Lindsay Clancy Defense GRILLS Trooper on Missing Fingerprints

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Good afternoon. Could you please tell the jury your first and last name? [00:00:03] Speaker 2: Yes, my first name is Jonathan. My last name is O'Loughlin. [00:00:06] Speaker 1: And can you spell your last name for the record? [00:00:08] Speaker 2: O-L-O-U-G-H-L-I-N. [00:00:11] Speaker 1: And what do you do for work? [00:00:13] Speaker 2: I'm a trooper with the Massachusetts State Police. [00:00:16] Speaker 1: How long have you been a trooper? [00:00:17] Speaker 2: Hired in October of 2011. [00:00:19] Speaker 1: And what is your current assignment with the State Police? [00:00:23] Speaker 2: Right now I work in the Division of Field Services and I'm assigned to the State Police Logan Airport Barracks. [00:00:28] Speaker 1: Going back to January of 2023, what was your assignment with the State Police then? [00:00:34] Speaker 2: I worked in the Crime Scene Services section. [00:00:36] Speaker 1: And how long have you worked in Crime Scene Services? [00:00:40] Speaker 2: I started in February of 2020. [00:00:43] Speaker 1: And when did you move to your new assignment? [00:00:47] Speaker 2: I left the Crime Scene in October of 2023. [00:00:52] Speaker 1: So do you undergo specific training as a trooper to work in that Crime Scene Services section? Yes. And what kind of training do you get? [00:01:02] Speaker 2: So we did an internal training in the lab, the crime lab. A lot of it was, the beginning was reading about crime scene processing and fingerprinting. And then it would move on to doing mock cases, following other Crime Scene Services members around to observe. And then it went on to do a competency test where you would process a mock scene, develop fingerprints and analyze them. It kind of pulled it all together. And then that would go on to a quality assurance program within the lab. And they would determine if you were qualified to be on call. [00:01:35] Speaker 1: And what other, what things do you do as a Crime Scene Services Trooper? What are your responsibilities? [00:01:42] Speaker 2: We respond to all different types of crime scenes. At every single crime scene, the main thing you do at every scene, no matter what it is, is document the scene with photographs. Depending on the type of scene you're at, you may also document the scene with video. You may also sketch the scene by hand. And then also you may collect items of evidence to be processed later, or you may even process items at the scene. What you're processing for is fingerprints. You try to develop fingerprints. If there are any, you can do fingerprint analysis and try to determine whose fingerprints are on the items of evidence. [00:02:18] Speaker 1: And that can be done at a crime scene, but it also can be done back at the crime laboratory, correct? Correct. Depending on the item and where it was located. [00:02:27] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:02:28] Speaker 1: As far as your response to particular scenes, do you often go out to crime scenes in tandem with or with a Crime Scene Response Unit investigator? Yes. [00:02:41] Speaker 2: A forensic scientist? [00:02:42] Speaker 1: Yes. And you indicated that one of the first things and one of the main things you do is document scenes. Is it best practice to be kind of that first in after a scene is secured to document the scene as it appeared? Yes. And how do you do that? [00:02:57] Speaker 2: So when you respond to a scene, usually the town that you respond to, the local police department will secure the scene. Which means they don't allow anyone in to disrupt the scene until you get there. Then you start with photographing the exterior of the residence and then you walk in and just document the entire scene room by room as it is. [00:03:18] Speaker 1: And after that's done, do you kind of go back through and highlight or identify in any way particular things that may be relevant to the investigation? Yes. The crime scene you're responding to. [00:03:30] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:03:31] Speaker 1: And how do you identify in the documentation items that might have some relevance or evidentiary value? [00:03:39] Speaker 2: So some items might kind of be obvious if they're involved in the crime that are still there, those you want to document further. And sometimes a detective unit or a member will ask you to document another piece of evidence that they would like collected or they would like further looked at. [00:04:00] Speaker 1: And you indicated that with crime scene services, you respond to all different kinds of scenes and all different types of law enforcement. So sometimes do you work with the local city or town departments? [00:04:13] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:04:14] Speaker 1: And in investigations where a death