news article: are the prints fresh?

[Identify]

New trial set for Idaho woman Sarah Johnson convicted of killing parents over boyfriend
Published: Friday, August 06, 2010, 11:56 AM Updated: Friday, August 06, 2010, 12:03 PM


HAILEY, Idaho -- A central Idaho judge has ordered a new trial following an appeal by a woman convicted of killing her parents in 2003 when she was 16 and sentenced to two life terms in prison.

The trial for Sarah Johnson is scheduled to start Nov. 30 in Twin Falls after 5th District Judge G. Richard Bevan granted Johnson's request.

Prosecutors say Johnson killed her parents, Alan and Diane Johnson, after fighting with them over her boyfriend, Bruno Santos, 19, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was living in the region.

In her appeal, Johnson argued she received ineffective legal assistance and that there is new evidence indicating someone else might be the killer.

Johnson is in the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center serving a sentence that does not include the possibility of parole.

The Times-News reports that Johnson claims her first attorneys didn't present expert testimony about the bed linens in which Diane Johnson was found, should have requested a delay to gather more evidence, didn't adequately cross-examine 15 witnesses, and didn't do enough involving a blood-splatter experiment.

Attorneys handling the appeal for Johnson said the previous attorneys didn't ask about the freshness of fingerprints that did not belong to Johnson that were found on the murder weapon, scope, ammunition and doorknobs, according to court documents.

The attorneys also said there is new evidence that the fingerprints on the rifle belong to Christopher Kevin Hill, who doesn't have an alibi for the night of the killings.

Blaine County authorities, in previous statements, have said those fingerprints have nothing to do with the murders. Sheriff Walt Femling said Hill -- a renter who was living in the family's guesthouse -- has been fully investigated and had legally fired the weapon before the murders.

Johnson's attorneys contend that if the previous attorneys had presented evidence that Hill's fingerprints were fresh, rather than old, as Hill told authorities, that could have given a jury reasonable doubt about whether Johnson killed her parents.

Bevan is also considering whether to allow other assertions of ineffective counsel in Johnson's appeal. Those include investigating a claim by the former Blaine County deputy coroner, Steven Pankey, that Femling made potentially prejudicial comments at the crime scene. Pankey said he overheard Femling tell Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Thomas, "Well, I guess I've got to move evidence to make a case," according to court documents.

The appeal attorneys also say that Johnson's previous attorneys didn't use available psychiatric evidence.

-- The Associated Press

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-north ... trial.html

[sharon cook]

"Fresh" as opposed to "old"??? I wonder exactly how that was determined?

I can't believe that freak is getting a new trial! As far as I know, that sociopath murdered her parents and left a big boatload of evidence. The presense of fingerprints from someone else on the murder weapon when it was legitimately touched should have nothing to do with the finding of fact: she killed her parents. She didn't leave fingerprints because she wore gloves---found later in the trash.

Ineffectual counsel? The bed linens? Didn't she show up at the neighbors house to report her parents murder with wet hair (from showering the blood off)? Then, her robe and those gloves were found covered with blood in the trash that was about to be picked up, as well as some unfired rounds in the pocket of that robe?

No matter how overwhelming the evidence and how vehement the verdict...in this country it's never over, is it?

[Identify]

Idaho Mountain Express
Experts disagree on fingerprint evidence / Johnson hearings in Twin Falls end today
Updated: December 10th, 2010 12:11 PM
By :TERRY SMITH

