Cheating Is F'd Up - Part Two Recap Written by Brandi Abbott After a quick update of what happened last week, Jess tells us that Gerald Thomas met with Duane Deaver, Chief Deputy Jerry Hartman, a lawyer from the DA’s office, and the DA’s investigator to try and find evidence proving that he killed Jennifer on purpose instead of in self defense. Deaver and Assistant District Attorney Brown hadn’t actually seen Kirk’s bloody T-shirt yet; just photos. They quickly noticed a pointed tip in one of the bloodstains. Priya and Jess show Keith a picture of the shirt (which you can also see on the Facebook page @Effed Up) and he says it looks more like someone placed the knife on the shirt instead of wiping it. This stain led to a theory that Kirk killed Jennifer with the knife and then staged the scene by stabbing himself in the leg with the spear – twice. Because of this conversation, Thomas no longer believed it was the stain of a bloody handprint. Keith wonders why you would stab yourself somewhere that could be potentially fatal – this question leads to the information that the spear went all the way through Kirk’s leg and Keith, who’d previously thought as the DA did, changes his opinion about suspecting that Kirk had staged everything. Thomas now believed the stain was actually a knife being wiped across the shirt - even though his initial report said it was a hand. In April of 2009, prosecutors supplied the defense with some discovery including Thomas’ updated interpretation of the blood evidence that Kirk killed Jennifer and wiped his knife on his T-shirt. The defense attorneys, Joe Cheshire and Brad Bannon, hired their own forensic experts, Stuart James and Marilyn Miller. Kirk being a rich white guy, had the money to hire forensic specialists. Both of these experts thought the SBI Crime Lab was wrong and the bloodstain was a mirror stain, which basically is created when an item is folded together, transferring blood from portion of the item to a fresh, unmarred spot. Stuart was hired to do the analysis and Marilyn was hired to do the reconstruction, but because Marilyn also had experience with bloodstain analysis, she helped Stuart out. They determined that the stain was created by the fabric folding when the EMT’s were cutting off his shirt. The EMTs were focused on saving his life and just cut all his clothes off and tossed them to the side. The experts’ opinion was forwarded to the prosecutors, and Gerald Thomas claimed the ADA asked for additional testing to disprove that the bloodstain was a mirror image. A month later he sent an email to a colleague saying he would conduct tests to “shore up” his conclusions, and he and Deaver got a replica knife and T-shirt to try to recreate the stain. The local paper reported that there was a video of Thomas wearing a clean shirt, dipping the knife in blood only getting blood on the edges and carefully wiping the blood on his shirt in an attempt to duplicate the stain. They performed this test twice on camera with Deaver’s director-like commentary audible at the end of the tape. Deaver went so far as to conclude the tests by saying “that’s a wrap, baby.” Along with the fact that the knife’s blade would be covered in blood, not just the edges, Thomas and Deaver using brand new T-shirts instead of an older worn T-shirt like Kirk was wearing means that the fabric would have responded differently. Nevertheless, the tests were performed and they solidified Thomas’ new conclusion: The bloodstain was made from a pointed object being wiped on the shirt. In May of 2009, Thomas and Hartman from the sheriff’s office had a phone conversation, which Thomas included in his notes – as was protocol. He wrote down that Hartman told him that he was present when the EMTS cut off Kirk’s shirt, that the bloodstain was already on the shirt, and that he laid it flat to dry so the stain wouldn’t be impacted by any handling of it. In July of 2009, Brad Bannon, the defense attorney, called Thomas into his office because he wanted copies of all of his files. Although SBI analysts are discouraged from speaking to the defense, Brad had gotten permission from the DA’s office. Thomas gave him a copy of his complete file and Brad went through everything. While going through the file, something grabbed his attention. The copy of the initial report from September 2007 in the file was different from the copy he already had. He noted that the copy he had, had the numbers 24, 25, and 26 in the corner of the page - which appeared to represent page numbers. The second copy he had just been given had the same title but he noticed the page numbers where different, they were 1441, 1442, and 1443. At first glance it seemed to be the same report, but upon closer examination, one line where Thomas states his opinion about the shirt had changed. The first report had referred to the bloodstain being consistent with a bloody hand being wiped on the shirt and ...