has occurred, who are the primary law enforcement that you're working with? [00:04:21] Speaker 2: So there will be local and there will also be the county state police detective unit will also respond for any death investigation. [00:04:29] Speaker 1: Now when you are processing a scene or documenting a scene, do you do anything to identify and highlight the items that have been either pointed out to you or that you've seen that could have value in the case? [00:04:42] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:04:43] Speaker 1: What do you do? [00:04:44] Speaker 2: So with those we put what's called placards and placards are pieces of plastic that have numbers on them. That way when you're going through the photos you can refer to them as placard one, placard two and so on and so forth. [00:04:56] Speaker 1: And as far as further processing the scene between yourself and the crime scene response, are some items sometimes collected by either yourself or the crime scene response unit? [00:05:07] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:05:08] Speaker 1: Yes. And when you collect an item, do you identify it in some other way? Yes. [00:05:12] Speaker 2: When you collect an item and it's put into evidence in the lab, it's given a lab number. The lab number doesn't have to match up with the placard number. The placard's simply for your photos and then the lab number is the number that will be associated with that piece of evidence all through the crime lab procedure process all the way through the trial. [00:05:35] Speaker 1: So when you go to crime scenes for inside houses for instance, is it oftentimes the case that you are processing the crime scene at the same time investigators are getting into a location with a search warrant? Yes. And so when that's the circumstance, do you photograph and document everything that you can? I'm sorry, can you? [00:05:56] Speaker 2: Sure, I can. [00:05:57] Speaker 1: That's a bad question. When you are with kind of the local law enforcement, do you document things oftentimes that maybe you don't collect and take back to the lab or the forensic scientist doesn't but might have value or relevance to the police? [00:06:12] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:06:13] Speaker 1: And in those instances, they're not assigned those same item numbers, correct? Correct. I'm going to draw your attention to January 24th of 2023. Do you recall going or being called out to 47 Summer Street in Duxbury? [00:06:29] Speaker 2: Yes, I do. [00:06:30] Speaker 1: And what was your role on that scene? [00:06:33] Speaker 2: So the role was Plymouth State Police Detective Unit had been called out to what was reported as a homicide at that address. So we were called out to document the scene and collect any items of evidence that needed to be processed. [00:06:49] Speaker 1: Now in relation to this particular investigation, when you arrived there, had the State Police and the Duxbury Police already secured the home? [00:06:57] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:06:58] Speaker 1: And again, in this situation, were you arriving and going into the home at the same time that a search warrant was being executed? [00:07:05] Speaker 2: Yes, we waited for the search warrant to be signed, brought to the scene and then photographed the search warrant and then we started documenting the scene. [00:07:16] Speaker 1: And fair to say, in this case, there were a number of items that were identified by your unit by the placards? Yes. And if I tell you that you documented eight specific placards, at the crime scene on that particular day, does that sound about right? Yes, it does. Okay. Including a brown belt, some exercise bands, three in particular, a pair of red pajamas, a pink sweatshirt or a robe, a pink piece of clothing, a knife with a black handle and a phone. Yes. Does that sound right? [00:08:09] Speaker 2: It does. [00:08:10] Speaker 1: Okay. And I won't go through each and every item because we've seen several of those items before. But just in particular, as it relates to placards seven and eight, I'm just going to ask you to take a look at some photos. Okay? [00:08:29] Speaker 2: Okay. [00:08:30] Speaker ?: Okay. So I'm showing you a photograph of placard seven. Is that familiar to you? [00:08:35] Speaker 1: Yes, it is. And what is the placard seven? What was that to highlight or depict? That was a knife covering a red brown stain found in the upstairs master bedroom. [00:08:48] Speaker 2: That may be admitted. [00:08:49] Speaker 1: And I'm showing you another photograph with depicting placard number eight. Is that familiar to you? Yes. And that was a cell phone that was also noted in your documentation of the scene, correct? [00:09:07] Speaker 3: Yes. That may be admitted. [00:09:22] Speaker 1: Now, as far as collecting of particular items on this scene, you're aware that