Ashley Nicole Smith Murder Case Investigation - Research Paper Example

? Case Study: Ashley Nicole Smith Murder Case Investigation Crime scene investigation and the evidence at the scene InvestigationsThe main thing that stands out about the case of Ashley’s death investigation, is the numerous continuous and repetitive interviews and interrogations that were conducted by the investigators. This, as Malcom (2009) and Nathaniel (2009) assert, is important in orde to reach to an positive conclusion about the case. To reach to a final suspect, numerous interviews and investigations were done, until it led to the identification of the two suspects as the main suspects. The arrival to the conclusion of the fact that the two suspects were the major suspects on the case, was as a result of the findings that the two suspects had been in the place the night before, and had actually pulled their vehicle to the parking lot of the Pizza Hut behind the scene of crime. The two suspects were thought to have pulled there after realizing that they were running out of gas. However, the real reason why they pulled and parked here cannot be or has not been established. Further investigations had revealed that on the night of the incident, a reckless driving case had been reported by a citizen, who reported a dark blue, four-door car speeding through the intersection. The occupants were reported as having been two young black males. Identification of the body The body was not identified at once, but after some investigation, the body was finally matched to the description of a missing person. The face of the body was too covered with blood, to be compared with a photo for ht identification of the body, so more scientific processes were to be conducted. The identification of the body by close family members, also helped in identifying the body, through known scars. A big mole at the back of the body was used as a final identification for the body, as that of Ashley Nicole Smith. Evidence Blood marks At the scene or rather near the scene were blood marks, and this shows that the victim had sustained massive physical injuries. One of the blood marks was about eight feet long, which suggests that there could have been a struggle between the victim and her attacker(s). The scene also showed that the body was dragged from the point where the victim was first attacked, to the point where the body was finally found by the witnesses. This was shown through the existence of drag lines on the scene. The physical evidence also shows that the victim was attacked by at least two attackers, because there were two doo rags found at the scene. The appearance of these two doo rags at the scene is also a strong indication, that the attackers were males because this kind of head gear is usually common with men. In the assumption that these two doo rags belonged to the attackers of the victim, it can also be assumed that the attackers kept short hair, as wearing these type of head gear requires one to have short hair because the head gear (the head gear is also called skull rug) is supposed to fit squarely on the skull of the person wearing it. However, this cannot be used to rule out suspects with long hair on its own, but can be a good consideration. The victim’s body had sustained two deep knives cuts, and this shows that the attack was planned and that the attackers had been ready to commit the crime. Investigative steps and strategies involved in the homicide investigation The first response to the patrol was by a patrol unit, which was able to respond to the situation by 10:46 hours on the same night of incident. The patrol then alarmed the investigation department, which was later able to come to the scene the following day, but within twenty four hours. The first investigators response was at 13:30 hours after the night of the incident. The lead investigation officer, Mr. Case, was off duty when responding to the situation at 14:45 hours, after having been informed about the situation by Lt. Prozeralik. He was accompanied by Fisher of the Violent Crimes Section. According to Westen (2009), responding to a crime scene as soon as possible is important, in making sure that the evidence is not contaminated either by people or natural causes such as wind or rain. Examination of the body The examination of the body revealed that the victim had been assaulted with several stabs. There were a number of wounds on the back of the neck, and two knife stabs on the abdomen area. While the victim’s body was found with her T-shirt rolled up such that her torso was exposed, an examination of the shirt revealed that the knife had torn through the T-shirt, meaning that he victim had been stabbed while the shirt was still on. It was not identified for sure, whether the wounds on the back of the neck were knife wounds, but a closer look of the body, revealed that there was one more stabbing on the upper left part of the torso. Strategies The doo rags that were found on the scene of crime were scrutinized for DNA sample. They were found within a feet of the victim’s body on the scene of crime, and given the nature and situation of the scene. It being in the bushes, the two caps have a very likely (over 99% chance) that they were directly associated with the crime. If