Jury sees graphic photos of crime scene
Graphic photographs of the blood-soaked body of a 70-yearold Niagara Falls man were shown to a jury Thursday.
In Superior Court of Justice in Welland, a former Niagara Regional Police officer took the sixman, six-woman jury through a series of photos taken inside the Portage Road apartment where Guiseppe (Joe) Caputo was found on June 19, 2015.
Richard Doxtator, 40, and his cousin Jasmine Doxtator, 38, both residents of Hamilton, have pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder.
The photographs included graphic images of Caputo’s body lying in a pool of blood in the hallway of his apartment. Other photos showed blood spatter throughout the small unit including a large pool of blood on the floor between the living room and dining room.
Court heard earlier that Caputo suffered 18 “cutting wounds” to his body.
Retired forensic officer Colin Hoare, who was tasked with documenting the bloody scene and collecting evidence, described in detail the dozens of photographs he took in the days following the murder.
He explained to the jury that forensic investigators, using math and physics, can determine what direction blood travels and how it is affected by gravity.
He testified there was a large amount of blood spatter in the apartment, which is created when blood is dispersed through the air due to an external force applied to a source of liquid blood.
Caputo’s neighbour Michelle Dallaire testified she would often see Jasmine Doxtator at the apartment complex.
“They were friends. They were together a lot,” she said of Caputo’s relationship with the woman.
She would also see the two of them at a Stanley Avenue coffee shop where she worked.
“He would bring Jasmine in for tea very late at night.”
She described Caputo as “very friendly.”
Under cross-examination by Jasmine Doxtator’s lawyer, Aubrey Hilliard, Dallaire said a number of young people often visited Caputo.
Testimony given at an earlier court proceeding from another neighbour, who has since died, was read in to court by assistant Crown attorney Timothy Hill.
At a preliminary hearing held in August 2016, Linda Doan testified she walked past Caputo’s unit at about 2 a.m. and spotted what appeared to be blood stains outside his door.
Later, as she sat on her patio about 2:30 a.m., she saw a woman she believed to be Jasmine Doxtator walk past her. She had met Jasmine a number of times in the past when she visited Caputo.
She said she called out her name and the woman turned and looked at her but then kept walking.
The trial continues Friday before Judge James Ramsay.