Expert witnesses testify in trial of 1984 slaying

LOGAN — Prosecutors paraded a series of expert witnesses through court Thursday, as they continued to make their case in the capital murder trial of Glenn Howard Griffin.

Forensic analyst Rudolf A. Riet re-created a struggle that spread from one room of the Box Elder County gas station to another in the early hours of May 26, 1984.

Dr. Todd Grey, the state's chief medical examiner, pointed to his chest and back as he described the six stab wounds Bradley Newell Perry suffered, likely before the 21-year-old was bludgeoned to death with a 60-pound canister of Dr Pepper.

Among the big questions posed Thursday: Was the killer left-handed?

In an earlier hearing, a man who assisted in Perry's autopsy said he believed the stab wounds seemed to indicate a southpaw killer. Griffin is right-handed, however, and the prosecution worked Thursday to dispel that original theory.

"I think the theory is ill-founded," Riet said. "It would be an assumption with a 50-50 probability."

"Based on the information I have seen, I would not hazard a guess," Grey said.

During cross-examinations, defense attorneys were quick to point out the degree of separation each witness had to the murder investigation.

Riet based his re-creation on paperwork, photographs and video. Grey did not join the Utah Medical Examiner's Office until 1988 — four years after the slaying.

"You weren't involved in the actual autopsy?" defense attorney Dee Smith asked the medical examiner.

It is a scenario likely to come up again, as two detectives responsible for collecting DNA evidence from the crime scene have since died. Already, defense attorneys have launched a number of objections concerning what they believe to be the hearsay nature of evidence involving those detectives.

These are the challenges both sides face in a 24-year-old murder trial.

The investigation went cold for years but was reopened in 1997. Griffin was arrested in 2005 after investigators said blood found on a dollar bill linked him to Perry's murder.

Pilar Shortsleeve, the chief scientist for the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services, testified Thursday the odds of a random match were 1 in 1.7 trillion.

Still, there appears to be little other DNA evidence tying Griffin to the homicide.

A Dr Pepper syrup canister, a screwdriver, four $1 bills and a pack of menthol cigarettes were all taken to the state crime lab for analysis the day Perry was found dead.

In court Thursday, Scott L. Pratt, the lab's latent print analyst in 1984, said no identifiable prints were found on any of the evidence.

The trial is expected to run through Nov. 21. If convicted, Griffin could face death by lethal injection.

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