Opinion ID: 1713477
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Physical Evidence at the Crime Scene

Text: ¶ 63. The police collected hair specimens and semen samples from Kamps' apartment, as well as two fingerprints that were found on a bong. The police also gathered what purported to be blood evidence from underneath Armstrong's fingernails and toenails. The State argued to the jury that the physical evidence conclusively and irrevocably established Armstrong as the killer.
¶ 64. Josef Rut, a Madison Police Officer, testified that one of the two fingerprints on the bong matched Armstrong and that the source of the other print was unknown.
¶ 65. Coila J. Wegner, a microanalyst at the State Crime Laboratory Bureau, tested semen samples found on the bathrobe recovered from the floor next to Kamps' body. Wegner testified that she found nine areas on the robe that tested positive for the presence of seminal material. She tested the stain nearest the hem of the robe and determined that it was indicative of a type A secretor. Wegner testified that both Armstrong and Dillman are type A secretors, as are 80 percent of the world's population. ¶ 66. On cross-examination, Wegner testified that the location of at least seven of the nine seminal stains on the robe were consistent with a person having sexual intercourse and then sitting down while wearing the robe. Wegner stated that these stains would remain on the robe until the garment was washed. Dillman testified that Kamps' wore the robe often, usually in the morning before she got dressed and when she retired in the evening. ¶ 67. The State argued the following about the semen evidence in closing argument: This picture shows Charise Kamps' robe. (Indicating.) It's right next to the bed. You heard testimony about that robe. Jill Wegner performed tests on it and she looked for seminal material and she found it. Found spots of it. She did an analysis on that. She was trying to determine the blood type of the person who put seminal fluids on the robe. So, she analyzed it and found that it came from a person with type A blood who secreted his blood type in his body fluid, in his semen, in his saliva, in his tears. And she analyzed Ralph Armstrong's blood and his saliva. Ralph Armstrong's a type A secreter.
¶ 68. Armstrong drove to the police station at about 2:15 p.m. on the afternoon of June 24 to wait for May, who was asked to give a statement to police. After arriving at the station, Armstrong was asked by Officer Hathoway to give a statement. After three interviews, at about 8:30 p.m., Armstrong signed consent forms for searches of his person, car, and apartment. Wegner took samples from Armstrong, including a standard head hair, pubic hair, a saliva sample, and tested Armstrong's hands and feet for traces of blood. ¶ 69. Wegner testified that after running hemosticksplastic strips with treated absorbent pads that react to the presence of certain proteins found in bloodunder the nails of Armstrong's fingers and toes and around the cuticles, she found a presumptive positive reaction on every finger and on several toes. [18] ¶ 70. Wegner then scraped material from underneath Armstrong's thumbs and large toes, tested the samples, and determined that the material indicated blood of human origin. However, Wegner testified that she did not have sufficient material to run additional tests and could not identify from whom the blood came or how old it was. In fact, Wegner agreed that in her experience, she had blood over one-year old produce positive hemostick results. ¶ 71. Wegner agreed that the sensitivity of the hemosticks is one in 300,000 to trigger a presumptive positive. She also agreed that the hemosticks simply react to particular chemicals within bloodiron, and plant peroxidewhich are also found in other substances besides blood. ¶ 72. Armstrong presented evidence supporting alternative explanations for the presence of human blood under his thumbnails and large toenails. During the tests in the evening of June 24, 1980, in the presence of Detectives Roger Attoe and Rudolf Jergovic, and at trial, Armstrong stated that he had fallen and scraped his elbow and his knee the previous day in a footrace with his brother in the Arboretum. Armstrong also explained that in the days preceding the tests he had sex and had taken showers with his fiancée, May, while she was experiencing her menstrual period and that she tended to bleed profusely. ¶ 73. Indeed, Wegner testified that Armstrong showed her the scab on his knee when she conducted the tests, and Armstrong presented photographs of his scrapes in a trial exhibit. Wegner's testing also found blood on the inside of Armstrong's pants that was consistent with his scraped knee. No other traces of blood were found on Armstrong's clothing or inside or outside of his boots. ¶ 74. May's testimony corroborated Armstrong's explanation about his fall during the footrace and about Armstrong's and May's physical intimacy during her menstrual period. May specifically stated that she sought medical attention regarding her particularly heavy bleeding in the days prior to Kamps' murder. May testified that she was bleeding heavily during a shower with Armstrong and that she later had surgery to correct her condition. ¶ 75. Wegner also testified that she spent two full working days examining the interior of Armstrong's car for traces of blood. Wegner tested for blood in the car's interior, including the trunk compartment, and focused on the steering wheel, gearshift lever, lock button on the driver's door, the floor, ceiling, and the front and rear seats. Wegner found no traces of blood anywhere within the vehicle and testified that it did not appear as if there had been an attempt to clean the car. ¶ 76. The State characterized Wegner's findings of trace amounts of blood underneath Armstrong's fingers and toenails in closing with the following: The defendant's fingers were tested down at the police station. Jill Wegner ran the hemosticks around the cuticles and under the thumb and under the nails and around the cuticles of every finger and lo and behold there was blood under every fingernail, every single one. That was Charise Kamps' blood. (Emphasis added.)
