WILMINGTON, Del. - Lawyers for Wharton undergraduate Irina Malinovskaya, accused of murder, worked to demonstrate yesterday that no physical evidence puts their client at the crime scene.
Digging into a limited arsenal of hair, shoeprints and a pool of blood, defense attorney Eugene Maurer called a number of witnesses to make clear to the jury that Malinovskaya's DNA was not found anywhere near the victim, Irina Zlotnikov.
Zlotnikov's body was discovered in the apartment of Robert Bondar, Malinovskaya's ex-boyfriend, whom Zlotnikov was dating at the time.
Forensic pathologist Ali Hameli testified that blood from the victim would have ended up on the murderer, and none of Zlotnikov's blood was found on Malinovskaya or her belongings.
State prosecutors, however, questioned Hameli's background and level of involvement with the case, particularly taking issue with the fact that Hameli was never present at the crime scene.
The prosecutors continually referenced Paul Kish - an independent forensics consultant who testified last week - as a more authoritative source to assess the blood found around the body.
Kish said blood patterns around the body indicate that the murderer attempted to clean the blood up.
Still, despite their qualms with the defense's witnesses, the prosecution could not come up with forensic evidence to place Malinovskaya at the scene of the crime.
The defense also called on chief investigative officer Joseph Szczerba and DNA examiner Charity Holland to testify about the single strand of white hair that Zlotnikov was clutching when her body was found.
According to Holland, the DNA of the hair does not belong to any of the case's three major players - Malinovskaya, Zlotnikov or Bondar.
Additional hairs found in Zlotnikov's necklace belonged to a black person, a detective testified yesterday.
The defense called on imprint examiner Alexander Mankevich to testify about the two shoe prints found on Zlotnikov's body.
Although Mankevich attributed the prints to a size-8 sneaker, he said he could not ascertain whether the shoe was a man's or a woman's.
The trial will resume on Monday after a two-day recess and is scheduled to finish by early next week.
