Michael Benson's True Crime Bundle by Michael Benson

Author:Michael Benson [Benson, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: True Crime, Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780786032099
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2011-03-28T07:00:00+00:00

Following the second day of testimony, Nate Lee said he was concerned about Denise’s legacy. “I want her to be remembered for the person she was and all of the things she did to get this person caught. Hopefully convicted. I don’t want her to be remembered for the horrifying 911 call that she made.”

Ah, but Denise Lee had left a trail of bread crumbs that led police to her killer, and the 911 call was the biggest crumb of all.

CHAPTER 17

DAY THREE

Come morning, Cortnie Watts returned to the stand, where she was cross-examined by Jerry Meisner.

“You are aware that there is such a thing as contamination of evidence, right?”

“Yes.”

“Transfer contamination?”

“Yes.”

“Walking from here to there, I might pick up hairs and fibers, or deposit them. Isn’t that correct?”

“Yes.”

“And trace evidence I might have picked up in my home this morning, I might now deposit here in the courtroom?”

“Yes.”

“Now, when you reported to the house on Latour Avenue, there were already police there when you arrived?”

“Yes.”

He showed the witness a fingerprint recovered at the Lee home and asked if she recognized it. She didn’t, as it wasn’t one she personally lifted. Meisner asked how that could be, and she replied that at the scene were criminalistics specialists from several law enforcement agencies, including the FDLE.

“Who lifted this print? Was it someone named Justin Rogers?”

“I don’t know. I would have to look at the card.”

“Okay, here.”

“This print was lifted by FDLE employee Justin Rogers,” she said.

Meisner asked her about another print, not lifted by her, and she had to read the card to know who lifted that one as well. Another was signed by a P. S. Bauman. Meisner asked Watts how many FDLE employees were at the Latour Avenue scene and she said she did not know.

Meisner then set out to show that even given the evidence that she herself discovered, her search for fingerprints was less than exhaustive. She had dusted the gas can, but not the flashlight; a wooden banister from the car, but not the shovel.

“Before entering the home on Sardinia, you say you donned protective equipment, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Were you the first member of law enforcement to enter that home?”

“No.”

“Did the members of law enforcement who entered the house before you don the protective garb?”

“I don’t know.”

Meisner forced the witness to admit that not all of the search for evidence was timely. The cell phone and battery found in the Camaro, for example, were not dusted for prints until months after the murder. Watts had to check notes to recall that the cell phone was processed for prints on April 9, 2008; the battery was on June 11.

“Okay, I’d like to go back to January seventeenth again, all right?”

“Yes.”

“On that day, you took photos of tire marks outside the Latour Avenue home, correct?”

“Yes. There was a sandy area on the driveway and road where prints were visible.”

Yes, she’d also made ink tire prints of the defendant’s car not long after it was seized. Yes, the photos, ink prints, and the actual ties from the Camaro were sent to the FDLE.

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