Strong Judge

[Bill Schade]

Here is one Judge who isn't ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater. This will be an interesting case to watch

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/local/she ... l?d=mobile

PORT ORCHARD — Markings left on shell casings from an East Bremerton shooting last year that killed a 2-year-old boy and a 30-year-old woman are "consistent" with a shell casing found at murder suspect Geraldo DeJesus' residence, a forensic scientist testified Tuesday.

Although testimony in the trial has been underway since Aug. 11, Tuesday marks the introduction of the critical physical evidence investigators say ties DeJesus to the pistol that killed his ex-girlfriend, Heather Kelso, her roommate's son, Kaden Lum, and wounded Kelso's friend Mathew Dean on March 28, 2014.

Investigators said during a search of Dejesus' ex-wife's residence in Port Orchard, where DeJesus lived following his breakup with Kelso, they found a Smith and Wesson box that held a 9 mm pistol owned by DeJesus. The 9 mm pistol used in the shooting has not been recovered. However, inside the box investigators found a shell casing from a "test fire round" that had been included at purchase, according to testimony.

DeJesus is charged with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. If convicted he faces life in prison without parole.

Forensic scientist Kathy Geil told jurors she conducted a side-by-side comparison of the shell casing found in the gun box belonging to DeJesus and the shell casings found at the scene.

"They both have the same consistent markings indicating they were fired from the same firearm," Kathy Geil said.

Although Dean and Jalissa Lum, Kaden's mother, survived the early morning shooting at the Kariotis Mobile Home Park, they testified they did not see the shooter. Dean told jurors he fled after realizing Kelso had been shot — he was shot in the back as he ran and dove out of a glass window — and Lum said she was asleep in a dark bedroom when the shooting started and was not wearing her contact lenses.

Coincidently, Geil's testimony comes a week after a draft report from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology was leaked to the Los Angeles Times, which media reports say cautions courts on the use of forensic evidence that does not measure up to scientific standards.

In the lead up to the trial, one of DeJesus' attorneys, Tom Weaver, had asked Superior Court Judge Kevin Hull to allow a full hearing on the scientific validity of the type of forensic evidence referred to as "firearm toolmark evidence," on which the state's case against DeJesus hinges.

Those hearings are meant to establish the reliability of "novel" science. Hull turned down the request.

On Monday, Weaver told Hull he obtained a "bootleg copy" of the draft report and again requested a full hearing on toolmark evidence. Hull again denied the motion, saying he anticipated a "counterpunch" to the critique of forensic evidence and that he was not going to "change the game."

"We're just not there yet," Hull said.

However, Hull said if jurors convict DeJesus, the new perspective on forensic evidence might factor into an appellate decision to uphold or overturn his rulings.

Toolmark evidence, Geil explained to jurors, is gathered from spent shell casings and bullets. The "toolmark" refers to the unique marks that the machines used to make firearms leave on the guns themselves. Those unique marks then make their own unique marks on bullets and shell casings that are fired from the gun.

However, Geil acknowledged that toolmark forensics is a "comparative science." In conducting the analysis, Geil said she places two shell casings under a microscope to compare them, noting the grooves and unique markings.

Photos of the notable marks were shown to jurors, but Geil said that the photos did not show the detail that she could see under the microscope.

"In a photo it's difficult to capture what I'm looking at," Geil said.

"Ultimately we have to rely on your subjective opinion that these marks seem to be consistent?" Weaver asked.

"That's correct," Geil said.

Deputy Prosecutor Barbara Dennis asked Geil why toolmark analysis did not require a certain number of similar marks to be noted, the way fingerprint or DNA evidence is quantified.

"We haven't found a way to count them," Geil said, calling the practice "pattern matching."

She added, "How do you recognize a face?"

Geil worked for the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab in Seattle when she conducted the analysis but left the lab in December and now works as a forensic scientist for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Geil laughed at Weaver's suggestion she now works for the "CSI" unit featured on the TV show.

"It doesn't look anything like that," Geil said.

Other forensic experts for the state and defense are expected to testify this week.

[Boyd Baumgartner]

Bill, as the exemplar of practicality how do you see the PCAST report affecting you, your office or the discipline?

[Bill Schade]

I think the days of wine and roses with juries accepting our testimony carte blanche are over.

The PCAST report, like the NAS report will give the courts more to consider and require that examiners be able to explain and demonstrate their conclusions under stronger scrutiny than we may have experienced in the past.

Its all good

[Boyd Baumgartner]

Well Bill, it looks like it's time to start your application to the International Association of Consistent With or it's sister organization, the International Association for Association.

IAA_Logo.jpg

The guy in the case you mentioned, where the firearms evidence was 'consistent with' was found guilty.

Man gets 2 life sentences in Bremerton double homicide

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. (AP) — A 32-year-old man has been handed two life sentences for the slayings of his ex-girlfriend and her roommate’s toddler at a Bremerton mobile home park. The Kitsap Sun reports (https://goo.gl/Q6lWqZ ) Geraldo DeJesus was sentenced Monday in the March 2015 shooting deaths of Heather Kelso and 2-year-old Kaden Lum.

A Kitsap Superior Court jury convicted DeJesus in September of two counts of premeditated murder along with other crimes.
On Monday, Judge Kevin Hull sentenced DeJesus to two life sentences, without early release, along with an additional 680 months in prison.
Prosecutors had argued that DeJesus was a jealous ex-boyfriend who went on a rampage, while DeJesus’ attorneys said investigators were too quick to identify their client as a suspect and failed to investigate other people. DeJesus did not speak at the hearing and has filed a notice to appeal his conviction