Texas v. David Graham
"The Cadet Murder Trial"
Both sides focus on blood evidence and Zamora's injured left hand
NEW BRAUNFELS, TEXAS, July 20 (Court TV) -- According to Diane Zamora's plastic surgeon, her severely injured left hand was "not useless" shortly before the murder of Adrianne Jones, but its use was extremely limited.
Both the prosecution and the defense were trying to prove their theories regarding the marks found around Jones' neck following her murder. Dr. Scott Kasden treated Zamora's hand after she mangled her left in a car accident in September 1995. Zamora needed pins and wires inserted in her hand and had to undergo rehabilitation. Kasden testified that the hand injury would have made it difficult for her to overcome a person at full strength. The doctor also said the injury limited movement in Zamora's left hand and greatly reduced its strength. He said that Zamora's attendance at rehab sessions was "erratic at best."
By March 1996, three months after Jones' murder, Kasden said that Zamora's left hand was at about 50 percent less strength than her right hand and had approximately 50 percent less movement than her right hand. (Zamora is naturally right-handed.) Referring to the marks discovered around the right side of Jones's neck during autopsy, Kasden said that Zamora would not have been able to break capillaries by squeezing with the left hand. (Medical examiner Marc Krouse had testified previously that the marks around Jones' neck were inflicted by the left hand of someone larger than Zamora, perhaps Graham.)
During cross-examination, defense attorney Dan Cogdell held a gun in his right hand and asked Kasden whether it would be easy for someone to overcome another person with one hand while using the weapon. Kasden conceded that a person could overcome a person in that manner. However, he also said that right-handed person does not necessarily shoot with his or her right hand. Using himself as an example, Kasden said he is right-handed but uses his left hand for shooting. Still, Kasden admitted to the defense that Zamora's left hand still recovered significantly and was making "good progress" by late November 1995, just before Jones' murder.
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Cogdell tried to show that Zamora also could have grabbed Jones' neck with her right, uninjured hand causing the bruising. But the demonstration backfired, and Kasden said that the position used in the demonstration would not work for leaving the marks on Jones' neck. After seeing different positions from Cogdell, Kasden and the defense agreed that perhaps neither the left nor right hand could have caused the marks on Jones' neck. Cogdell suggested the marks on the neck were not even caused by a hand. (However, the prosecution was quick to point out that that Kasden was not a forensics expert.)
Before Kasden came to the stand, both sides focused on the beating that preceded Jones' shooting. Forensic scientist Max Courtney testified that, in his opinion, the fact that there was blood found in the back seat of Zamora's Mazda protege (as well as on the left side of the driver's seat) suggests that there were two or more people involved in Jones' murder. The defense's theory is that the bludgeoning motion of one person (Zamora) scattered the Jones' blood in the car. Jones' blood was also found on the back of the head rest in the car.
According to the state, the conglomeration of blood found on the left side of the driver's seat suggests that Jones fell towards the driver's seat after being hit with the weight. Prosecutors believe the blood in the seat resulted from the flowing and consequent soaking of Jones' blood. (This would explain the blood apparently found on Graham's shorts after the murder.) The defense, however, says the blood in the car came from blood transfer, or the spattering of blood that allegedly occurred when she was attacked.
Cogdell attempted to show that blood could have been spread if a person in the front seat leaned back far enough, or if someone threw some bloody clothing into the car. He also pointed out was that the car had been cleaned and owned by a new person over the year before it was tested, potentially affecting the test results.
Courtney also said that evidence such as bloody hair from Jones found on barbed wire fence at the crime scene was consistent with the victim having escaped from the car. This, Courtney said, proved she stumbled into the fence, got caught on it, pulled herself up and collapsed again in the field. The blood in the hair showed that Jones was injured before she reached the fence.
In addition, a firearms expert came to the stand and testified that the bullets that killed Jones were fired at close range. Richard Earnest said the bullets were fired between three and six inches away from Jones' forehead. Last week, Jennifer McKearney said that Zamora clearly named Graham as the triggerman when she told her about Jones' murder. Graham's defense believes that Zamora is the real triggerman and acted alone in killing Jones. The defense claims that Graham was not even present when Jones was murdered.
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