Rental Car
Three people who rented the same car before and after Vincent Brothers testified they put a modest amount of mileage on the odometer.
That's key, since the prosecution contends Brothers put thousands of miles on the car in a trip to Ohio on July 2.
Linda Avery lives in Virginia and was employed by the state of Virginia. She managed an area training center for social services employees. She went to Columbus, Ohio June 10 to attend training on a database system. She arrived at Columbus International Airport and rented a blue Dodge Neon from Dollar Rent A Car. Basically, she says it was a quarter of a mile from there, and then she used to the car to travel to dinner in the evenings in the local area, then back to the airport. The documents later confirmed she drove 57 miles.
Steven Glenn Campbell worked as a computer technician. He traveled to Columbus, Ohio on July 1 on a business trip and also rented the same blue Dodge Neon. The attendant gave him the receipt before I left. But he wasn't sure if they documented the odometer. Campbell says he drove approximately 20 miles. It was basically just a circle around the airport. But the receipt said he drove hundreds of miles. That, he said was incorrect.
Joseph Vitkay took a vacation and rented the car on July 11, in the days after the murders. Vitkay and his wife were going to stay with family in Virginia Beach. It's by Kitty Hawk. Then they were to go to a beach house is. Nags Head, North Carolina. The lady recommended a large car because he's 6'3". She recommended a Neon. On the first car, Vitkay noticed the rim was cracked. He didn't want to take that car because of the damage on the wheel. They didn't have a lot of cars. So he took another Dodge Neon instead. It was pretty dirty and had some sticky soda residue on the center console.
When he got to the beach house, he received a call from the Bakersfield police, asking him to return the car. He agreed to go to the closest airport and turn it into Thrifty Rent-A-Car in Wilmington. The detective asked, and he told him the odometer read 8,248. The car was dropped off in Wilmington on July 14.
After it was turned in, car technician Thomas Fredrick Sessions analyzed the car. Sessions is employed by D&E Dodge in Wilmington, NC in the service department and has been with Dodge since 1991.
All he does is work on Dodges that have mechanical problems. On July 22, 2003, FBI agents came to the dealership asking for someone who could verify mileage and make sure nothing had been tampered with on the Neon. Sessions also has a part time job with a performance driving school where he teaches people driving techniques. They use high-performance Dodge Neons, but some patrons have brought their standard Dodge Neons to the track too.
Sessions testified that Neons have a top speed of about 112 miles per hour. The car has a fuel shutoff, that limits the engine to that speed so it won't go over that. The capabilities of the Dodge Neon is important, because the defense contends that there was only a 22 hour period in which Brothers could drive to Bakersfield and back to Columbus. To accomplish this, the defense says Brothers would have had to travel at a sustained speed between 104 and 116 miles per hour.
Sessions used a diagnostic computer tool that reveals information stored on the engine's computer. The computer revealed that the mileage should have been between 8502 miles and 8602. The odometer read 8552 after Vitkay turned in the car in Wilmington. Sessions said the on-board computer indicated that everything was working as it should, performing as designed. There was nothing limiting the car's performance, and it hadn't been tampered with.
Crime Scene Details
In the afternoon, criminalist Greg Laskowski testified and said he walked into Joanie Harper's bedroom and noticed a bed to his right. I saw a female adult on her left side with her legs out over the side of the bed. There were some sofa cushions on top of her, and blood stains on the sheets. He saw a young girl, about toddler age, laying on her left side wearing a jumper. She didn't have any shoes on Appeared to have single wound into her back. She was purging from her mouth and nose area. He said he saw a mixture of blood and mucous material that seemed to flow out from her mouth. He then looked closely at her bare feet and noted some odd discoloration. It appeared to be a state of drying when the tissue becomes hard and brittle. Next, he saw a young boy, partially covered by the sheets and sofa cushions, with an arm outstretched. His eyes were still open. All of the blinds were closed, so the room was dark. There was a large flat panel television face down on the carpet. The pedestal was canted off it's stand and laying on it side. A small table to the side had a good amount of cash present.
When Laskowski saw Lyndsey's feet, he saw discoloration and drying of the tissue. But it was suspicious enough for him to determine if blood was on her feet. He performed a Castlemeyer test to determine if blood was present.Basically he took a clean piece of filter paper, made a little funnel and rubbed the area that looked like blood. He then unfolded the paper and dropped reagent on the pare with a drop of hydrogen peroxide. The chemical reaction did not reveal the presence of blood. Laskowski determined the discoloration was consistent with decomposition. Laskowski's attention turned to Lyndsey's wounds and what appeared to be a circular blood stain in her upper back. It was a circular hole, a bullet wound.
Then, Laskowski noted the injuries to 4-year old Marques. His right hand was extended out. There was blood spatter on his upper shoulder and arm. He was covered by a couch cushion, so he was difficult to see. His eyes were in the open condition, his right eye more open than the left eye. He had what criminalists call Raccoon eyes, a purplish discoloration that indicates a close-range gunshot wounds to the head.
He began what criminalists call de-layering..moving things out of the crime scene so you can reveal more evidence. First there was a plaid brown sofa cushion, on top of the orange cushion. Upon removal, he could then see a close to intermediate range gunshot wound to Marques' right temple. The gun was Inches to a foot away. It wasn't a contact wound. Marques' hand looked like it had some wounding to it. There was crust around his mouth. A pooling blood stain on the sheet did not correspond to anything below his torso. It was Laskowski's opinion that Marques was shot at close range and that he was seated in an upright position in the bed at the time of the discharge. He would have been awake. Laskowski says the blood spatter on his arm and shoulder was from blood spatter from the wounds. Laskowski said such gunshots disrupt blood vessels, and the blood is expelled from the wound. If he were lying down, Laskowski said the blood spray would be on the bottom sheet and mattress cover, and to the side of the bed.
Laskowski said the family was likely shot with a semi-automatic .22 caliber gun. It was unlikely automatic, and he said he based his opinion on the ejection of the casings from the gun. Revolvers retain the casing.
Laskowski also testified that what initially appeared to be a blond hair discovered in Joanie harper's panties was really a carpet fiber. Laskowski said the fiber was initially misidentified by another technician. That too is key, since the defense said the blond hair pointed to another person who could have committed the murders. The defense went so far as to question Brothers' ex-wife about wearing a blond wig or weave. The ex-wife said she did not.