so, there is a high likelihood that these pieces of evidence belonged to the attackers of the victims. There were other pieces of evidence in the scene of crime, albeit the fact that most of these were a bit far from the body of the victim. These included two bottles and a jacket, which was believed or assumed to be the victim’s. The mapping of the crime of scene was done to make sure that every detail was captured in the best way, such as the distances between the various pieces of evidence and the victim’s body, as well as the orientation between the victim’s body and the pieces of evidence. Once this was done, the next challenge was to narrow down to a number of possible suspects, so that further DNA tests could be done to connect the various pieces of evidence between the suspects and the evidence. On further investigations and interviews with the school where the victims went to school, the victim’s mother, her friends and school mates, the investigators were able to narrow down two suspects. One of the suspect’s DNA matched to one of the doo rags found at the scene of crime. The DNA from one of the suspect was acquired after the judge issued a warrant for the same and the suspect was escorted by police officers to the hospitals, for a sample of DNA to be taken from him. Prior to the warrant for the DNA extraction, the judge had ordered a parole order that prevented the suspect from moving out of his home area. The victim had been tailed by police officers until he was seen trying to break his parole where he was taken by the officers. Interviews Interview with the mother Interviews were conducted with the earliest convenience, to make sure that as much useful information was acquired as possible. This, as Donald (2011) argues in her essay, is important in order to capture as much information about the situation that led to the crime as possible. After the body had been clearly identified as that of Nicole smith, her mother was informed about the body and informed that the body of the victim closely resembled her daughter’s. The first interview was done with the victim’s mother after the body had been clearly identified and associated with a specific person. The interview with the mother was brief because the mother was in grief, and was coming to terms with the bad news. However, from this interview, information about how the victim found herself in the bad and fatal situation was revealed as the mother gave information about her quarrel with the daughter, and that they had eventually settled their difference and the daughter agreed to not get out of the house. However, she was to later know that she had snuck out of the house on the night of the incidence. The mother revealed that she had last seen her daughter at 2300 hours, the previous day. Interview with the head teacher Thomas Later the same day, the victim’s mother was investigated. The head teacher of the school where the victims attended school was interviewed by the investigators. The interview was conducted in the presence of others, who were not related to the case, namely the interviewee’s husband and her mother. The interviewers did not disclose the fact that the victim (Ashley Smith), had been found dead and the investigators pretended they were investigating a runaway person. This was important in trying to know whether the interviewee was hiding anything. Upon request to the interviewee, (Mrs. Thomas), to go to be interviewed at the police station to avoid the disruptions that the interview was getting from the other family members at her house, she broke into tears. It is good to note that the status of the victim in question was not yet disclosed to her. While this does not conclude anything, it does point to the fact that the head teacher may have known something that she was not disclosing. Friends of the victim interviewed On the same day that the victim’s mother and the head teacher were interviewed, some of the victim’s friends were interviewed in the evening. All these interviews were done within twenty four hours after the incident was reported by the first two witnesses the previous night. Autopsy The autopsy was carried the following day at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore on 11/04/00 at 0915 hours. From the autopsy, the death of the victim was declared a homicide case. This was declared as a result of the findings of the autopsy, with regards to the blood collected from the victim’s cloths, the swabbing from her mouth, vagina and the anus. The fact that the autopsy was carried within forty eight hours of the victims death, is likely to increase the accuracy of the autopsy and therefore of the investigations. Second interview with the mother In the presence of Ashley’s older brother, Tony and Mrs. Smith’s friend/neighbor, Joyce Wronka, Mrs. Smith, the victim’s mother was interviewed by the lead investigator, Mr. Case. This interview revealed more information about the sequences of events before the events. More interview with the victims friends On 11/5/00, Mr. Case further interviewed the victim’s friends and acquaintances. Each interview with a friend or acquaintance would lead the interviewer to a next person who would need to be interviewed. Second interview with the head teacher On the same day, the head