jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601
DURHAM -- A former Durham Police Department member who in February 2005 filmed the crime scene at the 4604 N. Roxboro St. Kangaroo location returned to the witness stand on Wednesday in the first-degree murder trial of Keith Kidwell.
Convenience-store clerk Crayton Nelms was killed while working the overnight shift at that Kangaroo. He was 44.
Kidwell, 25, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if the jury finds him guilty.
Drew King's task after the murder was to preserve the crime scene on video. Defense lawyer Lisa Williams had asked what he was trying to accomplish with the camera, and she wanted him to explain the stops and starts on the video.
King, who now works for the N.C. State Capitol Police Division, said he was trying to avoid capturing unnecessary camera movements that would make a viewer feel "seasick."
After more questioning by Williams, King explained that crime scenes normally are filmed without audio in order to avoid recording unnecessary comments by those present.
But audio was recorded on the Kangaroo crime-scene video, and Williams mentioned what she said were comments about a bloody footprint.
Throughout the trial, District Attorney Tracey Cline has mentioned shoe prints, one of which she said was found on the victim's back. It was a Nike shoe print, and it belonged to Kidwell, Cline claims.
Toward that end, Nikkola Russell, an expert in analyzing shoe impressions, was sworn in to talk about items from the crime scene she tested.
Russell is a forensic impressions analyst with the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation in Greensboro. At the time of Nelms' murder she was working at the SBI office in Raleigh.
Among the items Russell received for testing were a pair of black, size-12 Nike shoes. Earlier in the trial, a DNA analyst from Raleigh's SBI office linked both Kidwell's and Nelms' DNA to the footwear.
Russell stepped down from the witness stand to show the Nikes to the jurors, who leaned forward when the special agent pointed out wearing patterns and cuts and other unique characteristics on the soles to show how those nuances would allow her to match the footwear with impressions taken at the crime scene. Russell did not say whether or not any shoe impressions matched the footwear she tested.
