As the prosecution introduced contentious physical evidence yesterday in LaVon Chisley's murder trial, his defense attorney attacked the Patton Township Police Department's professionalism, competence and balance in investigating the former Penn State football player.
Patton Township police officer Thomas Snyder sat stoically in cross-examination as defense attorney Karen Muir questioned nearly every facet of the department's investigation, from omissions in written police reports to inconsistencies in interviewing witnesses.
As her cross-examination of Snyder came to a head, Muir said he and other officers neglected promising leads and suspects in their determination to pin Chisley to the June 2006 murder of Penn State senior Langston Carraway, 26. Chisley is charged with first- and third-degree murder.
Muir said Patton Township police never investigated three other men, who witnesses said could have been involved in the murder. She added that one of these men was known to associate with an individual matching the description of the buyer of heavy duty black gloves -- similar to the blood-stained glove found at the murder scene -- from State College hardware store O.W. Houtz & Son. But, she said, Snyder made no effort to further investigate the identity of the glove purchaser a cashier described as a white man with dirty blond hair.
Snyder admitted he failed to include in Chisley's criminal complaint, an otherwise detailed document, any mention of the racial epithet "N----- Die" painted on Carraway's living room wall in the victim's blood. He offered no reason for the exclusion and conceded he was unaware if investigators questioned maintenance men or inspected the lock to Carraway's apartment for tampering.
Breaking from his standard monotone for the first time during questioning, Snyder deliberately told Muir he had conducted "dozens and dozens" of interviews and filed "almost as many" reports.
"There was not enough time ... to rehash every thing and every person," he said.
Additionally, just one day after prosecution witnesses nearly verified that Chisley could not have purchased the black rubber glove found near Carraway's body, testimony from a local kennel owner indicated that the 23-year-old was in possession of a similar pair of gloves hours after Carraway's murder is said to have occurred.
Kennel owner Julie Jackson said under cross-examination that Chisley came to her kennel to sell back two dogs he had purchased but could not afford. At the time, she said, he was in possession of two black gloves, matching the description of the one at the crime scene.
Although her recollection was admittedly fuzzy, she said she remembers him dropping one of the gloves and quickly picking it up before she had a chance to help. Chisley, who owed Jackson and her husband more than $2,200, was acting nervous and jumpy, she said.
"I felt he was in a situation beyond his control," she said.
Continuing his case throughout the third day of testimony, Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira then called a succession of expert witnesses, chronicling the journey the case's evidence took from Carraway's Patton Township apartment to crime labs throughout the state. Lastly, he introduced DNA evidence gathered from the bloody glove that he said proves Chisley was at the murder scene.
Jeff Zachetti, a Pennsylvania State Police forensic DNA analyst, testified that he found a mixture of blood inside the glove, which a DNA analysis showed contained elements of both Chisley's and Carraway's DNA. The test result is the only direct physical link between the murder scene and Chisley yet revealed.
But as Muir has pointed out in prior hearings, Zachetti's analysis is not 100 percent conclusive. Because the sample collected comprises two different blood profiles, separating the combined DNA perfectly is impossible. However, the analyst projected the chance that the DNA in the mixture is not that of Chisley's is, at best, one in 160 million.
Attempting to pinpoint the locations of calls made from Chisley's cell phone the night of the murder, Madeira had called a cell phone radio frequency engineer to the stand earlier during yesterday's proceedings. However, the engineer said some cell phone towers in State College cover an area more than five miles in radius, broadening possible locations.
