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State v. Allen12/1/1999
ring a sexual assault. Defendant's mother-in-law testified that she observed a scratch on his face and a bruise on his lip around the time that the victim disappeared. The forensic pathologist testified that the decomposition of the victim's body may have prevented the discovery of further evidence of a sexual assault or struggle with an assailant.
{6} Both the forensic pathologist and the medical investigator testified that the cause of death was ligature strangulation. They observed that a rope had been wrapped tightly around the victim's neck four times. The rope contained two knots: one after the third loop around the victim's neck, and another after the fourth loop. The victim's red hair had become tangled in the rope. The forensic pathologist concluded that the rope probably cut off the circulation of blood to the victim's brain, that it probably took between thirty seconds and one minute for the strangulation to cause the victim to lose consciousness, and that it probably took several minutes of strangulation to cause the victim's death. Based on the condition of the body at the time it was discovered, the medical investigator testified that the victim probably died on the same day that she disappeared, although he could not pinpoint an exact time of death.
{7} The medical investigator also testified that the condition of the crime scene suggested that the victim had been killed elsewhere before her body was placed in the location where it was discovered on March 21. There was a boot print in the soil beneath the victim's body. The State presented evidence to suggest that the killer left the boot print when he carried the victim's body to that location, and that the boot print was consistent with one of Defendant's boots.
{8} Investigators also linked Defendant to the rope that was used to strangle the victim. Several witnesses testified that the rope had a distinct design and came from the back of a white pickup that belonged to the grandfather of Defendant's wife at the time of the victim's disappearance. These witnesses testified that the rope was kept in the back of the pickup and was used to restrain a trash barrel when the pickup was hauling trash to the dump. Defendant was seen driving this white pickup around the time of the victim's disappearance. Several witnesses also observed that the Defendant had extensively cleaned the cab of the pickup after the victim disappeared.
{9} Several months later, the white pickup was sold to another individual, who testified that he found strands of red hair consistent with the victim's hair under a seat-belt strap on the day he purchased it. He threw the hairs away after looking at them because he did not know that they were evidence of a crime, and investigators found no additional hairs when they searched the pickup in January 1995. After investigators returned the pickup, however, the owner found more strands of red hair when he removed a broken handle that was used to roll the window down. Other witnesses testified that the window handle was not broken when Defendant first borrowed the pickup in January 1994.
{10} Defendant made several statements both before and after his arrest. On February 24, 1994, while meeting with an off-duty sheriff's deputy and the deputy's spouse on an unrelated matter, Defendant stated that he was waiting for a friend at the convenience store in Flora Vista on the date of the victim's disappearance, and that he had seen her walking and going into a couple of buildings at that time. At a later meeting, both the deputy and his spouse saw the victim's name written in red ink on a page of Defendant's daily planner that corresponded to the date of the victim's disappearance. The
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