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McCowen murder trial, day 12
By Michael Iacuessa
Banner Correspondent
An ex-girlfriend of Shawn Mulvey's father produced phone records in court Thursday showing several calls made from her home to the Mulvey house in Eastham the weekend of Christa Worthington's murder.
Assuming she talked with Mulvey's father William, the records conflict with previous testimony that he was not home that weekend.
Three people, including Shawn Mulvey, testified that Shawn's friends never stayed over when his father was there. That could call into question Jeremy Frazier's alibi that he spent the night at Mulvey's house on Jan. 4, 2002.
The records are far from conclusive, however, as Asst. District Attorney Robert Welsh pointed out in his cross-examination.
Elaine Gambrazzio made a call on Thursday, Jan. 3 at 10:58 p.m. lasting 65 minutes. She made another call Saturday, Jan. 5 at 11:29 a.m. lasting nearly 38 minutes.
On Jan. 4, however, the night Worthington is alleged to have been murdered, only two brief calls were made, coming between 10 and 11 p.m. One was seven seconds and the other 11 seconds.
Welsh suggested an answering machine might have picked up. He asked Gambrazzio if William Mulvey might have gone home to his principal residence in Connecticut that night and returned the next morning. Gambrazzio had no recollection of the substance of any of the calls.
Although she was not asked, since the phone bill was entered into evidence by the defense it is fair to assume no phone calls were placed to Connecticut that evening.
Defense attorney Robert George raised other character issues as the day went on.
Eric Kinton, a man who by his own account has a shady past, testified Frazier approached him a few months before the murder of Christa Worthington to discuss a "pick up" at an undisclosed home.
"It is street lingo, something quick, easy money," he said.
Frazier told him of a woman's home with money, coins and jewelry. Kinton, who said he works hard as a roofer now, got angry at the suggestion and hung up.
Kinton is connected to Frazier by having had a child with Chris Bearse's mother. Chris Bearse testified earlier in the trial that he, Frazier and Mulvey were alone together at the end of a party on Jan. 4, 2002. Bearse believed Christopher McCowen, who is accused of killing Worthington, had left the party by then.
George also called a DNA expert to raise questions about untested evidence and a psychiatrist who evaluated McCowen's mental state.
Dr. Richard Saferstein, who wrote the book (literally, a textbook called Criminalistics) on forensic science, said valuable evidence was overlooked by the state crime lab. Saferstein said he had friends at the lab and it generally does a good job.
"In this case I think there were some very serious omissions," he said.
Among several hairs never compared to any suspects in the case is an 11 3/4-inch strand found on Worthington's breast. Worthington's hair, though similar in medium brown color, was several inches shorter at the time of the murder.
Saferstein also pointed out that semen on a swabbing of Worthington's outer genital area was never analyzed for DNA. If it proved different than the semen found in her vagina, he said McCowen would not likely be on trial.
He said semen in the vagina, which did match McCowen, showed a low sperm count and could have been there for several days. Though inconclusive, he said he would have expected a higher sperm count if Worthington was murdered shortly after having sex and left in the position she was found.
Blood stains at the scene also were not tested, including those found on the bathroom sink, on a child's broom handle and on a hand mitt (previously identified as a wash cloth).
"Did these stains come from the victim or the perpetrator, questions that could easily have been solved if tested," he said.
Welsh, on cross-examination, read a passage from Saferstein's own book, which downplayed hairs and the over-testing a crime scene.
Saferstein immediately recognized it as an old edition and countered that DNA testing and crime labs have changed considerably since then.
Dr. Eric Brown followed, raising questions of whether McCowen was mentally fit during his six-hour interrogation by police. McCowen, after several conflicting versions, confessed he was at Worthington's home but that Frazier killed her.
Utilizing a standardized test under optimal conditions, Brown reported McCowen's verbal IQ was 78. Stress, the length of the interrogation and use of drugs would lower that assessment he said.
Someone at that level is "likely to misinterpret what he hears, misunderstand what is being asked of him" and often try to be agreeable, said Brown.
"An individual like that would get twisted up in his responses just out of sheer confusion," he added.
Previously in the trial, two other witnesses who described themselves as intelligent testified they too became confused when interrogated by the same officers.
Brown, who was on the stand as court adjourned for the day, said an IQ of 78 ranks in the lowest seventh percentile. An IQ of 100 is considered average.
Judge Gary Nickerson believes the defense could wrap up its case in one more day. Closing arguments are likely to come Monday, if not earlier.
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Nov 2nd, 2006