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DNA focus on 2nd day of Williams trial

Blood leading from within the home of Rashawn D. Williams and onto the street where Scott Cole lay contained mostly Cole’s DNA, experts said on the second day of Williams’ trial in county court.

First Assistant District Attorney Martin Wade continued where Monday’s trial had postponed by showing a video taken by city forensics officer Joseph Ananea Jr. In it, Ananea toured through the home where Williams lived with his friend Aliyah Young and two children. In the video, there was a path of blood stains leading from the living room and out the front door. Ananea then walked to a ravaged porch with numerous broken railings and blood stains along the floor.

Brunee Colleaugh, a body fluid specialist, tested blood samples found on the living room television, on a pair of moccasins owned by Williams, on two white towels, on a threshold in the home and on a door leading outside. Colleaugh was called to the stand by Wade to testify about her findings and told the court blood was identified on everything sent to her except one of the towels.

The prosecution also called to the stand Samantha Newhert, a forensic DNA scientist.

“Cole’s blood was on the TV, threshold and the door,” Newhert said, adding that blood from a sample on Williams’ moccasins had Cole’s DNA within it. “Scott Cole’s DNA dominated the mixture.”

Ananea testified that the blade suspected to have killed Cole had been placed in a sink in the home’s kitchen and that the tip of the knife was missing.

Both the knife and its tip, which was later found within Cole’s body, were taken to state police firearm and tool mark examiner Cpl. Joseph M. Gober.

Gober explained to the jury that his job was to decide if the knife and the small piece of metal found in Cole belonged together. Gober did so by magnifying the pieces and checking for unique fractures and manufacturing lines.

“Seeing the same markings on each side (of the knife and the tip),” Gober said. “I was able to conclude they were one entity before being fractured.

On the night of the stabbing, Emerson Chase, a friend of Cole’s, said he had bought him a drink at a local bar.

While testifying, Chase held back tears, telling the jury he had known Cole for eight to 10 years.

“Scotty came with a female friend,” Chase said. “He was there for about an hour.”

William J. Miele, chief public defender, asked Chase if Cole was drunk that night.

Chase said that his friend seemed intoxicated but was ‘coherent.’

“He had a drink … one that I bought him. He wasn’t there that long,” Chase said, explaining that Cole left the bar around midnight with the friend he had arrived with.

Another friend of Cole’s, Bree Holmes, told the court she talked to Cole on the morning of his death and had given him rides to Williams’ home on multiple occasions.

The trial is scheduled to last until Friday.

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