Thursday morning the jury in the Israel Mireles trial heard the details from the sexual assault examination performed on Emily Sander at the start of her autopsy.
Dianna Schunn, a registered nurse and SANE/SART specialist, testified as to her findings during the exam.
“Originally I did an observation of Emily’s body and determined the need to do a sexual assault evaluation,” Schunn testified.
She did evaluations, collected samples and took photographs of the injuries. There was blunt force trauma, bruising and lacerations.
This is the most significant amount of injuries I have seen in any patient,” Schunn said.
When showing some lacerations, she said she was even unable to really count the amount because of the number of lacerations.
When asked if a toilet plunger with a bloody handle could be consistent with the injuries, she said it could.
Upon questioning by the defense, Schunn said she could not determine in consensual sex had occurred before the injuries or who caused the injuries.
Before moving on to the results of testing, the jury heard one more time from KBI Special Agent David Klamm who was recalled by the state.
He identified four beer bottles he had collected from the scene at room 21 and delivered to the KBI lab in Great Bend.
He said he measured the base of the beer bottle found on the bed in the room. Measuring straight across it measured 2 3/8 inches and a raised ridge on the bottom measured two inches.
Defense attorney Melanie Freeman-Johnson went on to ask if there were any fingerprints on the bottles.
Klamm said he used superglue fumes to set the any prints and sent the bottles on to the lab.
Freeman-Johnson then went on to introduce the men’s style black slippers recovered from the motel room, which Klamm said he delivered to the El Dorado Police Department, where they remained until the trial.
Klamm also testified he transported the swabs from the sexual assault exam to the lab as well.
Further testimony discussed the testing done on the items delivered to the lab.
Eric Moore, finger print examiner/forensic scientist with the KBI, first talked about his examination and findings regarding prints on the window screen, broken glass and beer bottles.
He compared any prints he found to the known prints of Mireles and Emily Sander.
In all, Moore testified he found a finger print on the broken glass, a palm print on the screen and a finger print on one of the bottles belonging to Mireles. There also were some latent prints recovered from the vehicle recovered in Texas.
One bottle also contained a print that belonged to Sander.
Freeman-Johnson then asked Moore if he had any other comparison prints to use, which he said he did not have any other known prints to which to compare.
She also asked about one other print excluded from Mireles, but couldn’t be include or exclude Sander.
She also questioned him about another beer bottle that had some indication of prints but not enough to identify them.
She asked if it was possible there were other prints they could not get or that were destroyed, to which he said both were possible.
“All the conditions have to be right to leave a finger print behind,” he said.
Moore said the most common way to prevent leaving finger prints would be to wear gloves.
Following Moore, Lisa Burdett, West Region KBI lab director in Great Bend, talked about the items she examined and her findings.
Among the items she processed was the vehicle found in Texas.
“In anything we process, the first thing I am going to do since I’m there looking for biological material, I’m going to do a visual exam of the outside,” she testified.
“After that, Mr. Moore would have looked and processed it on the outside for any prints prior to the process to break the seals to gain access to the vehicle.”
She went on to describe what she found.
In the passenger compartment of the car, there was blood stains found on the turn signal and column of the
steering wheel. There also was a stain on the center arm rest.
Burdett said she also observed a “fairly large” red stain in the wheel well, with a reddish brown flow pattern going down into the well.
Before talking about the DNA testing and findings on each item, she showed a chart showing population frequency statistics showing how common or rare a DNA profile are in the population.
She went on to talk about her findings of the various items she tested.
The first item was the screen from the motel. She said it tested positive for blood and she collected swabs from the item. The blood was consistent with Sander, but not Mireles. The likelihood of finding a caucasion match to someone else would have been 1 in 7 billion.
Another test was performed on a swab from the arm of the chair in the motel room. This tested positive for blood and matched Sander but not Mireles.
The cutting of the carpet also tested positive for blood and matched Sander, but not Mireles.
Another test was run on the toilet plunger, with swabs being taken from the handle and head of the plunger.
Swabs from both areas also tested positive for blood and matched Sander.
Tests also were run on the beer bottles. One of the bottles on the nightstand matched DNA for Mireles and not Sander, while the bottle found on the bed matched Sander and not Mireles.
In addition, tests were run on a cutting from the mattress of the bed. It tested positive for blood belonging to Sander and not Mireles.
Next, they looked at the testing from some of the clothing.
A pair of the jeans found in the trash dumpster in Baxter Springs were tested in three areas, all three testing positive for blood and matching the DNA profile of Sander.
