Behind the Yellow Tape: On the Road With Some of America's Hardest Working Crime Scene Investigators by Jarrett Hallcox, Amy Welch Read Free Book Online Page A

field of suspects.
    Laboratory analysis also confirmed that all of the blood found at Blair’s house—the blood on the bucket, the door, the carpet, and the back of the truck bed—was indeed Kelly Sellers’s blood. The investigators also matched the tire tracks found at the burial scene to the tires on Blair’s truck, but they could only say it was the same tread and not the exact same tire. The tires were too new to have any distinguishing characteristics of wear. With the totality of the physical evidence; the suspect’s having fled, armed, into the mountains; and the previous similar case Blair had been convicted of in Florida, all signs seemed to point to John Wayne Blair as Kelly Sellers’s killer. But it would ultimately be up to a jury to decide.
    The prosecution was convinced that the physical evidence, particularly the mitochondrial DNA evidence, would stand on its own in court, proving beyond a reasonable doubt to the jury that John Blair had killed Kelly Sellers. The defense’s main argument for Blair’s innocence was that while incarcerated, John had told a fellow inmate and a jailer what he claimed was the real story of what happened on the night Kelly was murdered. Blair’s story, of course, continued to be that Tommy Humphries was responsible for Kelly’s death, though he now offered many more details, including that he and Humphries had both been high on hallucinogens, and that they had both had sex with Kelly. But he also continued to claim no involvement with her death. And although evidence showed that Kelly had been sexually assaulted, no bodily fluids or fingerprints were found on her body to single out either man. The only evidence implicating another person was the hairs she had clenched in her hand.
    The prosecution used the FBI’s mitochondrial laboratory to have the hair evidence analyzed and presented in court. The analysis stretched the protocol of mitochondrial analysis beyond the bounds of the traditional testing. It would be not only the first time that mitochondrial evidence was ever admitted in a Sevier County courtroom, but the first time that this advanced type of analysis had ever been admitted as evidence in any courtroom anywhere.
    The totality of the evidence against Blair convinced the twelve-person jury that he was guilty of first-degree murder for the rape, torture, and death of Kelly Sellers. They deliberated for only four hours. If not for the painstaking care the crime scene investigators had taken looking for the evidence at the scene, the case might not have turned out the same. Circumstantial evidence can take a case only so far, and eyewitness testimony would have ended with two English Mountaineers pointing fingers at one another. In the age of the CSI Effect, jurors have come to expect hard evidence and scientific analysis to connect a suspect to a crime scene. The Sevier County investigators gave the jury just that.
    After John Blair’s conviction, the jury still had to decide on what sentence he would serve for his horrific crime. Throughout the trial, doctors informed the jury about Blair’s mental condition, placing his IQ at or below seventy—the score of someone considered to have mild retardation. His mother also testified in court about the abuse he had endured when he was a child. Included in her testimony were tales of beatings by his father, a Ku Klux Klan member who forbade John to attend church or school. John Wayne Blair had only a third-grade education. The jury was also informed of Blair’s previous conviction in Florida for sexual battery and the fact that he was a registered sex offender. The sentencing testimony ended with Blair’s mother in tears, begging the jury to spare her son’s life.
    After just a short time, the jury brought back a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, sparing Blair’s life. In a very unusual act, Blair addressed the jury, thanking them for not giving him the death penalty and further saying “I know