HARRY LYNCH - hlynch@newsobserver.com

Murder defendant Jason Williford, 32, left, spoke quietly with his attorneys in Wake Superior court Friday, May 18, 2012 as the day's testimony began. Williford is charged in the rape and murder of sitting state school board member Kathy Taft, 62, in March 2010.

RALEIGH -- The case against Jason Williford moved from the streets to the laboratory Friday, as forensic experts testified to the microscopic traces left behind at the crime scene both on Kathy Tafts body and in her bedding.

DNA gathered from a cigarette butt that Williford discarded matched sperm found on the slain womans body and on her fitted sheet, testified Michelle Hannon, a forensic scientist with the N.C. State Crime Lab.

Williford, a 32-year-old unemployed musician, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Taft, a 62-year-old member of the state school board from Greenville.

Later Friday, a technical director from LabCorp, Shawn Weiss, backed up the DNA evidence, saying the private firms results showed that sperm taken from the body and sheet were consistent with Williford. Weiss said the statistical probability of finding another, unrelated persons DNA were greater than 6.8 billion to 1 or roughly the population of the Earth.

The prosecutions evidence is nearing its finish in the trial.

Prosecutors say Williford raped and bludgeoned Taft in March 2010. At the time, she was recuperating from cosmetic neck, face and breast surgery, and was bandaged about the head. She was staying in the Raleigh home of her boyfriend. Williford lived nearby.

Defense attorney Ernest Buddy Conner, in his opening statement Wednesday, said his client raped Taft and hit her in the head with a rock three times. But Williford is neither guilty of rape nor first-degree murder, Conner said, explaining that his clients brain chemistry was altered by drugs, alcohol and hypersexual disorder, and that he is mentally ill.

The jury may still hear from Dina Holton, Tafts sister, who was the only other person home in the Cartier Drive home on the night of the slaying. Another potential witness is Willifords wife, Jessica Foote, who has since filed for divorce.

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DNA matches dominate Williford trial testimony