The men’s boxers were tested in four areas. One sample was taken from the right leg on the hem. This
tested positive for Sander’s blood. Another sample was taken from the fly area, which was broken down into two fractions. Sander’s was a major DNA profile present from one fraction, with that fraction being inconclusive for Mireles. The other fraction matched Mireles and not Sander.
The final item looked at was the knife and sheath.
The knife blade and handle were tested.
It was positive for blood that matched Sander and not Mireles. The handle also tested positive for blood and
the DNA was a mixture of at least two people. While Sander tested positive for the partial major, it was inconclusive for Mireles because there was not enough DNA from the minor contributor.
On sheath from the knife, the outside was not consistent with Sander, but Mireles was a contributor to the partial profile.
Finally, from the sexual assault kit, the female fraction matched Sander, while the male fraction yielded a mixture, with Sander being the minor contributor and Mireles as the major DNA profile.
On cross, Melanie Freeman-Johnson brought up several possibilities, including the masking of DNA, destroying DNA and leaving one’s one, transferring DNA, and that the last person to touch an item to have their DNA be found on the item.
She also addressed if it was possible that individuals went in and out of the motel room, they could have contaminated the room or transferred DNA from one area in the room to another area in the room.
“If Mr. Mireles picked up the knife, took it with him and threw it away could that explain how his DNA got
there?” Freeman-Johnson asked.
Burdett agreed that would be possible
In addition, she said his DNA could be left and be found rather than someone else’s or he could have destroyed other DNA.
“If another person would have been there and been involved in this crime, would any of his DNA been transferred to the scene if he had worn gloves?” Freeman-Johnson asked.
Burdett said no, not necessarily.
Freeman-Johnson went on to ask about samples taken from the car. She asked if there were no swabs taken from the backseat or passenger side of the car, which Burdett said she had not.
Burdett also agreed that not finding a suspect’s DNA profile at a crime scene does not mean they were not present.
Following Burdett’s testimony the state rested.
To conclude the day the defense called its first to witnesses.
First to take the stand was Keely McFann, who shared further details about Sander and Mirles.
She told how she and Sander went to Beijing that Friday, where they ran into Misty Walton and met Mireles.
She said they sat there drinking, talking and having a good time, with Mireles purchasing drinks for everyone at the table.
When asked how Sander was that night, she said, “She’s always outgoing. She was just having a good time.”
She said they already had plans to go on out to the Retreat that night as well.
Once there she said they were taking shots and she was dancing and taking more shots.
They also were writing on themselves with markers that glowed in the black light.
She recalled Sander wrote “porn star” on her stomach with a star around her bellybutton.
McFann remembered a guy at the bar who kept saying Sander was hot.
“[I] told him she was too drunk for him to even try to take her home,” McFann testified.”
She said she never saw this guy try to coerce Sander into leaving with him. She also testified to seeing Sander kiss Mireles.
McFann also recalled a conversation about getting drugs and Mireles asking her if they could get cocaine.
“I told him after the club we’d worry about it,” she said.
She also said she knew Sander had done cocaine in the past but not that day.
“She (Sander) came to me on the dance floor,” McFann said, wiping away tears. “She said she was leaving with Israel and I said no. I wasn’t going to let her leave.”
But Sander didn’t listen to her.
After Sander didn’t come back, McFann started walking from the bar and a guy picked her up and took her to Sander’s apartment, but after no one answered the door, she returned to the Retreat.
Steve Six, for the state, also asked McFann how Mireles was treating the girls that night.
She said sexually.
“The more alcohol he had the more progressive he became toward females,” she said. “It was more of demanding to come with him for the after party. He kept saying we were going to have a party with all of us girls at his place.”
She said it wasn’t like Sander to leave without her.
The final witness of the day was Brad Scott, who had met up with McFann and Sander when he went to Beijing with one of his friends, Greg Bostwick, to celebrate Bostwick’s birthday.
He said not long after they got there, Mireles came over and joined their table. He said Mireles did buy drinks once or twice for the table.
Scott also remember Mireles asking if anybody knew where he to get any drugs.
“Greg had mentioned that he knew somebody who could get some, but he wasn’t wanting to go through with getting them,” he said.
“Israel had suggested to me and everybody else at the table that we take some of the money he had and he was going to pay for everything to go to Wichita and get some cocaine and go back to his motel and party. I said no , I wasn’t interested in doing that.”
But he didn’t know that anyone else said no.
Scott said he spent most of his time at the Retreat at the bar watching sports.
He also saw that Sander and Bostwick had been flirting.
The defense continued with their witnesses this morning.
