DNA experts, cops testify in Stockley murder trial – St. Louis American

The gun found in Anthony Lamar Smiths car after then-St. Louis city police officer Jason Stockley shot and killed him had no trace of Smiths DNA on it, DNA experts testified during the Stockleys murder trial this week.

Stockleys DNA, however, was present on the firearm, which prosecutors said supported their argument that Stockley planted the gun in Smiths car after killing him.

Stockley, a white man, is accused of first-degree murder in the 2011 killing of Smith, a black St. Louis resident.

Stockleys attorneys repeatedly said that it didnt necessarily mean it wasnt Smiths gun. It is possible that the DNA found on that Taurus revolver was only deposited there in the moment when Stockley unloaded the gun after seizing it from the car, the defense said.

The Taurus revolver was presented in court as evidence along with the clothes Smith wore that day, Stockleys department-issued gun and his personal AK-47.

On December 20, 2011, Stockley and his partner, Officer Brian Bianchi, pursued Smith in a high-speed chase after he pulled out of a Churchs Chicken parking lot, hitting the police car in the process. Stockley fired seven shots into the fleeing vehicle, prosecutors said, using a personal weapon, an assault rifle, which violated department policy.

During the pursuit, Stockley is heard on an internal police car video saying, Going to kill this [expletive], dont you know it.

As Smiths car was slowing to a stop, Stockley is also heard telling Bianchi to hit him right now, at which point Bianchi slammed the police SUV into Smiths car.

The airbags deployed. Both cars stopped. Then, within the next few minutes, Stockley got out of his car, walked to the Buick and shot Smith five times. Smith had not left the drivers seat of his car.

Witness Elijah Simpson, a police officer who arrived on the scene almost at the same time as the shooting, testified that shortly afterwards, he went to the drivers side door and lifted up the airbag. He did not see a gun in the car then, though Stockleys defense noted that perhaps the gun was hidden between the seats. He noticed that neither the car nor the victim had been searched, though based on my experience, suspects should be removed from the vehicle and placed in handcuffs, Simpson said.

He called it strange that Stockley left Smiths vehicle, came back, and then searched the vehicle for the gun.

Next, the medical examiner who examined Smiths body testified. He found five gunshot entry wounds, all on the left side of the body, along with one exit wound. One wound on Smiths arm suggests that he had been raising his arm to shield himself when shot.

The jacket Smith had been wearing was also analyzed as part of efforts to reconstruct the scene. An FBI expert who tested the bullet holes on the jacket concluded, using the modified griess test (for nitrite residue) and sodium rhodizonate test (for lead), that a hole in the left shoulder area of the jacket was from a bullet shot from under six inches away. Though it wasnt what ultimately killed Smith, it was what the prosecution referred to as the kill shot deliberate and close-range. A shot from such close range would have been muffled by the car, which could explain why some policemen at the scene didnt hear Stockleys fifth shot.

At the end of the third day, several DNA experts testified as witnesses for the state.

DNA just tells you there is DNA present, said St. Louis Police Department DNA expert Karen Pryor.

The only DNA found on the gun in Smiths car had a profile similar to Stockleys, but, as the prosecution said, that does not conclusively prove that Smith did not touch the gun. Regardless, what the DNA appeared to say was this: The probability of the DNA on the Taurus gun in Smiths car being unrelated to Officer Stockley was 1/200 billion in the caucasian population, and even lower in the African-American population, with no indication of an additional individual, touching the gun, according to Pryor.

Stockley waived his right to a jury trial. St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson carries full responsibility for his fate. During the second and third days in the courtroom for the Stockley murder trial, the composition of the audience solidified. On the right was the family of the man who Stockley killed, Anthony Lamar Smith, along with their friends, lawyers, and supporters, as well as some staff members from the St. Louis Circuit Attorneys office. On the left was Stockleys family, and his supporters, including several members of the Police Officers Association who arrived each day.

The right side of the courtroom was almost all black. The left side was almost all white.

After a long week of witnesses for the prosecution, witnesses for the defense are expected to begin testifying next Tuesday, when the trial resumes.

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DNA experts, cops testify in Stockley murder trial - St. Louis American