LJWorld.com / Witness: Suspect noted 'all the blood'

Archive for Thursday, December 9, 2004

Murray allegedly said he was researching murder to write ‘CSI’ screenplay

December 9, 2004

A key witness testified Wednesday that a Kansas State University professor charged with murdering his ex-wife said in a telephone conversation, "All I see is the blood, all the blood."

But at the time professor Thomas E. Murray made that remark on Nov. 15, 2003, police hadn't yet told Murray how Carmin D. Ross died, family friend Gay Crossley-Brubaker said. She testified that in the same conversation, Murray told her he had murder-related information on a computer that was seized by police because he was thinking about writing screenplays for the television show "CSI: Crime-Scene Investigation."

"What he told her about the investigation is crucial," Assistant Dist. Atty. Angela Wilson told Douglas County District Judge Robert Fairchild.

Prosecutors have said that computer evidence showed that in the days before the killing, Murray researched subjects that included odorless, colorless poisons and how to kill someone quickly.

Crossley-Brubaker testified Murray told her there would be physical evidence that could be linked to him throughout Ross' home northwest of Lawrence because he'd helped her move there after their divorce. But Ross' best friend, Angela Hayes, testified that she, her husband and Ross' fiancee -- not Murray -- moved Ross into the home.

The remarks came on the third day of the preliminary hearing for Murray, a 48-year-old linguistics scholar. He's charged with one count of first-degree murder for the Nov. 13, 2003, stabbing and beating of Ross, a crime that Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney said might be the most brutal in Douglas County's history.

Key testimony Wednesday

Crossley-Brubaker testified that Murray told her, "It's not like they're going to find a clump of my hair in ... wherever it happened." Police found Ross dead on her living-room floor with 13 stab wounds and 15 lacerations on her upper body. A coffee table and potted plant had been overturned, and blood was spattered on walls and furniture throughout the living room and dining room.

Testimony Wednesday in Thomas E. Murray's preliminary hearing focused on what he told a family friend after the slaying and how he behaved when questioned by police. Testimony continues today.

Detective Brad Schlerf of the Riley County Police Department testified that after he knocked on Murray's door in Manhattan the evening of Nov. 14, 2003, and told him Ross was dead, Murray gasped, braced himself on a table, and sat down. But after that, he never showed grief, Schlerf testified.
Schlerf said he thought it was strange that throughout a nearly 10-hour-long interview at the Riley County Police Department Murray never asked how Ross died.
When detectives told him they were suspicious of him, Murray responded that he would be, too, if he were the one doing the investigation, Schlerf testified.

"He was doing a number of things out of character for someone who had just been told his ex-wife had died," Schlerf testified.

While being interviewed by police, Murray sat for more than two hours slouched forward with his right hand concealed between his legs, Schlerf said. Eventually, detectives saw he had bruises on both wrists, at least two small cuts on a hand and a finger, and a bruise on his right index fingernail.

Prosecutor Wilson displayed photos of the injuries on a television screen in court. Schlerf testified Murray told detectives one of the cuts came from cutting fruit with a small knife, and another came from a screw while he was cleaning gutters.

Murray said the bruise on his finger came from his daughter stepping on it while they were playing, Schlerf testified.

K-State student Linda Carrigan testified that when she took a test in Murray's class the day before the killing, he graded her paper immediately and gave it to her before she left. Murray told a baby sitter the day of the killing he would be busy grading papers all morning.
Hayes, Ross' friend, testified Murray made odd statements to her in the days after the killing, including joking about going to a country from which he couldn't be extradited. She said he told her Ross had sent him an e-mail the afternoon of Nov. 13, a time by which prosecutors believe Ross already was dead.

Murray told her he didn't have the e-mail because he deleted it, Hayes said. But she said Murray seemed surprised when she told him it should still be on his hard drive.

Testimony continues today.