Expert: Footprint matches murder suspect

A bare footprint discovered at the scene of a 16-year-old Aurora girl’s murder in 2004 matched her stepfather, who is charged with her killing, a forensic expert testified Thursday.

Leroy Keith, a certified latent print examiner formerly of the DuPage County Crime Lab, said the partial print contained impressions identical to Laurence Lovejoy, 44, who is accused of murdering stepdaughter Erin “EJ” Justice to silence her about an earlier rape.

Keith testified the print — found on a blood-soaked bathroom tile — could not have been left before the murder because blood and water at the scene “would have either obliterated it or covered it up.” Prosecutors said Lovejoy left the print behind after stepping in Justice’s blood the morning of the murder on March 27, 2004.

Justice was drugged, beaten, stabbed and eventually drowned in a bathtub in her Aurora townhouse about three weeks after she accused Lovejoy of sexually assaulting her while her mother was away. Last week, another forensic expert testified that DNA evidence taken from Justice’s body before her death also matched Lovejoy and was consistent with details the teen gave of the alleged rape.

In 2007, a jury convicted Lovejoy of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death. But the Illinois Supreme Court ordered a new trial after the defendant argued he was denied the opportunity to present last-minute testimony indicating the footprint could have been left before the slaying.

Lovejoy again faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted. His retrial before DuPage County Judge Kathryn Creswell resumes today.