Day four of the trial of Atiba Spellman, accused of first-degree murder of Michael Odikro and Shakena “Amy” Varnell, began with descriptions of the victims’ bodies as they were found on Dec. 6.

Dennis Klein, deputy state medical examiner, who performed the autopsies of Varnell and Odikro, described the wounds and marks on the bodies while pictures were projected overhead.

Paul Rounds, lead defense attorney, objected to some of the photographs, claiming that showing them would inflame the prejudice of the jury, but his objections were overruled. 

The photos included Varnell’s cut carotid artery, a large slice into Odikro that severed his jugular vein, and pictures of a piece of Odikro’s brain, which was exposed to show a miniature stab wound.

“It would take a significant amount of force for an object to penetrate the human skull,” Klein said.

During the cross examination, Rounds asked whether or not some of the wounds on the extremities of both the victims could have been defensive. Klein said that might have been the case for Odikro, but not for Varnell.

Victor Murillo, criminalist with the Department of Criminal Investigations, was called upon to analyze the evidence in the case and spoke about the photos he took of the crime scene.

There were several close-up shots of shoe prints, some with blood stains in them.

The photos also showed the inside of Odikro’s apartment in a general state of disarray, with pieces of the door frame knocked loose and pieces of furniture soaked in blood. Murillo said he thought there was forced entry into the house.

Murillo went into detail, explaining many of the crime scene photos as Mary Howell-Sirna, assistant Story County attorney, projected the pictures on a screen for the courtroom to see.

Murillo said there was a lot of blood in the living room, where Varnell’s body was found, as well as some in the kitchen. Blood spatters were found on the living room wall, as well as on the closet door and main door. The rest of the apartment remained relatively undisturbed, Murillo said.

The investigators took a number of swabs from the blood found on the scene, both outside and inside the apartment.

“In all, I think we took about 30 different swabs,” Murillo said.

Although there appeared to have been some bloody fingerprints on a pillow case taken into evidence, Murillo said there were no identifiable fingerprints at the scene of the homicides, and the bloody shoe prints at the scene were never matched.

Murillo was also part of the team that processed the car Spellman was driving when arrested. Howell-Sirna again projected photos of the car as Murillo described them. Samples were taken from a number of red stains in the car — on the seat belt, the driver’s seat, the steering wheel, gear shift, armrest on the driver’s side door and on the center console.

In the car they also found bus tickets scheduled for a return trip to Des Moines.

Michael Halverson, DNA analyst for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, also helped investigate the scene of the homicides. Halverson, who has a background in blood-spatter interpretation, explained some of the blood spatters in the crime scene photos, which he said he used to determine where to take swabs. Halverson said impact splatters were found on the closet door. He said impact patterns occur during beatings, gun shots or stabbings when a bloody area is struck, causing the blood to spatter onto another surface.

The last witness of the day was Michael Smiley, deputy from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina. Smiley was part of the traffic stop that led to the arrest of Spellman in North Carolina.

Once Spellman was handcuffed, Smiley said, Spellman said that he had driven to North Carolina to “drop off some stuff” and was going to return to Iowa.

On cross examination, Smiley said Spellman did not resist arrest.

“He was very polite and cooperative,” Smiley said.

However, when later questioned, Smiley said Spellman had not been cooperative when he first got out of the car. Smiley said he refused to turn around as Smiley had ordered and began to reach for his waistband. If he had continued to reach for his waist, Smiley said it is “very possible” Spellman could have been shot. When later searched, no weapon was found on Spellman, Smiley said.