Oregonian, The (
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Author: PHIL MANZANO
and JOHN SNELL of the Oregonian Staff
Summary: The murder
trial of Frank E. Gable continues as a state police official recounts the
investigation
An
State police
criminologist Michael Hurley also testified most of Friday about the process
and techinques used to search for evidence, including
a hypersensitve chemical spray that glows in the dark
when it detects blood.
``There was a blood
trail . . . there was the evidence around the body . . . that tell a story of
what happened,'' Hurley said.
Gable, 31, is on trial
in the Jan. 17, 1989, killing of Francke and, if convicted of aggravated murder, could face
the death penalty.
Prosecutors believe Francke was
killed about
Prosecutors have said
they intend to show that while there is no physical evidence linking Gable or
anyone else to the killing, statements he made to friends and fellow members of
the Salem drug underworld -- coupled with an
eyewitness who said he saw Gable stab Francke -- are enough to
convict him.
During opening
statements Wednesday, Sarah Moore, a Marion County deputy district attorney,
told the jury that crime scene experts will testify that blood drops found at
the scene will reveal which direction and how fast Francke was moving after he
suffered a mortal stab wound to the chest.
Hurley, assistant
director of the State Police Crime Lab in Springfield, began laying the
foundation for prosecution theories with a videotape that began showing
tow-truck drivers carefully taking Francke's car away.
The tape then showed
where the first drops of blood were found on a narrow sidewalk in front of the
north portico of the
The video, played
without sound, spoke volumes about Francke's final moments.
Hurley narrated the
tape, pointing out Francke's
eyeglasses and car keys on the ground, a bloody handprint near the door and Francke's
shirt, saturated with blood.
He told jurors about a
small windowpane, the size of a paperback book, close to the doorknob that was
broken, blood smears and dirt on Francke's left hand and a badly damaged and bloody right
hand.
From the inside of the
The videotape showed
Hurley and two morticians placing the body in a body bag lined with a white
sheet. The tape ends with aerial shots of the
The crime experts are
bound to be questioned closely by Gable's lawyers.
During cross examination
of the first police officers and paramedics to arrive on the scene, defense
attorney Robert Abel tried to show they may have trampled important evidence
because they didn't secure the area between Francke's body and his car.
Defense attorney John Storkel told jurors during opening statements that
investigators failed to take Francke's body temperature after the body was discovered.
He said this failure made it impossible to pinpoint the time of Francke's
death.
Forensic pathologists
often take a series of three core body temperatures at one-hour intervals and
then extrapolate to determine the approximate time of death.
Conceivably, the
temperature might have been taken elsewhere, or might not have been taken at
all if investigators believed that all heat had already left Francke's
body after having spent hours in the cold January air.
Hurley said he arrived
at the Dome Building about 4:40 a.m. Jan. 18, about five hours after Francke's
body was discovered. It was cold, damp and dark and after inspecting the crime
scene Hurley said he decided to wait until daylight to begin processing the
scene for blood, fingerprints and other evidence.
``You don't always know
the manner of death'' when police arrive at the crime scene, Hurley told
The criminalists,
Hurley said, did examine the inside of the
They spent 3 1/2 -hours
processing the outside crime scene which included Francke's car. No blood and no
sign of a struggle was found in or around the car.
Hurley told jurors about
using a highly sensitive chemical spray that glows when it detects trace
amounts of blood, even days or weeks after the crime. The chemical interacts
with iron particles left from the blood, but is not exact because it will also
detect iron particles from other substances.
Hurley said he returned
to the crime scene the evening of Jan. 27 after arranging to have all the
lights around the
Beginning where Francke's
body was found, Hurley sprayed the substance on the door frame and floor, which
resulted in the tell-tale glow, Hurley said. He worked backward, down the
stairs and on the sidewalk, and was able to pick up traces of Francke's
blood, even though some of it had been walked over and scrubbed off.
He tested the area where
Francke's
car was parked, but found no trace of blood. Hurley also tested a grassy strip
between the portico and the area where Francke parked, but the whole
strip glowed because of iron from a fertilizer, he said.
Earlier in the day,
Abel, who claims the police botched the initial investigation, objected to the
testimony of an
``I believe the issue we
are confronting . . . could be critical,'' Abel said. ``We are attempting to
show that police who were initially investigating the scene on Jan. 18 . . .
did not properly perform their duties. They impeded the progress of their
investigation and as a result may have destroyed evidence that would have been
beneficial to the defense.''
Bostwick told West that his office only learned Thursday of the
existence of three pages of notes dealing with a police search of a garbage
dumpster.
West allowed Berning to
testify, and he told jurors that police went through all the garbage that was
picked up from the area of the Corrections Departmenton
the day of the killing, but no weapon or anything important was found.