Doubts Raised Over Zamora's Role in the Murder
(FORT WORTH, TEXAS - Feb. 5) Defense lawyers for Diane Zamora may have scored some points
for their case today by attempting to cast some doubt on whether Zamora really fractured Adrianne
Jones's skull the night of Jones's murder.
As testimony in Zamora's murder trial entered its fourth day, medical examiner Dr. Marc Krouse returned
to the stand for cross-examination by the defense. Dr. Krouse, who performed the autopsy on Jones's body,
said that the nature of Jones's head injury did not correspond with the shape of the dumbbells allegedly
used during the incident. More likely, the doctor said, the butt of the gun that killed Jones was used
to inflict the injury. However, the medical examiner later conceded that some edges of the dumbbell
could have been used to cause the skull fracture.
Dr. Krouse also claimed that it would have been difficult for anyone to inflict the kind of head
trauma suffered by Jones inside a car as small as the one that contained Jones, Zamora and David Graham
the night of the murder. This testimony implied that Jones could have been struck in the head outside the car.
(In various confessions, Zamora has claimed that she struck Jones when she was inside the car.) Krouse
also testified that handprints found around Jones's neck suggest that she may have been held down
(perhaps by Graham) when she was struck in the head. The doctor said that the size of the marks left
around Jones's neck match those of an adult male, suggesting that the prints belonged to Graham.
The defense then tried to have Krouse give an opinion over whether a person of Zamora's height and
weight or a person of Graham's height and weight would be more likely to inflict Jone's head fracture.
However, the prosecution objected to the line of questioning, stating that Dr. Krouse was not a detective,
and Judge Joe Drago III sustained the objection.
Detailed case archives at
|
Dr. Krouse also confirmed for the defense that Jones was menstruating at the time of her death, but he would not theorize that the victim had had her period 30 days before the incident (around the time of her tryst with Graham). The defense appeared to be looking for a way to support its claim that Graham may not have had sex with Jones at all.
Despite the implications of Krouse's testimony, Zamora's defense must still contend with previous
testimony about her alleged confession from four prosecution witnesses and the day's factual
evidence linking Zamora and Graham to the murder. The rest of today's proceedings focused on the
techniques of the various investigators of the case. In his testimony, firearms expert Richard Earnest
traced the bullets found in and near Jones's head to the gun used by Graham. Forensic lab supervisor
Judith Floyd told jurors that the DNA of the victim Jones's blood matched the blood found in Zamora's car.
Read the Background of this Case
|
