2nd defense blood expert supports Indiana trooper’s story

LEBANON, Ind. — A second forensics expert has testified that blood stains found on a former Indiana State Police trooper’s clothing support the trooper’s claim that he wasn’t there when his wife and two children were shot to death.

Bart Epstein, a Minnesota-based blood spatter expert called by the defense to testify at David Camm’s third murder trial, told jurors Wednesday that blood stains found on the bottom of Camm’s T-shirt came from contact, not spatter from his daughter Jill being shot, WLKY-TV and The Courier Journal reported.

Epstein said he found four tiny stains only on the surface of the shirt and not embedded in the weave as occurs when the blood is moving.

“They were deposited by contact to a blood source,” probably 5-year-old Jill Camm’s hair, said Epstein.

Camm told police that he pulled the couple’s 7-year-old son, Brad, from the family SUV when he returned home and found his family shot and tried to resuscitate him. He’s said that several stains on his shirt came from when he reached over Jill to gather Brad into his arms.

Epstein also said stains on Camm’s shoes came from serum from the body of his wife, Kim, when Camm stepped in the fluid to remove Brad’s body from the car.

Defense expert Barrie Goetz, a consultant who worked for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation before retiring, testified last week that the stain found on the shoes were consistent with transfer from another surface. Prosecution experts Rod Englert and Tom Bevel testified earlier the stains on the shoes were blood spatter.

Camm is accusing of fatally shooting his wife and two children on Sept. 28, 2000, in the garage of the family’s home in Georgetown. Camm had left the state police force months earlier.

Camm was convicted twice previously of the slayings, but both convictions were thrown out on appeal. He is being tried in Boone County, northwest of Indianapolis and more than 100 miles north of Georgetown because of publicity over the case.

The defense contends the murders were committed solely by Charles Boney, who is serving a 225-year prison sentence for the crimes.