teacher, Mrs. Smith was interviewed by Mr. Case. From this point on, the investigation was to depend mainly on interviews and a cascade of interviews was conducted. A funeral service was held for the victims on 11/08/00. More interviews were carried out after the burial. Among those interviewed with the victims, was psycho-therapist, Ronnie Emden. On 11/10/00, after a search of the roads surrounding the scene of crime, a knife believed to have been one used to commit the crime was discovered. Interviews with the identified suspects were conducted. Explanations to counter defense efforts to suppress evidence (constitutional challenges) The main way that the defense was suppressed on the evidence, was the use of DNA. Fortunately for this case, the criminals dared to leave back a lot of evidence that had their DNA in them. For instance, the doo rags that the criminals left at the crime scene had DNA in them, and they were easily related to the criminals. To further the strength of the evidence against the perpetrators, the knife that was turned in by a citizen and which had been found within the reach of the scene of crime, showed that it had DNA of the main suspect on it. Further, the knife had blood stains that matched the DNA of the victim, thus confirming that the knife is the one that had been used to kill ht victim. The DNA on the weapon of murder was also matched to the DNA on the doo rags collected at the scene of crime. The suspects’ DNA was found in the victim’s body, such as in her ankles and her vagina, which confirmed that the suspects had had sex, probably forcibly with the victim on the night of the murder. Confessions Jones, one of the suspects, confessed to have witnessed his friend stab the victim on the neck. He also confessed to have had sex with the victim on the night of the murder, although he said that they did not know each other. Other ways to suppress the defendant’s case against the suspects The case benefited from numerous anonymous calls from people, who gave important information on the case. The callers however, refused to disclose their identity even after being promised eight thousand dollars if they gave up their identity. However, the information received through these calls, was very consistence with the other findings of the investigations, and this high consistency with the findings of the lab and the investigations, was used to prove that the evidence was overwhelmingly valid. The investigators also used a lot of phone call records. Application of class lessons Investigation strategies The investigators were very keen on extracting the right information and used repeated interviews so as to identify any inconsistencies. The investigators were also keen to make sure that every person who was a relevant person of interest, was interviewed as soon as possible. For instance, the head teacher and the victim’s mother were interviewed within twenty four hours after the crime was reported and recorded. The investigators were also very keen to make sure that the first interviewees were interviewed again as soon as possible, so as to see if they would be able to remember what they said in the first interview. The head teacher, having been a major person of interest on the case, was also subjected to anagram analysis, to identify if she was telling the truth. It turned out that she was lying about her knowledge of the crime, such as whether she knew who killed the girl. The main suspects After the main suspects were clearly identified and the only thing that remained was to clear any legal doubt, the main suspects were interviewed twice. Jones, who was more willing to speak because he thought he was led guilty because he did not actually stab the girl, ended up giving up important information that implicated himself as well as his friend. Anonymous calls helped a lot in pinning the suspects in the case, and it seems the investigations depended quite a lot on the anonymous calls that were made to the police, by individuals who were willing to give information about the case but were unwilling to reveal their identity. This, as Wilson (2009) says, is not a very standard way in performing investigations, especially in cases with such serious implications, because the anonymous callers would have been trying to either implicate innocent people out of personal issues, or they could be trying to shift the attentions of the investigations from the actual culprits. The other inconsistence that may be found in the investigation process, is the fact that the investigators did not inform Mrs. Thomas, that they had already found the body of the victim, and that it had been conclusive that the missing person, (Ashley), was confirmed dead. References Donald, J. (2011). Investigation and the crime scene. Forum For Advanced Justice, 4 (5), 47-49. Malcom, J. (2009). Handboook for forensic investigations. New York, NY: Pearson Education Books. Nathaniel, J. (2009). The court process and the investigations: understandig the relationship. Journal of Paralegal Studies, 3 (4), 29-31. Westen, J. (2009). Crime scene investigation: the basics. Journal of Criminal Justice, 2 (3), 19- 24. Wilson, H. (2009). The investigation process: understanding the investigation strategy. New York, NY: Pearson Education Publishers . Read More