¶ 77. Wegner assisted Dr. Huntington with his postmortem examination of Kamps' body. Wegner recovered pubic hair combings and head and pubic hair standards from Kamps for comparison. ¶ 78. A number of hairs were recovered from Kamps' apartment, which Wegner compared to the standard head and pubic hairs from Armstrong, Kamps, and Dillman. At trial, Wegner explained her process of comparison to the jury, elaborating on the characteristics of importancethe scales on the hair's surface, or cuticle; the form, color, and distribution of pigmentation; the consistency of the center, or medulla, of the hair; whether the hair has been shed, broken, or forcibly removed; any unusual characteristics, such as double medulla or cracked cuticles; and physical condition of the hair. ¶ 79. Wegner testified that there are 60 to 70 characteristics she compares between hairs to determine whether two are similar or consistent. Only a majority is needed to determine two hairs are consistent. Wegner stated that in almost all instances99.9 percentone could not say through microscopic analysis that a specific hair came from a specific individual. Wegner testified that hair analysis can include or exclude a person but could not identify them. ¶ 80. Wegner testified that two head hairs and one pubic hair were removed from the bathrobe belt that was draped across Kamps' body. One head hair was consistent and one was similar with Armstrong's hair. The pubic hair removed from the belt was consistent with Kamps. ¶ 81. From Kamps' bathroom sink, investigators recovered two head hairs and two head hair fragments. Wegner testified that one head hair was similar with Kamps, two were consistent with Armstrong, and one could not be attributed to either Kamps or Armstrong. Armstrong's counsel elicited testimony from May that May, Kamps, and Armstrong routinely shared the same hairbrushes, and May identified a hairbrush in the photograph of Kamps' bathroom counter as one of May's own. ¶ 82. Wegner analyzed 13 hairs from blood and fecal-like matter collected at the scene, including five head hairs, four pubic hairs, three body hairs, and one animal hair. Of those, Wegner found one head hair that was consistent with Armstrong's. All four of the pubic hairs were consistent with Kamps. ¶ 83. From the fan in Kamps' apartment, investigators recovered four head hairs, one of which was similar to Armstrong's, and three were consistent with Kamps. Wegner attributed one head hair recovered from Kamps' apartment to Dillman. ¶ 84. From the robe itself, Wegner collected one head hair, which was consistent with Kamps, and three pubic hairs. Two of the public hairs removed from the robe were consistent with Kamps, and one was not consistent with either Kamps or Armstrong. ¶ 85. On the bedspread from Kamps apartment, Wegner found one head hair and nine pubic hairs. Five pubic hairs were consistent with Kamps, and four pubic hairs, which had been forcibly removed, [19] were inconsistent with both Kamps and Armstrong. ¶ 86. Of the hairs collected in the vacuum sweeping around the bed, [20] none were found to be consistent with Armstrong. Ten pubic hairs, five of which were forcibly removed, in the vacuum sweepings were not attributable to either Kamps or Armstrong. ¶ 87. Wegner agreed that in about half of all sexual assault cases pubic hair is transferred from the assailant to the victim or from the victim to the assailant. Wegner stated that no pubic hairs collected from Kamps' apartment were determined to be consistent with Armstrong, and no hairs were found on Armstrong, or on articles seized in the search of Armstrong's apartment, that were consistent with Kamps. ¶ 88. In closing arguments, the State argued that the two head hairs found on the bathrobe belt draped across Kamps' body (one of which Wegner determined to be consistent with and the other to be similar to Armstrong's hair), the two head hairs found in the sink (which were consistent with Armstrong's hair), the head hair found in the fan (which was similar to Armstrong's hair), and the head hair found in the fecal matter near Kamps' body (which was consistent with Armstrong's hair) proved that Armstrong murdered Kamps. The State made the following statements characterizing the hair evidence: Now, you have an opportunity to see what that scene looked like right after Ralph Armstrong committed the murder (indicating). [21] That's what they saw on the bed (indicating). Charise Kamps. That was Charise Kamps. I want you to look at the smear marks on the legs. You can't see it real well from this angle (indicating). You have heard Officer Fisher describe it. You heard Jane May describe it. It says it was like finger paints (indicating). [22] So, Charise Kamps was found lying in blood and feces and on her bed with that robe on. This is it (indicating) lying on top of Charise Kamps' body. Two of the defendant's hairs were on this robe. One of Charise Kamps' hairs right there across the body (indicating). . . . . They looked for hairs. Where did they find the hair in that apartment? Found it in the bathroom sink. Found it in, on the robe tie. Found it in the fan, and they found it in a pile of feces on the floor underneath the body. The defendant's hair in every place in that apartment was consistent with his killing Charise Kamps. The cabinet in the bathroom was open. Right where the towels were kept were open. The defendant had gone in there to clean up after he murdered Charise and his hair was in that sink. [23] The defendant would want you to believe that hair kind of floats around and lands where it was and has a mind of its own. There is no explanation for why that hair was found in every place that the defendant was except that he murdered Charise Kamps. (Emphasis added.) ¶ 89. In closing, Armstrong disputed the State's characterization of hair evidence at length. Specifically, Armstrong argued that the sharing of hairbrushes among Kamps, May, and Armstrong provided an innocent explanation for why Armstrong's hair was found in Kamps' bathroom sink. Armstrong noted that many forcibly removed pubic hairs were found at the scene, all of which were inconsistent with Armstrong's hair, and asserted that the hairs belong to the person who killed Kamps. ¶ 90. The jury convicted Armstrong on all counts.