RECAP: Brian Walshe Trial - Day 7 Morning Testimony

Morning session included Matthew Sheehan finishing up on cross exam and several witnesses testifying about amplifying and duplicating DNA from various items in preparation for analysis

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What chair Alibiers. Welcome to another episode of Pretty Lies
and Alibis. I'm Jigi, good to have you here. It's Tuesday,
December ninth. We are going to break down the morning
session of day seven of the Brian Walsh trial. Let's
jump in back. On the STAM was Matthew Shehan. He's
with the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab and he was

(00:20):
on the STAM when we dismissed yesterday. Still on cross.
I'm not going to go through the entire cross exam
because it was a lot of the same, but let's
hit the important parts. The white powder residue that was
found on that floor was baking powder. As far as
the rug that was found in the dumpster, there were
those clumps of some other substance, but that wasn't tested.

(00:44):
In the house, there were items seas that may have
been opened, but also there were items that seemed to
never have been opened or used. The witness asked, what
bottles are you talking about? And the defense says, cleaning
items like mops, brooms, buckets, pale some of the things
he got from Lows, and the witness says, correct, there
were things that were not used. The defense asked about

(01:06):
the peroxide upstairs in the kitchen. That bottle was not opened.
You're looking for blood at the house, and it's fair
to say in no report you wrote you found blood
spatter and there was no evidence of blood spatter. The
witness says, correct, you saw no evidence there was luminol
in the home or used in the home by anyone. No.

(01:26):
Luminol is what you spray at a crime scene, and
it shows where blood may have been cleaned up. It
glows for the basement floor stains. They show a test
on the screen and the witness says that was the
confirmation test that it was indeed blood. The defense says,
the only place in the home you found blood evidence
were the places in the basement, and the witness says, yes. Defense,

(01:48):
so somebody can try to clean a floor and try
to clean a bathroom area, but if they would leave
something as small as twenty nanograms per milliater of biological evidence,
this instrument that you rely on could detect it. Correct.
The witness says, theoretically yes. They show a photo of
Anna on that rug that was found in one of
the trash bags, and the defense says, you testified you

(02:11):
examined the rug did you ever piece together the rug
for analysis? The witness said no, and he is not
aware if anyone did. The knife had a screening test,
but not a confirmation test, so you don't know if
that was blood, and the witness says correct. They show
a photo of those dark blue, bloody slippers you swab
to look for skin cells. You don't know who they

(02:33):
belonged to, and you don't know how the red brown
stains got on there, and the witness says no. He
asked where were they found and the witness says, in
one of the trash bags. Defense, you don't know what
was found in the bag with the slippers. No, you're
aware there was a trash compactor which bushes and condenses
the bags when you're concerned for cross contamination, but when

(02:56):
things are put in a compactor, things are pressed together
and they can be cross contaminated. Yes, when you saw
hairs on the slippers, you have no clue if it
was on the slipper originally or if it was put
there by cross contamination, And the witness says that's correct.
Next up, we had several witnesses who came in to
talk about getting all the samples ready for DNA analysis.

(03:19):
They talk about extracting and amplifying the DNA on the
following samples. The basement floor stains, white towel number one,
the hacksaw blade and the handle, the TIEVEX suit, interior
sleeve cuff, the exterior left pant leg, interior right sleeve,
and the interior left sleeve for those dark blue slippers.

(03:43):
The interior and the exterior left stain. Also an unknown
tissue from the Swampscott dumpster, the head and the handle
of the hatchet. There was a stain on tape with
gauze and the rug. At this point, the judge tells
the jury there was a stipulation that on May ninth,
twenty eighteen, an FBI agent got DNA samples from both

(04:08):
Brian and Anna, and that was taken to the FBI
headquarters in Boston and placed in evident storage. On February tenth,
twenty twenty three, a special agent took those samples from
evidence storage at the FBI headquarters in Boston and brought
those to the Massachusetts State Police crime Lab. The last
witness before lunch. She took those known DNA samples for

(04:32):
Anna and Brian and developed those for comparison, and that
was it before lunch break, So just taking out everybody
talking about their qualifications and their continuing education and the
technicalities of what they do when they're amplifying this DNA.
That was pretty much it. So I expect after lunch
we should get the results of these DNA samples off

(04:54):
these items, and I will recap that for you later
this afternoon. But that's it for now. Hope you guys
have I have a good rest of your afternoon, and
we will see you soon.