An expert in blood stain pattern analysis took the jury through the evidence she collected from Cody Alan Legebokoff's apartment, pickup truck and the basement suite where he once lived as testimony in his murder trial resumed Thursday.
Almost the entire day was required for RCMP Sgt. Beverly Zaporozan to present nearly 100 photos of swabs and scrapings she gathered of stains presumed to be blood.
The vast majority were from his 1400 block Liard Drive apartment where he had been living at the time of his arrest in November 2010.
After conducting a walkthrough and using a bright light to find areas where blood could be found, Zaporozan worked through the apartment, section by section, relying on Hemastix to determine if a stain could be blood, the court was told.
The plastic strips are coated with a blood reagent at the tip and when rubbed across a moistened stain, will turn green if hemoglobin, a protein that carries oxygen in the blood, is detected.Hematstix also reacts to other substances that contain iron, such as rust, but do so more slowly, Zaporozan told the court.
She collected more than 125 samples, mostly from the kitchen and dining room, but also from the hallway, master bedroom, living room and curtains. Cutouts of stains found in the carpet and on a couch were also collected, the court was told.
Zaporozan then conducted a second pass through the apartment, this time working with two other blood reagents - Bluestar, used to bring out blood that can't be seen with the naked eye, and amido black, which helps bring out fingerprints and footprints in blood.
The search using Bluestar uncovered roughly 30 more stains of suspected blood. In earlier testimony, the court heard that the amido black was used to bring out a heel print that RCMP officers concluded was Legebokoff's.
Zaporozan's search of the apartment took was carried out over three days in January 2011.
Zaporozan also collected swabs of blood from a 1500-block Carney Street basement suite where Legebokoff had been living at the time Jill Stacey Stuchenko's body was found in a gravel pit off Otway Road in October 2009, slightly more than a year before his arrest.
The samples were found mostly in the suite's carpet but also in a couch at the scene in a search conducted in April 2011, nearly a year after he had moved to the Liard Drive apartment.
Photos of clothing and bedding seized from the apartment, Legebokoff's truck and from Legebokoff himself that also showed what is believed to be blood were also presented to the court.
Zaparozon will return to the court at a later date to give her interpretation of the patterns found at the scene, once the jury has heard testimony regarding DNA analysis to determine whose blood was whose.
In addition to Stuchenko, 35, Legebokoff is accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of Loren Donn Leslie, 15, Cynthia Frances Maas, 35, and Natasha Lynn Montgomery, 23.
Since the trial began June 2, the jury has heard from more than 30 witnesses and 86 exhibits have been submitted as evidence.
