Blood stain analyst testifies about the gruesome scene

A Halifax jury has heard from a blood stain pattern analyst about the gruesome scene inside Kristin Johnston’s Halifax-area home, where Nicholas Butcher allegedly killed the Montreal-born yoga instructor and cut off his hand.

Police have testified that Johnston’s body was found in the master bedroom on a bloodsoaked bed next to a steak knife on March 26, 2016.

The jury at Butcher’s seconddegree murder trial has heard that a mitre saw and a severed hand were found on the bedroom floor.

RCMP Sgt. Adrian Butler said a large saturation stain found on the bed was consistent with Johnston receiving injuries to her neck and bleeding in the spot in which she was found - lying on her back.

“Saturation stains and hand transfer stains were located on the bottom half of the pillow,” said Butler, as the jury flipped through a book of crime scene photos.

“A minimum of two hand transfer stains were located on the pillow. A large, concentrated saturation stain — 60 centimetres by 121 centimetres in size — was located on the north side of the bed.”

Butler, who was qualified to give opinion evidence at the trial, said there were also hundreds of blood spatter stains on a pillow, comforter and the floor.

He also said there were pools of blood on the bedroom floor near the mitre saw, along with hundreds of “cast off” spatter stains on the wall near the saw as well as stains on the saw’s handle.

The Crown has said the medical examiner will testify that Johnston had 10 wounds on her neck, and that her death was caused by sharp force.

The jury has heard that the businesswoman had just shut down her yoga studio and was ending her relationship with Butcher.

The 36-year-old man, a graduate of Dalhousie University law school who worked with Young Drivers before his arrest, has pleaded not guilty.

Earlier Tuesday, RCMP Cpl. Christian Hochhold testified that he analyzed a cellphone that belonged to Johnston.

Hochhold, an expert in the forensic analysis of computers and other electronic devices, said he extracted a “plethora” of data, including emails, text messages, photos and Facebook messages.

Those messages included exchanges Johnston had with friends in the weeks, days and hours before her death.

Hochhold told the jury it would take “an extreme amount of dedication” to alter the text messages sent and received on the phone.