ended up being many pages worth of notes.
Were those notes that were prepared at the time that the samples were actually being packaged for transmittal or shipping?
Now, in addition to the documentation procedures that you described just now and yesterday, was there any photo documentation that occurred?
Well, prior to the items that were shipped out or delivered out that--during those dates in February, all of the items were described and photographed prior to their release.
And does the photograph that's in the cell under item number--for no. 6 depict the photo documentation that was done?
Now, in the bindle that's in item no. 6, was there anything other than the control?
They actually went out in a couple of different shipments. I believe D.A. Investigators transported them.
Well, they came back also in a couple of different shipments, but in and around February 22nd.
Now, with respect to item no. 6, when it came back or after it came back, was it photo documented again?
Now, on the date that it was photo documented, were you notified by someone to come and look at that bindle?
Well, I was asked to come back to the serology unit to take a look at the contents of that bindle.
Perhaps we could, with the Court's permission, just move this board down so that the jurors can see it.
So, Mr. Matheson, as to item no. 6, was there a hair that was not there in the bindle when it was sent to the Defense on February 17th, found in the bindle when it was photo documented on February the 27th?
All right. And what happened to item no. 6, the control, after the 27th of February?
A portion of the control plus a hair.
Yes. I feel that probably-- upon seeing the blood that was present, I believed that probably more should have been taken originally.
It was done in this case. We haven't done that before.
Was there a hair that was not there in the bindle when it was sent to the Defense on February 17th, found in the bindle when it was photo documented on February the 27th?