A fingerprint expert testified in court Thursday afternoon that convicted murderer Sarah Johnson was not the last person to touch the murder weapon before it was used to kill Johnson's parents in 2003.
Instead, Robert Kerchusky, a fingerprint expert from Eagle who assisted Johnson's defense during her trial in 2005, said he believes the last person to touch the gun before the murders was a friend of Mel Speegle, the man who rented an apartment above the Johnson home in Bellevue and the owner of the .264 caliber Winchester hunting rifle that was used to kill Alan and Diane Johnson at their home in 2003.
"In my opinion, Christopher Hill was the last person to touch the gun," Kerchusky said at a court trial to determine if Johnson is entitled to a new trial. Kerchusky was referring to a man identified in court documents as Christopher Kevin Hill, a friend of Speegle whose last known address according to court records was in the East Magic Reservoir area in south Blaine County.
Both Kerchusky and a fingerprint expert from the Idaho State Police forensics laboratory testified that Hill's finger or palm prints were found on the rifle, on a scope that was removed from the gun just prior to the shootings, on a live .264 caliber round found at Speegle's apartment and on a plastic insert used to hold cartridges in ammunition boxes.
However, Kerchusky and ISP fingerprint expert Tina Walthall did not agree on when the fingerprints were left.
The prints were discovered on the items during the initial investigation into the murders but were not identified as Hill's until several years after the trial.
Johnson attorney Christopher Simms has claimed that the prints constitute new evidence that has not been adequately investigated and suggest that Johnson may be innocent. Attorneys from the Idaho Attorney General's Office, who are representing the state in Johnson's post-conviction relief proceedings, have stated in court documents that Hill's touching of the murder weapon and other items occurred well before the murders and does not constitute evidence that clears Johnson of the crimes.
Kerchusky and Walthall's testimony came on third day of hearings in Twin Falls before 5th District Court Judge G. Richard Bevan to determine if Johnson, now 23, is entitled to a new criminal trial. The hearings are scheduled to end today but it is not known when Bevan will render a decision.
Johnson was convicted by a jury in 2005 of the murders of Alan and Diane Johnson and is currently serving two life prison sentences without the possibility of parole. Sarah Johnson was 16 at the time of the murders.
Police investigators believe that the murder weapon was taken from Speegle's apartment just prior to the shootings. The scope was removed before the shootings and left in Speegle's apartment. Sarah Johnson's fingerprints were never found on the weapon but investigators believe she was wearing gloves.
Earlier Thursday, Simms played video recordings of 2009 police interviews with both Speegle and Hill. The interviews were conducted by Ketchum Police Chief Steve Harkins, who was a detective at the time with the Blaine County Sheriff's Office.
Speegle told Harkins that Hill was a close friend who had helped him move to the Johnson apartment in 2002, about a year before the murders on Sept. 2, 2003. Speegle said Hill helped move both guns and ammunition and touched the items then.
Speegle described Hill as "really laid back, a real gentle guy-almost too gentle."
"I fully trust him-I have no reason not to trust him," Speegle told Harkins.
Hill acknowledged in his interview with Harkins that he had touched the gun and other items when he helped Speegle move. He also said he handled the gun and scope on another occasion.
"I took it out one time and tried to sight it in," Hill said. "I don't want to shoot it again. It's got quite a wallop to it. It's hard to sight in."
Hill further told Harkins that he was not well acquainted with the Johnsons.
"I didn't really know them," Hill said. "I met them once. Mel took me over one time."
By Speegle's and Hill's accounts, Hill last touched the gun and other items about a year before the murders. However Kerchusky testified that he believes Hill touched the items much later than that.
"If it wasn't a fresh print, you wouldn't have the quality of the print that we have," Kerchusky said. "In my opinion, the prints were fresh prints and not latent prints. Otherwise, they would have dried up over a long period of time."
On cross-examination from state attorney Kenneth Jorgensen, Kerchusky acknowledged that there is no scientific evidence that states how long finger or palm prints will stay on an object, but said his experience shows that they would deteriorate or be of poor quality within a year.
Jorgensen asked Kerchusky if he believed Hill was the last person to touch the gun and scope prior to the murders.
"That's my opinion," Kerchusky said.
Walthall was called as a state witness immediately after Kerchusky's testimony.
She said that there are a lot of different factors that determine how long a print will remain and be identifiable, including whether the print was left by perspiration or something such as dust or paint on a person's hand. Other factors that can affect the longevity of a print are the type of surface it was left on, temperature variations and exposure to sunlight, moisture, or wind.
"It could possibly be there a very long time if nothing happened to it." Walthall said.
She said the prints on the items in the Johnson case were all on hard, solid objects and "it's possible for a print to remain on those surfaces for more than a year."
Walthall also didn't agree with Kerchusky on the quality of the Hill palm and fingerprints, although she acknowledged that they were of high enough quality to be seen with the naked eye.
"They were of good enough quality to lift and identify, but they were far from high quality," she said.
Hill has not been charged with any involvement in the crimes.
http://www.mtexpress.com/vu_breaking_s ... ?bid=96174

[Tazman]

Hill's finger or palm prints were found on the rifle, on a scope that was removed from the gun just prior to the shootings, on a live .264 caliber round found at Speegle's apartment and on a plastic insert used to hold cartridges in ammunition boxes.

Not only "fresh," but did the red flags go up for anybody else with the above statement?

[Neville]

to get identifiable prints on all those things I hope he got a pay rise he is obviously very good at his job.