OLATHE, Kansas — The deputy coroner who performed the autopsies on two victims of accused serial killer John E. Robinson Sr. testified Tuesday that the women died from blows to the head.

Jurors saw gruesome autopsy photographs of the two victims, Suzette Trouten and Izabela Lewicka, as the deputy coroner, Donald Pojman, described their injuries in court.

Pojman said that both women arrived at the morgue still inside the 85-gallon barrels that were found on Robinson's rural Kansas property. They were curled up in the fetal position, he noted, with their heads toward the bottom of the barrels.

Trouten was nude and still wearing what appeared to be a blindfold tied around her head with a piece of soft nylon rope. Her nipples were also pierced with rings that were connected by a chain, from which hung a butterfly pendant. (Trouten was seen wearing a similar chain in a sex video that was shown to the jury Monday.)

Pojman noticed two injuries on Trouten. The first, a small tear in the skin on the left side of her chest under her armpit, was not serious enough to be lethal and was probably caused after her death, he said. Above her ear on the left side of her scalp, however, was a circular hole more than an inch in diameter. “The young lady died shortly after receiving [this] injury,” he testified.

Judging by the state of mild decomposition, Pojman estimated that Trouten had been dead a few months to a year. Not knowing their identities at the time, he referred to her and Lewicka as Unknown No. 1 and Unknown No. 2. A forensics dentist identified them by their dental records a short time later, he testified.

Lewicka was nude except for a short-sleeved nightshirt. Her moderately decomposed body was partially covered by a pillow, Pojman stated. He said he found a number of items, including several fingernails, three pieces of silver duct tape and two kitchen-size garbage bags, among body fluids.

Pojman said he believed Lewicka died from two blows to the left side of the head. "The two defects were overlapping," he said. "It wasn't an immediate death. Mostly likely she survived a short period of time. I don't believe she would have been conscious."

Though he didn't notice it, Pojman also pointed out that the forensics dentist had found a small hairline crack in Lewicka's jaw. He stated that he thought it was most likely a separate injury from the blows to the head and could have occurred before or after her death. He estimated that she died six months to two years earlier.

He also said that it was difficult to know if Trouten's and Lewicka's head wounds would have produced large quantities of blood. "Any type of scalp wound usually produces quite a bit of blood," he said, though noting that the amount would depend somewhat on the elevation of their heads at the time of the blow.

So far, the prosecution hasn't presented much evidence of blood. Dan Rundle, a forensic chemist with the Johnson County crime lab, testified about the trace amounts he found in the Lenexa hotel room where Suzette Trouten stayed and on Robinson’s rural property where the bodies of Trouten and Lewicka were discovered.

At the Guesthouse Suites in March 2000, the forensics expert said he found several small reddish brown stains in the bathroom, on the curtins, the bed and the mattress in the bedroom and in the living room sofa-bed. He also found a "fist-sized" stain on one of the sofa seat cushions. But none of these stains, he testified, were of evidentiary significance. "Nothing gave us any indication that anything really happened there," he said.

Rundle said he also was responsible for looking for blood and other biological material at Robinson's rural property in June 2000. Over the course of a week, he said he found several items that tested positive, including a wad of stained paper towels in the kitchen sink of Robinson’s trailer. "It gave us a nice, good positive reaction," he testified.

He said he found a knife in the bathroom sink that came back negative, although reddish brown stains near the area tested positive for blood.

Rundle also confirmed that one of the investigators from his lab had found and processed two rolls of duct tape in the trailer — one in the living room and another in a green waste bin in one of the bedrooms. (Duct tape was found in the barrel of one of the victims. The defense suggested in opening statements that a blood smear and latent fingerprint had been found on a roll of duct tape in the trailer.)

The forensics expert confirmed that there was some blood found on a window and windshield of Robinson's yellow pickup and on two 4 x 8 foot sheets of particleboard found in his barn. He also said they recovered nine knives, two chisels and a pick on the property. None of these, however, tested positive.

A former correspondent for Newsweek and People Weekly, Sue Miller Wiltz is currently writing a book about Robinson for Pinnacle Books. She is covering the trial for Courttv.com.