Accused of the March 2007 slaying of Christina Simonin, Ashton Moores listens during the opening of his trial in Penobscot County Superior Court in Bangor on Monday.
BANGOR, Maine — Forensic experts say DNA evidence presented Thursday in the court case against Ashton Moores, who is charged with the rape and murder of Christina Simonin in March 2007, connects the victim with the accused.
Blood found on a baseboard and under ripped up carpet in Moores’ First Street apartment and inside a wheelbarrow he borrowed from his landlord, match Simonin’s, and semen found on the victim’s underwear matches the DNA of Moores, two forensic scientists from the Maine State Police crime laboratory testified.
Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson alleges that Moores, 60, raped and killed Simonin, 43, of Bangor and used the wheelbarrow to dump her bound and bagged body a block from his residence.
Her body was found by four teenagers at around 8 p.m. on March 3, wrapped in a blue vinyl mattress cover and comforter behind an apartment building at 148 Union St.
Three video surveillance tapes from buildings around where Simonin's body was found were entered into evidence Tuesday, and Detective Brent Beaulieu, who is part of the Bangor Police Department's criminal investigative division, also testified that day that Moores admitted to him that he was the man on the tapes.
The first surveillance video, which was recorded at 12:43 a.m. March 3, 2007, shows a grainy figure pushing a wheelbarrow up First Street and the side driveway of the Shaw House, located on the corner of First and Union streets.
An item that appears to be wrapped in a blue tarp is clearly visible in the wheelbarrow in that video, which was provided by the Shaw House.
The second video, also from the Shaw House and displaying the same time and date, shows a figure from the waist up, passing in and out of view along the bottom of the picture frame and then again seconds later at the top of the shot going behind the shed.
An audiotape in which Moores admits to borrowing a wheelbarrow from his landlord also was played Tuesday, and a neighbor who lived across the hall from Moores at the time of the homicide, also testified that she gave him the comforter in which Simonin’s body was wrapped.
Defense attorneys Terence Harrigan and Seth Harrow claim their client is innocent, and police failed to investigate thoroughly two other men who could have killed Simonin. On Thursday they questioned why DNA samples were not taken from the men, both considered “people of interest” by local police officers.
After the forensic scientists testified and were cross-examined by defense counselors, both the prosecution and defense rested their cases.
Moores did not testify.
Before the court adjourned for lunch Thursday, Superior Court Justice William Anderson, who is hearing Moores' jury-waived trial in Penobscot County Superior Court, asked to watch the videotapes again.
“We will resume at 2 o’clock for closing arguments,” Anderson said.
The judge has not said whether he will issue a verdict today or issue a written verdict in the near future.
On 11/20/08 at 3:11 PM,
JohnLloydScharf wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Whenever I find that DNA testing is being done, I want to know:
What were the DNA tests that were run? In the CODIS database of Maryland, of fewer than 30,000 profiles, 32 pairs matched at nine or more loci. Three of those pairs were “perfect” matches, identical at 13 out of 13 loci. Experts say they most likely are duplicates or belong to identical twins or brothers, but they did not establish that.
A study of the Arizona CODIS database carried out in 2005 showed that approximately 1 in every 228 profiles in the database matched another profile in the database at nine or more loci, that approximately 1 in every 1,489 profiles matched at 10 loci, 1 in 16,374 profiles matched at 11 loci, and 1 in 32,747 matched at 12 loci.
In a recent case against a Murillo-Sosa, a jury was told the match was 5 of 13. They had to say he was not guilty. SO, what kind of match are they going to make?
How about doing it right the first time and take the time to get a FULL DNA testing of Y chromosome DNA and mitochondrial DNA, as well as autosomal (CODIS) DNA?
Is it a mitochondrial DNA test which matches everyone who descended from the same maternal ancestor in the last 20 generations as THE DEFENDENT(S)? Is it just a "high resolution test" which the FBI performs or a real full genome sequencing of the mitochondrial DNA?
Is it a Y Chromosome test which matches everyone who has the same paternal lineage for the past 400 years? If so, is it 12 markers, which could be one to fifty percent of the population, or is it a 67 marker test that can pin it down to a surname?
There may be a way to combine all of these that will resolve the identity to one person, but is what they have beyond a reasonable doubt unless they do FULL testing?
DNA match claims are being used to extract confessions, but they cannot turn over results to the Defense? This sounds like a Brady Violation.
John Trainum, a 25 year detective, is now recommending that interrogations be videotaped because of how they are extracting confessions.
On 1/24/08, in the LA TIMES, he wrote, "I've been a police officer for 25 years, and I never understood why someone would admit to a crime he or she didn't commit. Until I secured a false confession in a murder case."
So, a confession in a case is NOT a sign that it is a done deal. It goes back to the DNA testing. Again, DNA testing is not magic, but it is being treated as such. The only power of DNA testing that is absolute is in EXCLUDING suspects.
On 12/4/08 at 12:11 AM,
JohnLloydScharf wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
DEFACTO ONLY THE DEFENSE IS GAGGED:
In Illinois, 903 pairs of profiles matching at nine or more loci turned up in a database of about 220,000. In Maryland, with a "database of fewer than 30,000 profiles, 32 pairs matched at nine or more loci," the Times reports. Three of the pairs were "perfect" matches, identical at 13 out of 13 loci.
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/26025944.html
DEFACTO ONLY THE DEFENSE IS GAGGED:
The term "partial match" is used to mean that two profiles match at some subset of their loci. For example, a 9-locus partial match between two profiles means that they match at some nine loci and fail to match at the
remaining four loci. The Arizona DNA Offender database contained 65,493 profiles, and the following partial matches were observed:
Observed partial matches in Arizona data
number of matching loci number of partial matches
9 of 13 for 122
10 of 13 for 20
11 of 13 for 1
12 of 13 for 1
http://dna-view.com/ArizonaMatch.htm
DEFACTO ONLY THE DEFENSE IS GAGGED:
On November 6th of 2008, a jury and all the alternates (14 people) found Josa Murillo-Sosa not guilty of killing two woman in south Nashville.
For one juror, Matthew Slater, he said it came down to the lack of evidence. Slater said he felt the DNA didn't prove anything, as it only had five points out of 13.
"Beyond a reasonable doubt" means you should be willing to accept the same consequences as the defendant should the defendant later bexonderated.
http://www.wsmv.com/news/17973779/detail.html
Post a comment about this story
You must be logged in to post a comment.
click here to log in.