there were several of the placarded items that were collected by Crime Scene Services to take back to the lab. Yes. And fair to say the yellow exercise band at placard number two, the black exercise band at placard number three, the blue exercise band at placard number four, the red pajamas, and the silver knife of the black candle were all collected. [00:09:55] Speaker 2: Yes, I believe the red pajamas were collected by the Crime Scene Response Unit. Okay. [00:10:03] Speaker 1: Okay. Do you recall collecting the knife? Yes. Why would you collect the knife as part of the Crime Scene Response? Excuse me. [00:10:12] Speaker 3: There's no objection to any of this physical evidence. I'm going to allow this line of inquiry just to kind of put things in perspective. Go ahead. [00:10:21] Speaker 1: Thank you. Why would you collect the knife as part of the Crime Scene Services as opposed to the Crime Scene Response? [00:10:28] Speaker 2: So we would collect the knife because that would be an item that would be processed for fingerprints at the lab. [00:10:34] Speaker 1: And based on your training and experience, a fingerprint analysis, is that something that should happen before any other biological testing? [00:10:42] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:10:43] Speaker 1: And why is that? [00:10:44] Speaker 2: So fingerprints are extremely fragile. Anything that the forensic scientists would do would destroy any fingerprint that may be on an item of evidence. Okay. [00:10:55] Speaker 1: And so I'm just going to approach and show you an item. Is that item familiar to you? Yes, it is. Is that the knife that you collected that was located at plaque number 7? Yes. Thank you. [00:11:38] Speaker ?: I would move to admit this. [00:11:42] Speaker 3: All right, that may be admitted. [00:11:48] Speaker 1: Now, that knife was brought back to the crime lab, to your unit? [00:12:01] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:12:02] Speaker 1: And in addition to the knife, did you also bring back the exercise bands? [00:12:06] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:12:07] Speaker 1: As far as your analysis of those items for fingerprints, what did you do to try to identify if there was anything on them? [00:12:18] Speaker 2: So when we're examining for fingerprints, we're looking for latent prints, which are fingerprints that aren't necessarily visible to the naked eye. Therefore, chemicals must be applied to bring it out to make them visible. Those are non-porous items. So for those, we would use, it's commonly referred to, what was cyanoacolate ester. It's more commonly known as superglue. And we put them in a chamber with the superglue. The superglue is heated. There's water, so there's humidity in this chamber. The entire chamber fills with superglue fume. So it adheres to anything fingerprint related on those items. Once the chamber is cleared of the fumes, you open it and then you can now see if there are any fingerprints on there. And that also hardens and preserves the fingerprints on the items of evidence for further testing if needed. [00:13:09] Speaker 1: Okay, and is it fair to say that when you touch an item and leave some remnants of a fingerprint, it's the oils and everything that are on your finger that leave the impression on the item? Yes. And so are there things that can affect whether you actually get enough information to analyze a fingerprint? Yes. What kinds of things can influence that? [00:13:33] Speaker 2: So it could be the texture of the actual object itself. It could also be environmental factors. If there's low humidity. It could be if there's the person touching the item might not have residue on their hands. There's also movement can affect fingerprints. The grip on an item also affects that as well. They could be wiped off because fingerprints, like I said, are very, very, very fragile. [00:14:00] Speaker 1: Okay. And so is it oftentimes the case that you analyze for a print and don't find anything of value? [00:14:07] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:14:08] Speaker 1: And so as it pertains to these items that you reviewed, the knife, the exercise bands, can you tell us what your findings were when it came to the knife? Yes. [00:14:19] Speaker 2: The knife did have limited detail, meaning that there were areas of friction ridge impressions, which is referred, that's what we've referred to fingerprints, is the friction ridge skin is the skin that covers your palms and your fingers and your toes and your feet. The friction ridge skin is what leaves the impression on an object. So there was an area of friction ridge impression on that knife, so it was photographed further and given an item number. Upon further analysis, there was not enough detail to do a comparison. [00:14:57] Speaker 1: So when you photograph it for further analysis, why do you do