Pathologist details injuries in 2014 Naperville murder
Charles Clark's decomposing body still showed signs of a significant "struggle or fight" days after his January 2014 slaying in Naperville.
Dr. Hilary McElligott, DuPage County's chief forensic pathologist, took the stand Wednesday in the murder trial of Grant Muren to describe the injuries suffered by the 55-year-old Naperville man, prosecutors say at the hands of Muren.
McElligott described the "multiple blunt force injuries" she said Clark suffered to his chest and head, in addition to multiple bruises, cuts and bite marks from his head down to his knees. But ultimately, she said, Clark was strangled.
She said the deep purple bruises that wrapped from Clark's ear to his jaw on both sides of his head, in addition to the hemorrhages in his eyes and a "completely fractured" wishbone, are telltale signs of a strangulation death.
"I believe he was incapacitated to some degree (from the blunt force injuries) and, therefore, susceptible to the strangulation," she testified.
Clark also had an abnormally large heart and a "fatty liver" in addition to other medical issues, "but none contributed to his death," she said.
Muren, 24, has admitted to killing Clark on Jan. 20, 2014, hours after he moved into Clark's townhouse on the 1100 block of Vail Court in Naperville.
But Muren's attorneys say he acted in self-defense after an alcohol-fueled evening during which Muren may have been "violated" by Clark, leading to what Muren described to investigators as a 20-minute struggle in which he was able to outlast the older, larger Clark.
Prosecutors say the fight started when Muren hit Clark in the head from behind with a small wooden folding table. McElligott said it was possible the cuts and bruises on Clark's head and back were caused by blows from the table.
Prosecutors say after killing Clark, Muren used Clark's keys to open a safe and take back the roughly $950 he paid Clark earlier in the day for rent and a security deposit.
They say he then tried to "blow the house up" by turning on the stove's gas burners and igniting magazines in a toaster, much like a scene in the 2004 movie "The Bourne Supremacy."
Naperville forensic detectives testified in the afternoon about finding online searches related to the film on Muren's computer, along with repeated searches for the phrase "VIDE COR MEUM Hannibal" dating back to 2011.
Muren, unshackled and clad in an orange jumpsuit Tuesday, appeared to ignore much of the day's testimony as he sat at the defense table and read the Sept./Oct. issue of Popular Science magazine.
Prosecutors expect to rest their case Wednesday, and Muren's attorneys say they are prepared to call witnesses to testify about Clark's past violent behavior to support Muren's claim of self-defense.