Opinion ID: 3134058
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: forensic testimony

Text: Crime Scene Technician Jackie Moore assisted Detective Bradley at the crime scene. She testified that there was no evidence of a struggle in the living 2. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966). -7- room area, but there was a void in the dust on a television stand in the living room indicating that there was previously a television and remote there. Moore further testified that there were bloodstains on the dining room table and chairs that continued toward the master bedroom. Pooling of blood and drag marks were on the floor near the refrigerator and the dining room table. The drag marks indicated that the victim was alive and moving erratically as she was dragged from the kitchen area to the bedroom. Blood with drag marks was in the doorway of the master bedroom. The bloodstains on the wall of the bedroom indicated that at some point the victim had been standing and had stepped in blood. There were bloody shoe impressions leading from the master bedroom to the kitchen. The victim had a gaping wound in her throat. The medical examiner testified that several passes, like a sawing motion with a sharp instrument, created the margin of the wound. The blood stains indicated that the victim’s carotid artery was not cut until she was in the bedroom. Her hands and shirt were saturated with blood. Blood also ran down her abdomen and soaked into the waistband of her pants. The amount and pattern of blood on the victim’s waistband indicates that she may have been sitting up slightly or halfway when she received the neck injury. The victim’s shirt was pulled upwards toward her neck, which is consistent with being dragged. -8- The laceration to the victim’s throat produced significantly more blood than was seen in the blood trail through the kitchen. The victim had a bruise on her cheek consistent with the tread and design of Middleton’s boots, more bruises and a cut to her face, and puncture and stab wounds on her chest, neck, ear, and arms. The bloody shoeprints were well defined closer to the bedroom and became faint as they continued down the hall. The victim’s son’s shoes were tested and eliminated as the shoes that caused the bloody impressions. Moore testified that this indicates that the blood was likely dried by the time the victim’s son found her. There were various items located close to the victim’s body, which indicate that she was grabbing for things during the struggle. The victim had bloody injuries to her arms and wrists. She had defensive wounds that indicated that she was trying to get away from someone who had a knife. None of the injuries to the victim’s extremities would have killed or incapacitated her. The autopsy revealed that the neck injury occurred toward the end of the attack. Following the neck injury, the victim could have been conscious for ten to twenty seconds, and alive for minutes after losing consciousness. On the kitchen floor of Middleton’s residence, there was a washed out shoe impression that was similar to those found inside the victim’s residence. This print tested positive for blood, but no DNA profile could be obtained. The medical examiner found blood on the sink of the only bathroom in Middleton’s trailer, but -9- no DNA profile could be obtained. There was blood beside the dresser in Middleton’s bedroom, but the DNA profile was inconclusive. A different bloodstain in Middleton’s room matched the victim’s DNA on four of thirteen points. The probability that a randomly selected Caucasian person could match the same DNA profile at these four locations is one in 41,680. Donna Lee and Rolland Ammons’ fingerprints were the only prints found on the victim’s television. Middleton’s fingerprints were not found inside the victim’s residence. There was no evidence that the trailer had been ransacked or that the victim’s things had been rifled through. Moore explained that the vanity in the victim’s bedroom had blood spatter on the outside, but not the inside, indicating that the door to the cabinet of the vanity was closed during the attack. Inside the cabinet, there was a purse that appeared to have been thrown in there. There was evidence of blood spatter on the purse and also blood inside of the purse. The purse was empty, and there were no fingerprints found on the purse.3