Plans to show a jury clothing recovered from a crime scene hit a roadblock yesterday when an officer said she could not break the seal on the package.
During her testimony in the trial of Kofhe Goodman, DC 3003 Denia Johnson said that she collected a gray Bob Marley shirt, gray khaki pants, a pair of boxers and blue and yellow Nike slippers from a garbage bag in front of a five-unit pink and white condominium complex on September 28, 2011. The items were collected shortly after the maggot-covered body of a naked male was found in bushes behind the complex, Johnson said.
Prosecutors allege that the dead boy is Marco Archer, an 11-year-old student of Columbus Primary who failed to return home on September 23.
Goodman has pleaded not guilty to charges that he murdered Archer between September 23 and 28.
Johnson said when the shirt was collected it appeared black because it was damp. However, she said once she dried the shirt she discovered it was dark gray.
Johnson testified that she packaged each item separately in brown butcher paper at the Scenes of Crime Office and took them to the Forensic Lab, where she made a request for analysis.
Johnson said she wanted the items tested for DNA, blood spatter, hair fiber, any corrosive substance and alcohol.
She identified each of the packaged items by her signature.
When prosecutor Darell Taylor asked Johnson to break the seal on the package that contained the shirt, she did. However, there was another sealed brown paper package inside.
Johnson explained that she could not break that seal because the forensic scientist had placed it there.
The case continues today before Justice Bernard Turner.
Garvin Gaskin, the deputy director of public prosecutions, and Neil Brathwaite, the assistant director of public prosecutions, appear with Taylor for the Crown.
Geoffrey Farquharson represents Goodman, who is on remand at Her Majesty’s Prisons.
By: Artesia Davis
Source: The Nassau Guardian
