LJWorld.com / Testimony ends in Murray murder trial

Archive for Saturday, March 12, 2005

Closing arguments are set for Monday

March 12, 2005

After four weeks and more than 50 witnesses, testimony ended Friday in the trial of a Kansas State University professor charged with murdering his ex-wife.

Defense attorneys for Thomas E. Murray finished presenting their case about 11:30 a.m. On Monday, jurors will hear instructions from District Court Judge Robert Fairchild before hearing closing arguments from the prosecution and defense.

Robert Tressel, a forensic crime scene analyst and witness hired by the defense in the murder trial of Thomas E. Murray, examines blood stains on a piece of tissue in Douglas County District Court on Friday. Testimony wrapped up Friday in the trial in which Murray, a Kansas State University professor, is charged with killing his ex-wife, Carmin D. Ross.

Murray, 46, an English professor and linguistics expert, is charged in the November 2003 stabbing and beating death of Carmin D. Ross at her home northwest of Lawrence at 1860 East 1150 Road.

One of the last witnesses in the trial was Robert Tressel, a Georgia-based forensic investigator for Murray's defense team, who testified Friday morning about blood patterns found at the crime scene.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Angela Wilson objected to Tressel giving his opinion about the stains and tried to attack his credibility

"You don't have any certification in the area of blood-stain pattern analysis, do you?" she asked.

"No, I do not," he said.

But Tressel estimated he had more than 700 hours in forensics training, including blood-stain analysis.

One apparent goal of Tressel's testimony was to lend support to the defense's theory that at least two unidentified people killed Ross.

Private prosecutor Tom Bath, second from left facing camera, visits with family members of Carmin D. Ross.

Tressel said he believed a ribbed blood-stain pattern found on the lip of the sink in Ross' bathroom came from a tennis shoe -- a shoe that doesn't match any of those seized from Murray.

A Kansas Bureau of Investigation analyst has said the stain could have come from a shoe or a ribbed piece of cloth. Tressel said he didn't think the stain came from cloth because the ribbed lines on the stain weren't smeared.

A soft fabric, he said, would have collapsed on itself and caused a smeared stain. But prosecutor Wilson got Tressel to acknowledge what appeared to be smearing on one part of the stain.

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Tressel also held up a series of tissues found at the home with Ross' blood on them and said the stains could have been consistent with nosebleeds.

Those who knew Ross say she never had nosebleeds. But Murray told police shortly after the death they'd find his ex-wife's blood in his car because she'd borrowed it and had a nosebleed.

Defense attorneys Pedro Irigonegaray and Bob Eye contend a second person was in the home of Carmin D. Ross at the time of her slaying, seizing on a puzzling blood stain found in a first-floor bathroom -- initially thought a shoeprint -- that didn't match any footwear belonging to Murray.

Prosecutors Amy McGowan and Angela Wilson of the District Attorney's Office and private prosecutor Tom Bath, presented Internet searches that included phrases such as "how to kill someone quickly and quietly," and conflicting statements given by Murray to investigators.

Judge Robert Fairchild will give jurors instructions Monday before hearing closing arguments in the murder trial which has gone on for four weeks and included more than 50 witnesses in the November 2003 slaying of Carmin D. Ross.