Opinion ID: 1801755
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Discovery and investigation of the crime scene

Text: Danyelle awakened at 6:00 a.m. on August 2, when she heard her mother's alarm clock. She walked to her mother's bedroom, but only her brother, Demetreus, was in her mother's bed. She proceeded downstairs to look for her mother, and found her lying on the living room floor with her pants down, her shirt up, and blood surrounding her. Danyelle shook her mother to waken her, but her mother did not move. Danyelle ran to a neighbor's home and reported that there was something wrong with her mother. When Danyelle exited from the front door, she observed that the lock within the doorknob, which could be engaged by a person exiting from the apartment before the door was closed, was locked, but the deadbolt lock, which could not be locked unless the door was closed (and therefore required a key to be locked from the outside), was not locked. The neighbor returned with Danyelle and, after attempting to feel a pulse in her mother's body, informed Danyelle that her mother was dead. Law enforcement officers arrived at Miller's apartment at approximately 7:00 a.m. on August 2. After the officers searched the apartment for suspects and cordoned off the crime scene, Deputy John Monarrez of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department interviewed Danyelle concerning the events of the prior evening. Monarrez testified that Danyelle informed him that she knew the visitor only as Mike, and she disclosed that she had seen Mike speak to her mother and visit their apartment on other occasions. She also told Monarrez that Mike was wearing a white T-shirt and tan pants. Monarrez asked Danyelle to compare the color of Mike's pants to pants worn by people milling in the crowd, and she identified a color that Monarrez described in his report as beige, which he believed to be lighter than tan. [9] Monarrez also asked Danyelle to compare Mike to other persons in the area and, based upon those comparisons, Monarrez determined that Mike was an African-American man, approximately 30 years of age, six feet in height, and weighing 175 pounds. Marc Bender, an investigator with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, inspected the crime scene. He testified that he found no blood trail leading away from Miller's body, and no blood on the doors, walls, or floor, other than underneath the body and within a few inches of it. He also testified that there was a large wound that cut into some of the major arteries in the victim's neck, but the blood was confined to a small area around the victim. Bender explained that the absence of splatter or spray of blood indicated to him that the automatic thrashing reaction that, according to Bender, almost always results from such an injury, had not occurred, nor had the victim aspirated blood and exhaled a spray of blood. Photographs of the crime scene reflected that the victim's arms extended upward on the floor, her forearms were bent inward, and her hands lay in close proximity to each other at the top of her head, with the fingers on her right hand touching her left wrist. Bender noted that there was little blood on the victim's hands, indicating to him that she had not reacted by grabbing at the wound as, he explained, victims of such wounds often do in response to pain or to stop the flow of blood. He also noted that the edge of the bloodstain on the floor was almost straight and ended where the victim's back came in contact with the carpet, indicating to him that any movements on her part after her throat was cut were minimal. Bender noted, and photographs of the crime scene reflected, that the victim's pants had been pulled off, except the bottoms of the pants legs, which apparently caught around the victim's ankles. The pants extended away from her feet, and were inside out. Her left leg was straight, but her right knee was bent sharply, causing her right foot to rest at a point even with her left thigh and knee. Her right foot was some distance from her left leg, and her right knee leaned inward toward her left thigh. Bender noted, and photographs from the crime scene reflected, a smear of blood on her right hip, and Bender surmised that someone had wiped blood from his or her hands onto the victim's hip, leaving a pattern that looked like fingers. He testified that on her arms were similar smears of blood that appeared to have been made by a hand. Finally, he testified that there were smears of blood on the carpet, and that one of the smears was pointed and appeared possibly to have come from the tip of a knife. Bender testified there was no sign of a struggle having occurred in the apartment. The downstairs window had bars, and a sliding door to a patio area behind the building had a deadbolt lock in place, indicating to Bender that the perpetrator left through the front door. He testified that no murder weapon was found. Bender testified that he suspected the perpetrator had washed his hands before leaving, but no evidence of blood was found in any of the apartment's sinks. He also testified that fingerprints found on objects in the apartment's living room and kitchen, and the laundry room, either matched the victim's or lacked a sufficient number of points of reference to compare to other known prints. Bender testified that he asked persons in the area about Mike, and was directed to Brian Jones, who described defendant the same way he described him later at trialall jacked up, very excited, hitting on everything that moved, and bound and determined to get between somebody's legs that night. Bender learned defendant's last name from a former neighbor of defendant's, who also disclosed that defendant had moved out of the house one day earlier. Bender conducted a search for defendant's name in a law enforcement computer system, and determined that defendant was on parole. Bender contacted defendant's parole officer and learned that defendant recently had requested permission to leave California and move to North Carolina. Paul Sham, a criminalist, also examined the crime scene on August 2. He testified that he detected no bloodstains on the front door, the tile floors, the interior walls, the ceiling, or on any objects; blood was found only on the body and immediately surrounding the upper portion of the body. He explained that blood smears result from contact with a bloody object, in contrast to blood splatter, which is caused by the deposit of airborne blood droplets. Sham testified that he observed blood smears on the victim's right calf, right buttocks, right hip, abdomen, upper arms, both hands, forehead, both cheeks, and around the eyebrows. He also testified that he observed blood splatter on the front of the victim's blouse, which appeared to have originated from the area of her throat. Sham also noted blood splatters on her abdomen, extending down to her pubic area. Sham stated that he examined the downstairs bathroom sink and the kitchen sink, and found no evidence of blood. He also stated the windows facing the front of the apartment were barred, the sliding glass door was locked, and the front door was locked from the inside. Sham testified that he found no obvious signs of a forced entry or a struggle.