article: appeal planned / Mnookin testimony refused by Judge

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Nelson County Times
11-24-10

Earnest's lawyers prepare for appeal

Wesley Earnest’s lawyers expect to file documents with the court Wednesday that could lay the groundwork for an appeal of last week’s guilty verdict in his estranged wife’s murder.

Joseph Sanzone, Earnest’s lawyer, said he plans to file a record of testimony from a witness Judge James Updike wouldn’t allow to testify before the jury. University of California, Los Angeles law school professor Jennifer Mnookin would have testified that fingerprint comparisons are not based on clinical or statistical studies.

Updike refused to qualify Mnookin as a fingerprint evidence expert because she had never actually conducted fingerprint analysis and testified she wasn’t qualified to offer an opinion on the analysis that found Wesley Earnest’s fingerprints on a purported suicide note near his wife’s body.

“We’ll note an appeal after we come back in January (for sentencing),” Sanzone said after a hearing in another case in Appomattox on Tuesday afternoon.

After nearly two weeks of testimony, a jury convicted Earnest on Friday of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. The jury recommended a sentence of life in prison.

Prosecutors said evidence in the case showed he ambushed Jocelyn Earnest at her home in Forest on Dec. 19, 2007, shot her in the head, then staged her living room to appear as if she killed herself. They said he was motivated by a contentious divorce and crippling debt he ran up trying to pay their bills after he no longer had access to her six-figure income, and for a series of trips to tourist destinations and sporting events he made with his new girlfriend.

Earnest’s contention he was hundreds of miles away in Chesapeake that night was bolstered by testimony from a former Taco Bell employee who testified he remembered serving him. After the trial, Sanzone said the prosecution’s fingerprint evidence overcame any reasonable doubt, although he contended in the trial it was “junk science.” He said the outcome may have been different if jurors could have heard Mnookin’s testimony.

If the Court of Appeals of Virginia rules the yet-to-be-filed appeal has merit, it may consider whether Mnookin’s testimony should have been allowed and if it would have changed the outcome of the jury’s deliberations.

This is the second conviction and life-sentence recommendation for Wesley Earnest, a 40-year-old former teacher and administrator in Bedford County and Lynchburg public schools. Earnest was working as a vice principal in Chesapeake when he was charged with murder.

His first conviction was set aside when the judge learned the jury had seen barred evidence during their deliberations. The second case was tried in Amherst with jurors from Nelson County to avoid problems with pretrial publicity.

He is now set for sentencing Jan. 25 in Amherst County Circuit Court.

http://www2.nelsoncountytimes.com/news/ ... ar-673348/

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Filing may form basis of Earnest appeal
Wednesday, December 01, 2010

AMHERST — The lawyer for a former local school administrator convicted last month of murdering his estranged wife has filed paperwork that could lay the groundwork for an appeal of the case next year.

On Monday, Joseph Sanzone, lawyer for Wesley Earnest, filed an outline of testimony from UCLA law professor Jennifer Mnookin — testimony she would have offered had the trial judge allowed it.

“The testimony would have … demonstrated the fact that the scientific basis for matching partial fingerprints with known fingerprints has yet to be established and that studies of this sort are underway,” Sanzone wrote in the filing in Amherst County Circuit Court.

Mnookin is engaged in a grant-funded study in an attempt to grade fingerprints according to how difficult they could be to identify, according to her statements in court during the trial but without the jury present.

Sanzone said her testimony could have given jurors a more balanced view of testimony from two state forensic experts who said the two partial fingerprints they found on a suicide note planted in Jocelyn Earnest’s home belonged to her husband.

The Mnookin outline noted that fingerprint analysis “does not presently have any validated metrics or objective measures,” and that although no two fingerprints, even from the same finger, are alike, there is no objective tolerance threshold for differences caused by environmental factors. During the trial, the prosecution’s fingerprint experts testified prints may appear to be different according to how hard a person presses on an object and how much oil or sweat is on the person’s fingertips.

Judge James Updike refused to qualify Mnookin as an expert because she had never conducted fingerprint analysis and testified she wasn’t qualified to offer an opinion on the analysis that identified Wesley Earnest’s prints on the note.

On Nov. 19, a jury convicted Wesley Earnest of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. Prosecutors said evidence in the case showed he ambushed his wife at her home in Forest on Dec. 19, 2007, shooting her in the head and staging the living room to appear as if she had shot herself.

