By Lisa Hurt Kozarovich
newsroom@news-tribune.net
February 22, 2006 03:51 pm
—
BOONVILLE — Growing tension between attorneys on both sides of the David Camm murder trial overshadowed the proceedings Tuesday, with prosecutors threatening a delay at one point.
The delay was avoided and the case looks to go to the jury by the middle of next week, Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson said. Henderson and Steve Owen spent much of Tuesday berating the defense for not presenting their expert witnesses for questioning before the trial started, as is customary.
“It’s very unorthodox. As we stand here today, (the defense) has witnesses at the state crime lab trying to justify the opinions that we can anticipate they’ll testify to tomorrow,” Henderson said at lunch break Tuesday.
Earlier, Owen complained to Judge Robert Aylsworth that the defense has a pattern of producing last-minute witnesses that they’ve “pulled from their back pocket,” and that it was happening again with the testimony of ballistics expert John Nixon.
Defense attorney Stacy Uliana countered that the prosecutors had chances to interview the witnesses but chose not to do so, and she blamed them for holding back evidence.
“How can I depose a witness who hasn’t even examined the evidence or decided what their opinion is yet?” Henderson later said.
Aylsworth agreed to allow Nixon to testify. Nixon — a private ballistics consultant who formerly worked for Britain’s Department of Defense — testified the weapon used to murder Camm’s wife and children could have been one of more than 20 different handguns based on the shell casings found at the murder scene.
Although the weapon was never found, the prosecution alleges Camm shot his family with a Lorcin .380 semi-automatic pistol.
David Camm, 41, is accused of fatally shooting his 36-year-old wife, Kim, and children, Brad, 7, and Jill, 5, at their Georgetown home 5 1/2 years ago. His 2002 conviction was reversed leading to the current trial.
On cross-examination, Owen asked why Nixon had only made comparisons of the shell casings and not three bullets found at the scene. Nixon said he didn’t have time since becoming involved in the case in November.
Owen also pointed out with the evidence at hand, further testing could have ruled out most of the other guns Nixon found comparable to the Lorcin, and said the state would recall its own weapons expert to explain that.
Nixon also testified about the trajectory of the bullets, which he said indicated the shooter was standing outside the family’s Ford Bronco when the children were shot in the back seat. The state alleges Camm fired the shots from the back seat.
Outside the presence of the jury, both sides continued to argue their case that their opponents were slowing the trial, now in its seventh week.
Henderson called the late arrival of expert witnesses a last-ditch effort by the defense to throw prosecutors off balance.
“They’ve had the time, the money, access to experts, and what are we left with? Having to depose, not at the 10th hour, but the 12th hour.”
Defense attorney Kitty Liell denied the accusations.
“We have been asking to limit the number of experts all along,” she said, adding that the defense wanted to limit the blood stain pattern analysts to two for each side.
When the judge ruled against limiting the number of experts, and the state decided to bring in several experts, the defense needed to do the same, she insisted.
“And (Henderson) knew that. When he says it’s unorthodox, it’s poppycock,” Liell said.
She also said the defense team didn’t know until the state finished its case last week if they would need to bring in additional blood-stain experts Paulette Sutton and James Stuart.
“The real delay was the misconduct of Keith (Henderson) and Steve (Owen), by dismissing the charges (against Camm) and refiling them in Floyd County. We had a trial date set for August, then they decided to cook up some story on the word of (Charles) Boney alone.”
When that happened, Liell pointed out, the funds for Camm’s defense were frozen preventing them from being able to conduct further testing.
“The state wants to distract the jury and the media and the public at large from the very fact that the brass shavings were not caused by firing a gun” or loading a gun, she said.
On Monday and Tuesday, defense expert Jon Nordby testified that his experiments proved the hundreds of brass particles found on Camm’s gym shorts couldn’t have gotten there by his loading and firing a weapon.
The most likely explanation for the brass particles, the ballistics and gunshot residue expert said, is the car restoration work Camm was doing around the time of the murders.
“(The brass shavings) were just one piece of the puzzle. Whether or not every piece is filled in or not, at this point, the picture is very clear,” Henderson said.
The defense will begin wrapping up its case with testimony from two more blood stain pattern analysts and alibi witnesses.
Liell said each of the 11 witnesses who said they were playing basketball with Camm at the time of the murders will testify, along with a spectator at those games.
Reporter’s Notebook
Defense attorney Kitty Liell said this week the defense would rest its case as early as Friday, Monday at the latest.
That, however, doesn’t mean the end of the trial. Rebuttal and closing arguments could take several days. Then, the jury will get the case, and the verdict watch begins.
“It’s going to be like ‘Survivor’ ... who’ll outlast who, who’ll be the first to sit down. Only, in this case, the two ‘tribes’ won’t merge,” Liell joked after court Monday.
•••
Folks in the courtroom got a glimpse into prison culture Tuesday with testimony from jailhouse informants about the most-hated prisoners in jail.
It came as both sides tried to present their informants as more upstanding than their opponents.
“It’s not just snitches that are hated, right? How do (inmates) feel about (imprisoned) police officers?” deputy Floyd County prosecutor Steve Owen asked Joseph Chappel, a prisoner testifying for the defense.
“Pretty much the way they feel about snitches, maybe worse,” Chappel said.
On redirect, Liell jumped up and said, “How about lying snitches Mr. Chappel?”
“They’re probably the worst of all,” he said.
Three jailhouse informants testified for the state, including two that David Camm allegedly confessed to. The defense says each of those men were lying to get time off their sentences.
Later, Owen questioned informant Michael West about the inmates on the lowest rung of the prison ladder.
“I bet it’s real bad if you kill your kids, isn’t it?” Owen said. “It might be OK to kill your wife. Lots of guys are up there for killing their wives, not many who killed their kids. They don’t like people that kill their kids, do they?”
Other prison life tidbits:
• Inmates with tattoo art skills can earn money tattooing other prisoners. One prisoner said one of the detailed, color tattoos across the underside of his lower arm took about 21 hours to complete — three hours at a time — when the prisoners were allowed to socialize.
• Two Marion County prisoners who testified were reported to be one-time members of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, a white supremacist group that beats members to initiate them and if they want to leave the gang.
One prisoner said he quit the gang after realizing what they stood for, then requested protective custody from the prison to avoid getting “beat out” of the gang.
•••
Driving from Evansville, I noticed the prices at gas stations going up a penny or two, every few miles, as I got closer to the outlying town of Boonville.
Driving along Indiana 62, the prices ranged from $2.11 to $2.17.
Indianagasprices.com, a Web site monitoring gas prices in the state, lists a number of Evansville gas stations as having among the lowest prices in the state, ranging from $1.95 to $2.19.
But I’ve found they’re still not as low overall as in Floyd County. New Albany prices for the same time period averaged $2.01 to $2.05.
The highest prices in the state are in the Fort Wayne and Muncie areas at $2.39.
It could be worse; I could have to pay my mileage.
Kozarovich again on ‘Nancy Grace’
• Reporter Lisa Kozarovich will make a second live appearance on the “Nancy Grace” show at 8 p.m. Thursday night.
She will discuss the latest information from inside the courtroom at the David Camm trial and the sentencing this week of Charles Boney. The show appears nightly on CNN’s Headline News channel.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.