Page 80 of The Accomplice
‘It occurs where some forensic material passes from the primary transferee to another individual.’
I paused for a second. Letting Johnson know I was considering my next question carefully. I let my mouth curl into a brief smile. His shoulders tensed.
‘Professor, before I ask my next question, is there any part of your testimony you wish to change or revise ?’
He uncrossed his legs, put his feet firmly on the floor.
‘No, I don’t believe so,’ he said. ‘I am giving my professional, expert opinion as fairly as I can.’
My eyebrows shot up in a mock face of surprise.
Johnson swallowed, then tugged at his beard with his right hand.
That’s what I was waiting for.
‘Professor, you are aware that the prosecution is making the case that my client had a part to play in these crimes along with her husband, Daniel Miller ?’
‘I am aware.’
‘You are aware, because you carried out the DNA extraction and analysis of the fingerprint found beneath Stacy Nielsen’s arm. What was the result of that analysis ?’
He stroked his beard, drawing his fingers across it and then pulling his chin hairs and twisting them into a point, which then unfurled as he let go. Before he spoke, he glanced at the jury, then back to me.
I heard some faint whispers from behind me. I turned. One of the jurors, a blonde lady in a red sweater, was nudging and discreetly pointing to the witness stand.
I knew what they were looking at, and pointing at.
Too bad Johnson didn’t.
‘Yes, I extracted the mixed DNA strands and was able to separate them. It was a fingerprint linked, independently, to Daniel Miller. Before I knew of that result, I had built two DNA profiles from the samples taken off Stacy Nielsen’s body. One DNA sample strongly indicated it belonged to Stacy Nielsen herself. The other sample remained unidentified until I extracted DNA from a toothbrush found in Daniel Miller’s bathroom. The DNA on that toothbrush gave a strong match with the other DNA strain from Stacy Nielsen’s body.’
The whispering got louder. Now some folks in the gallery were picking it up, giving strange looks to Professor Johnson.
‘There is DNA evidence linking my client’s husband, Daniel Miller, to the victim, Stacy Nielsen. Touch DNA, from sweat ?’
‘Correct, the blood, which made the fingerprint, was from Stacy Nielsen. It shows that he touched her.’
‘I see, so isn’t it possible that the blood on my client’s blouse got there via secondary transfer ?’
‘Possible. Not likely.’
‘It’s entirely possible that when my client’s husband, the known killer of Stacy Nielsen, took off his clothes in his closet, which is beside Carrie Miller’s, that some of the blood residue on his clothes got on my client’s blouse ?’
‘Again, possible, not likely,’ said Johnson, raising his voice now. He was beginning to notice the looks from the jury, and the people in the gallery, and now even Drew White was looking at him strangely and Johnson had no clue why.
I lit him up.
‘Why do you say it’s not likely ?’ I asked.
I knew his answer before he gave it. It’s what all blood spatter experts say when a plausible sequence of events doesn’t go their way. I’d heard it a dozen times before. So had Johnson, who had been involved in hundreds of trials. He was on the edge of his expertise, and he knew it. He was vulnerable, and so when he spoke, he was almost shouting the answer from the rooftops.
‘Because I don’t believe someone could get blood on them or their clothes, through secondary transfer, without noticing it.’
There it was. His explanation. Laid out exactly how I expected it.
‘Really,’ I said, holding up my palm, letting Johnson and the jury take a good look.
Johnson squinted, leaned forward.
