materials

1. Analyze the crime scene investigation conducted by SA Pearson. What
aspects of her investigation were performed properly? Improperly? Why?
This assignment aims for you to evaluate the criminal investigations process.Here’ s What
Happened . . .Around 12:00 p.m. on September 13, 2004, Fred Smith walked across the road
to Bill Jones’ s house to ask for a ride. Although it was almost fall, it was still very hot
outside and Smith needed to pick up money in a neighboring town. Smith didn’ t want to
walk from Centervale to Roan County, so he offered to pay Jones $20.00 for gas and his time
to drive Smith to pick up his money. Jones accepted Smith’ s offer; however, Jones told
Smith that he had to pick up a friend at a car repair shop along the way. Jones and Smith
drove to Thrifty Repair Shop and picked up Jones’ s friend, Roger Fish. Fish was not in a
hurry that day, so he agreed to ride with the pair to pick up Smith’ s money.The trio arrived
at 200 S. Railroad Street, Brysonton, Roan County, AnyState. Smith exited the car and told
Jones and Fish to wait in the car. As Smith walked toward the front of the residence, he
yelled to the occupants inside, “ You got some weed?” “ Yeah,” Raynard Jenkins replied
from inside the residence. Jenkins greeted Smith at the door and asked him, “ What you
got?” Smith pulled out a Ruger SP101 .357 Magnum and shot Jenkins in the chest at point-
blank range.As Jenkins was falling toward the ground, Bob Marshall, a local drug dealer,
jumped up from the corner of the couch, dropped a large bag of cocaine on the floor, and ran
into the kitchen and out the back door. Smith chased Marshall, shot at him twice, but missed
him. Smith ran back to the car and yelled to Jones, “ Punch it! He tried to smoke (kill) me.”
The group sped away in a brown Ford Taurus, but were pulled over by Deputy R. W. Dunn
approximately five miles from the scene. After coming to a complete stop, Jones threw the
gun onto the rear floorboard of the car, next to Fish.Deputy Dunn approached the car, asked
the men to exit the car, and detained them to await another officer’ s arrival. When the
officer was brought to the location where the men were being detained, a witness who saw
the shooting identified Jones as the shooter. Smith, Jones, and Fish were arrested,
transported to the Roan County Sheriff’ s Office for aIDitional questioning, and booked into
jail on first-degree murder charges.The Investigation . . .State Bureau of Investigation (SBI)
Special Agent (SA) Pete Moss arrived at the scene at 200 S. Railroad Street, Brysonton, Roan
County, AnyState, with CSI and SBI SA April Pearson at 1:03 p.m. to assist the Sheriff’ s
Office with investigating the murder of Jenkins and the attempted murder of Marshall. SA
Pearson interviewed key witnesses who lived in the immediate area within proximity of the
crime scene, while SA Moss began drafting a search warrant. Although the Sheriff’ s Office

2. had secured the scene around the house, SA Pearson secured an aIDitional larger area that
extended into the street. Both the interior and exterior barriers were secured with crime
scene tape. The Sheriff’ s Office arranged to have the suspects’ car towed to a secure
location for processing.SA Moss completed the search warrant, and Superior Court Judge
Bradley signed it after reviewing it for format, technical legal aspects, and probable cause.
SA Moss returned to the residence to execute the warrant so SA Pearson could begin to
process the scene. SA Pearson started taking notes when she started taking photographs.
She photographed the scene from the overall and close-up perspectives. She used a scale
(ruler) with each item of evidence for the second close-up photograph. She conducted a grid
search, placed evidence markers beside certain items of evidence she thought were
important, and rephotographed those items—
close-up and close-up with scale perspectives
this time. She maintained notes about various aspects of the scene throughout the
photographing process. SA Pearson drew a sketch with every item of evidence in the sketch
and measured everything secured in the immediate barrier. She did not sketch the second
barrier that included the road. She drew several sketches of each room of the house
independently.SA Moss enlisted the help of the Sheriff’ s Office detectives to assist with the
lead sheet development. Three leads came in. SA Moss assigned each lead to a detective for
follow-up. Detective Mark Rolland followed up on information about the Jenkins’ family.
Detective Erin Norse checked out a lead about Jenkins talking about killing Smith. Detective
John Roberts followed a lead about Fish selling drugs from the car repair shop. Each
detective interviewed his witness and typed up his notes. They threw away their notes after
they were finished because they didn’ t need them anymore and what the witnesses said
was in their typed-up versions now. SA Moss checked off the witnesses one by one and
shreIDed the lead sheet once all witnesses had been accounted for.The investigation
revealed that Smith was seen running after Marshall while shooting at him and that Jones
was driving the getaway car. Numerous witnesses reported hearing several gunshots before
they saw Smith running and shooting at Marshall. The crime scene evidence appeared to
indicate, upon cursory review, that Jenkins was shot once in the chest in the doorway of his
home. It also appeared that Jenkins was conscious for a period of time after suffering the
gunshot wound, because SA Pearson observed swipe bloodstain patterns in the blood near
his head. SA Pearson used a griIDing method to map the bloodstain evidence, labeled the
stains, and took at least two swabs from each stain she selected. She photographed the
bloodstain evidence; took notes of the stains she swabbed, along with specific
measurements; and took gel lifts of particular stains. No projectiles were recovered at the
scene or from the autopsy. No shell casings were recovered at the scene.SA Pearson also
recovered the large, clear plastic bag containing a white, powdery substance that Marshall
dropped on the floor as he ran from the house. The crime laboratory recovered Marshall’ s
fingerprints from the plastic bag and matched them to his Ten-Print Card from a previous
arrest.SA Moss attempted to interview Smith, but Smith asked, “ How much time can
someone get for something like this?” and then asked for a lawyer. Agent Moss responded,
“ A significant amount of time.” Smith laid his head on the table and went to sleep. Jones
and Fish gave the same account of what happened by claiming that Smith got out of the car
and walked up to the door. Then, they heard several shots, and then Smith ran back to the

3. car with a gun and said someone tried to “ smoke” him. The trio was booked into the local
jail. Jones and Fish posted bail, but Smith was denied bond.SA Pearson recovered the Ruger
SP101 .357 Magnum from the rear floorboard the next day, pursuant to a second search
warrant issued for the suspects’ car. She noticed a reIDish-brown substance on the barrel
of the firearm. SA Pearson placed the firearm in a plastic bag, sealed it, put the bag in a
plastic tote, and put the tote in her trunk. Then, SA Pearson noticed a brownish-red
substance consistent with the color of blood on the passenger side door. SA Pearson took
two swabs of the stain using a sterile swab and distilled water. One tested positive for blood
by a presumptive test called phenolphthalein. SA Pearson allowed the other swab to dry
thoroughly and placed it into a sterile envelope for confirmatory testing and DNA testing at
the crime lab.Here’ s What You Need to Do . . .You have been asked by the sheriff to evaluate
the investigation: What was done correctly, what was done incorrectly, what is missing
from the investigation, what was done well, what wasn’ t done well, what can be done
better next time, why what was done incorrectly, not at all, etc., is a problem, and other
aspects relevant to evaluation.