BATAVIA, NY -- There is blood spatter on Scott Doll's coveralls and blood spatter on the Ford Windstar he reportedly drove the day that Joseph Benaquist was found dead in the driveway of his Pembroke home, a bloodstain pattern expert testified today.
The spatter -- which is Benaquist's blood -- was caused by an impact of some kind on a source of blood, said Paul Kisch, whose expertise in the field was well established at the start of his testimony.
Kisch stopped short of saying the spatter was caused by an impact to any part of Benaquist's body.
The 66-year-old former corrections officer was found dead on Feb. 16, 2009, laying on his back in a large, dark pool of his own blood.
The spatter marks -- none shown in photos were bigger than a heavy pen mark -- were described as being over most parts of the front of Doll's camouflage coveralls, as well as the driver's side of the Ford Windstar.
"The spatter is consistent with impact spatter in close proximity to an impact event," Kisch said. "It is consistent with an impact event associated with Joseph Benaquist's blood."
Kisch made similar statements about both the spatter on the coveralls and the Windstar.
Doll was found just before 9 p.m. on Feb. 16 walking north on North Lake Road, toward Benaquist's home, carrying a jack and lug wrench, while the Windstar was parked at a garage on North Lake and Main Road in Pembroke.
A pair of bloody gloves were found on the hood of a car next to the Windstar.
Kisch also testified that there were what he called "transfer stains" (meaning blood got on one object and was transferred to another surface by touch it) on the pavement (likely from tennis shoes, he said), under a Nissan Altima parked in the driveway, and a Pontiac G6 parked near Benaquist's body.
Under cross examination for Doll's attorney Paul Cambria, Kisch could not say if the blood on the G6 revealed anything about the direction of struggle that might have taken place during the confrontation that cost Benquist his life.
As for the transfer under the Nissan, Kisch testified that he couldn't say whether that blood came from Benaquist touching that spot during a struggle or from Scott Doll touch that spot with a bloody glove at some point.
In the middle of Cambria's cross examination, it was time for the trial to break for lunch.
Prior to Kisch taking the stand, Investigator Ronald Welker testified about his examination of a phone belonging to Benaquist and of call records associated with Scott Doll's phone.
In the week before his death, Benaquist's phone was used to make four calls to Doll's phone, the last being at 4:46 p.m., Feb. 14.
On Feb 15, Benaquist's phone received a call from Scott Doll's phone, and again at 3:06 p.m. on the day of the murder.
On that day, at 4:16 p.m. and again at 4:31 p.m., two additional calls came into Benaquist's phone -- one from his girlfriend's mobile phone and another from her house phone.
As for Scott Doll's phone, he made an outbound call at 4:01 p.m. to the Adesa auto auction house, and then his phone received a phone call a few minutes later from the National Debt Resolution Center.
A short time later, his mother Audrey Doll called, and then in rapid succession, Scott Doll's son Josh placed four calls to the number -- all of which went to phone mail, we learned in yesterday's testimony. Josh called a fifth time that night.