that? [00:15:01] Speaker 2: I do that in order to take a deeper look to see if there was enough characteristics or minutiae to do a comparison to a known print. [00:15:10] Speaker 1: So with a photograph you can enhance it and look at it closer, correct? Correct. But after doing that, were you able to make any sort of opinions about that area in the knife? [00:15:22] Speaker 2: Yes, there was not enough characteristics or minutiae to do any comparison, so it was deemed no value. [00:15:30] Speaker 1: And as far as the exercise bands, fair to say you also did the same and examined those to try to identify if they had any friction ridge detail or anything of value that you could conduct a comparison on, right? [00:15:43] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:15:44] Speaker 1: And was there any on either the yellow band, the black band, or the blue band? [00:15:50] Speaker 2: No, there was not enough to do, no value. [00:15:53] Speaker 1: And after you're done looking for these delicate fingerprints, what do you do with the items next? [00:15:59] Speaker 2: So the items are repackaged and they moved on to the forensic scientists to do their testing. [00:16:05] Speaker 1: And usually that's the criminalistic unit first, correct? [00:16:09] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:16:10] Speaker 1: Now in this particular case, as we discussed, you were also documenting as state police were executing a search warrant, correct? Yes. And you did that again with additional photographs? Yes. I'm just going to show you a couple photographs, if that's okay. I have three photographs. That's the first one. It's a little hard to see, but do you see an item depicted in there? A square item? [00:16:45] Speaker 2: I'm sorry. Where exactly? [00:16:47] Speaker 1: Well, do you see that this photograph, a little washed out, but it depicts an area of the home? [00:16:59] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:17:00] Speaker 1: Or an item in the home? [00:17:01] Speaker 2: Oh, yes. The dresser? Yes, the dresser. [00:17:04] Speaker 1: Okay. And then I have another photograph with a drawer open. Is that familiar to you? Yes. And then a third one, oops, excuse me, with an actual item pulled out. Yes. And fair to say, when you're photographing things as they are found, you photograph where it comes from, as it's being examined, and then the item in and of itself. Yes. So these three photographs, would they depict the location of a brown journal? Yes. Okay. I would move to admit these. [00:17:35] Speaker 3: Those may be admitted. [00:17:53] Speaker 1: And, um, sorry, as far as the dresser, that was located in the basement of the home, correct? [00:18:00] Speaker 2: Yes, correct. [00:18:01] Speaker 1: And the item that was collected was not collected by you or the Crime Scene Response Trooper, but, in fact, by the State Police Detectives Unit, to your knowledge? [00:18:09] Speaker 3: Yes. [00:18:10] Speaker 1: Thank you. Nothing further. [00:18:12] Speaker 3: Mr. Rankin. So, basically, how long is your course that you take to become a Crime Scene Technician for the State Police? [00:18:27] Speaker 2: So, before you're certified for fingerprints, it's usually about a year. [00:18:31] Speaker 3: So, you're working in that Crime Scene Services Unit for a year while you're going to the school for it? [00:18:38] Speaker 2: Yes. It's more of an internal training. You don't go to a specific school, but, yes. Okay. [00:18:44] Speaker 3: So, you told us about your training. You told us about your experience. You told us about fingerprints. You told us how you seize items in the course of a search warrant. And then you told us about looking at the photographs and the items that would depict Friction Ridge, if any. But the bottom line is that you didn't get any fingerprints. Correct. And you could have just said that, right? Just come on the witness stand and say, "We didn't get any fingerprints." Sustained. So, then you're talking about, as the State Police investigating this case, you guys walk around and you have cameras and you take pictures, right? Yes. That's what you told us about. Well, how about when you're executing a search warrant? Are you supposed to be thorough in the course of your search for items? [00:19:31] Speaker 2: I don't search for items, sir. Everything I do is-- [00:19:34] Speaker 3: The pictures, right? [00:19:35] Speaker 2: Yes, I document. [00:19:36] Speaker 3: I look into the bedroom. I found a bunch of drugs in addition to the drugs that were found in the kitchen. And I found these in a nightstand with blood on top of the nightstand and the knife that you talked about. You would have photographed that, right? [00:19:51] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:19:52] Speaker 3: Never saw that, did you? [00:19:54] Speaker 2: No. [00:19:55] Speaker 3: I have no further questions. Redirect? Thank you.