This is one of my courtroom stories that I can share with you. Being a court stenographer, I see and hear everything in the courtroom and prepare a certified transcript of proceedings.
The last big murder trial I did, a man was found guilty of 2nd degree murder for killing his girlfriend. Her body was found in the bathtub of her home by her friend from work. She was naked with a running hair dryer and a bit of water in the tub. At first the police thought it could have been suicide.
No one suspected her live-in boyfriend and father of their 4 year old son but no one knew how volatile their relationship was until the police delved further into things.
What began the suspicion is when he came back to the house during the initial investigation driving her car (which she never let him drive). There was a broken nightstand in the trunk that was from her bedroom (he lived upstairs in another bedroom), and all of his financial paperwork.
He claimed to not know what happened.
Folks later found out that she had kicked him out over the weekend and wanted the child support payments to be turned back on (they had been living separate previously). She was more financially secure than he was. He was unable to hold down a job and relying on her financially.
As police began investigating, his story didn't match that of everyone he told it to. He had told the friends in the AM that he last saw her at 7:30 and she was asleep, but he told the police that they had had a fight and he last spoke with her at around 9 am when he left the house.
DNA and feathers are what brought him down.
His DNA was all over the hair dryer and towel found by the tub and his DNA was under her fingernails. He had a scratch on his arm with her DNA in it.
The pillow police believe she was smothered with was made of feathers. Those feathers were strewn throughout the house, including on the bottom of a pair of his socks, found at the bottom of the trash can, and on the floor in his bedroom upstairs. More feathers were found in the bottom of the big street trash can too.
The friend who dropped her off the night before had been in her room getting ready with her to go out. She confirmed that the victim's room was clean, with no torn pillows or broken nightstand.
He had no alibi and no one to corroborate where he was.
She was last seen alive at about 11:30 the night before when a girlfriend dropped her off and 9:30 the next morning when a friend from work came over to check on her.
The autopsy report verified the stage of rigor mortis to be about two hours, putting her time of death at around 7 am. That means that he could not have had a fight with her at 9 am, like he told the police.
There were no signs of forced entry and nothing was stolen. The child, fortunately, had been out of town at the time with his maternal grandmother, so was not present during this.
Her cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation by smothering, verified by the petechiae of the pupils - broken blood vessels of the eyes.
He is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Her family does not believe him and feels that justice has been served for their loved one.