Wesley Earnest claims he was on the other side of the state in Chesapeake that night, where he worked as a high school vice principal.

The outline of Mnookin’s refused testimony is filed with the trial record for possible use by the Court of Appeals of Virginia if the conviction is appealed next year. If the court decides the appeal has merit, it could consider whether Mnookin’s testimony, and that of several others who testified at Earnest’s first trial but were not allowed to testify last month, would have changed the outcome of the jury’s deliberations.

The other witnesses testified about the morning of Jocelyn Earnest’s death, which she spent with friend and Genworth Financial coworker Maysa Munsey at the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office where Munsey was charged with identity theft. In the first trial, Sanzone said Munsey stole the Social Security number of another Genworth coworker who was dating her ex-husband and used it to turn off the woman’s electricity. He later argued Jocelyn Earnest was somehow connected to the identity theft and that her knowledge of it resulted in her death.

In the second trial, Updike ruled early that he wouldn’t allow testimony about the matter, saying it was irrelevant because Sanzone had no evidence that clearly showed Munsey had a role in the woman’s death. Instead, the judge said, it showed evidence to the contrary — that the women were close friends.

Wesley Earnest was convicted in April, but the verdict was set aside when Updike learned jurors had considered barred evidence during deliberations. The second case was tried last month in Amherst with jurors from Nelson County.

He is set for sentencing on Jan. 25 in Amherst County Circuit Court. Sanzone said last week he likely will file the appeal after sentencing.

Updike also entered an order Tuesday in a civil suit against Wesley Earnest filed by his wife’s family seeking to prevent him from profiting from his wife’s death through real estate he acquired. The order prevents the sale or use of their marital assets for a year.
http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2010/ ... ar-686008/

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Wesley Earnest's Attorney Questions Fingerprint Evidence

Posted: Dec 01, 2010 10:24 PM CST Wednesday, December 1, 2010 11:24 PM EST
Reporter: Mark Kelly l Videographer: Sally Delta Goin

Lynchburg, VA - It's a crime-fighting technique that's been around for more than a hundred years. But is fingerprint analysis reliable? The defense attorney for Wesley Earnest wants the court to take a second look at fingerprint evidence in that case.
Joseph Sanzone says it's not reliable evidence. He even had an expert lined up to testify to that effect. But the judge said no.
Lynchburg Crime Scene Investigator Jonathan Pelletier says you "can't get any better" evidence than fingerprints.
But, at least when it comes to partial prints, Sanzone says they're simply not reliable; he says the methods for fingerprint evidence need a facelift.
"I don't think that the methods we use for fingerprint identification have been updated in a very, very long time," said Sanzone.
His client, Wesley Earnest, was recently convicted of killing his wife for a second time, and partial prints played a big role. Sanzone's concern? What's considered a match in the courtroom isn't enough for some fingerprint computer locks.
"It requires 80 points of similarity before it would open your computer. Wesley's fingerprints were identified on 14 or 15 points. So, what convicted him in circuit court would not be enough to open your computer," said Sanzone.
At least one crime scene technician says prints are as good as they've ever been as evidence.
"Fingerprint evidence is a very sound science with a credible history. A long history of proving itself," said Pelletier.
He says it's like laying one city grid over a different city grid and they match perfectly; the evidence can't get any better.
But Sanzone says no database exists to make a fingerprint match - with a partial print. And he'll carry that argument through the appeals process.
"If you are looking at the back of a car, and you see half of a car, what makes you think you could say what the other half looks like?" said Sanzone.
Sanzone says it was difficult to convince a jury fingerprint evidence is flawed without a defense expert to back him up. That is why Sanzone will appeal this case.

http://www.wset.com/Global/story.asp?S=13600671[/url]

[David Fairhurst]

His client, Wesley Earnest, was recently convicted of killing his wife for a second time,...

That's quite a feat. I wonder how he pulled it off.

[sharon cook]

The same way Sandra Bullock did it in "Practical Magic." First, she poisoned the guy, then she brought him back to life, then she boinked him on the head with a frying pan.

Seriously, is this Mnookin person the female James Starrs?

[Neville]

I could easy identify a Mini from only seeing half the car. In fact most people only ever see the one half of a car at one time, unless it is spinning. What is this person on, all AFIS systems I am aware of are designed to match partial prints, they wouldn't sell many if they couldn't. Tell him to get off the grass.

80 points wow that confirms how crappy those things really are, I suspected as much.