Opinion ID: 2036519
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 19

Heading: Fibers From Victim's Clothing and Defendant's Vehicle

Text: Kenneth Knight, who examined the human hair recovered from the body, also examined the fiber evidence recovered from the victim's clothing and defendant's vehicle. Knight testified that where two fibers are consistent with each other, i.e., have no significant or meaningful differences, the conclusion is that the fibers could have originated from the same source. Harold Deadman testified that a cross-transference, i.e., a two-way transfer of fibers, adds evidential value because the odds of finding these fibers by chance is small, which makes the likelihood that the objects were in contact much greater. According to Deadman, to find any more than a small number of matching fibers by pure coincidence is very unlikely. Knight testified that among the fibers found on the victim's clothing were three gold fibers and one gold tuft (comprised of over 30 individual fibers) found on the socks; six gold fibers found on the shoes; nine gold fibers found on the underpants; eight gold fibers found on the shorts; and three gold fibers found on the shirt. Knight compared these fibers with carpet standards from the front and back of defendant's vehicle. With the exception of one gold fiber from the shirt, all of the individual gold fibers and the gold tuft were consistent with the carpeting in defendant's vehicle. Specifically, Knight testified that the fibers were all large-diameter, trilobal, polyester fibers, consistent in color, fluorescence, and refraction. The gold fiber on the victim's shirt that was inconsistent with the carpeting was a medium-diameter gold fiber made of nylon. That fiber was consistent with the fabric in the front and back seats of defendant's vehicle. Knight was provided carpet standards from the victim's environment, including the Schulz residence, the Willis residence, and Salem Vacuum Cleaners (Dennis Schulz's business), for comparison with the gold fibers found on the victim's clothing. Knight concluded that the gold fibers and the gold tuft did not originate from the victim's environment, as represented by these standards. In addition, Knight contacted J.P. Stevens & Co., whose name was listed on the carpet tag removed from defendant's vehicle. Robert Woosley, previously with J.P. Stevens and now a consultant for the automotive carpet industry, testified that the gold polyester carpet identified by the carpet tag was manufactured exclusively for Chrysler. According to Gary Mallett, formerly with the Chrysler corporation, the type of carpeting installed in defendant's vehicle was used only in certain models for model years 1977 and 1978. Erring on the high side, Mallett estimated that the same type of carpeting was installed in 80,450 vehicles. Harold Deadman testified that, assuming all the vehicles in which the same gold carpeting was installed still existed in 1987, the odds were one in 1,400 of picking a car at random with the same carpeting. Kenneth Knight further testified regarding the fibers recovered from defendant's vehicle, which was transported in a rental truck from Montana to Mt. Vernon, Illinois, for processing. Knight testified he did not know how many persons were in the vehicle after July 1, 1987, the date of the murder. Other testimony indicated that a gas station employee drove the car briefly late in the day on July 1, 1987, and that during the period from October 10, 1987 (the date the car was found in Montana), and October 28, 1987 (the date the car was processed), at least two park rangers had been inside the vehicle. In addition, testimony from Officer Anthis, who had flown to Montana and arranged for the transport of the vehicle to Illinois, suggested that the car could have been driven a short distance when the Jefferson County police conducted their initial investigation of the vehicle. Knight testified that over 6,000 red fibers were recovered from the vehicle and all but 19 were dissimilar to the victim's clothing. Specifically, 12 cotton fibers and 4 polyester fibers from the front passenger carpeting were consistent with the victim's shirt, which was a red polyester and cotton blend. In addition, one red fiber recovered from the front passenger carpeting, and two red fibers found on the front passenger seat, were consistent with the victim's red shorts. Knight considered this match significant because the victim's shorts were homemade out of a fabric not typically used for clothing: a multilobe, large-diameter polyester fabric. Harold Deadman also considered the red fibers uncommon. The 19 red fibers were inconsistent with carpet standards obtained from the victim's environment, as well as clothing and a bedspread found in defendant's vehicle. Fiber standards from the two park rangers who were inside the vehicle were not provided to Knight for comparison. Randall Bresee, a defense expert on fiber analysis, criticized Knight's methodology, testifying that Knight's observations were largely subjective. According to Bresee, Knight failed to perform a quantitative analysis of the fibers, such as counting the delusterant particles, measuring fluorescence, and computing the fiber diameter values and modification ratios (a quantitative measure of fiber shape). He also testified that the visual color comparison Knight performed is error-prone, and that the better method would have been to identify the dyes used to color the fibers. Bresee noted that Hoechst Celanese, the company that produced the polyester used by J.P. Stevens in the manufacture of the carpeting at issue here, could not specifically confirm that it produced the fibers found on the victim's socks. Bresee also opined that any polyester Hoechst Celanese produced that was off spec, or surplus, would have gone into the marketplace into other goods. Thus, the same fibers found in the carpeting used in 80,000 Chrysler vehicles would also be found in other goods such as residential carpeting, floor mats, and crafts.