Major Netf lix role for blood spatter expert who helped jail murderer Molly Martens
THE blood expert who helped jail Molly Martens for the murder of her husband features in the new season of Netflix show Making A Murderer.
Stuart James, a blood stain pattern expert, gave testimony during the shocking court case in North Carolina, which saw Martens, 34, and her father Tom, 68, convicted of killing Limerick man Jason Corbett.
The hugely popular series Making A Murderer, which returned for its second season last week, follows the trial of Steven Avery, 56, for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach, 25, whose burnt remains were found outside Avery’s trailer in Wisconsin after she visited him in October 2005.
Dr James is prominent in the first episode of the second season, as he takes part in the re-enactments of the crime. He also delivered critical forensic information during the trial of Molly Martens, when he told the jury that Mr Corbett, 39, was on or near his bed when he was first struck on the night of his murder.
He added that blood spatter and saturation stains found on the sheets and the box springs of the bed showed that an ‘impact incident’ had taken place there.
‘It may well be where bloodshed first occurred,’ he told the court.
Likely dazed from the blow, Mr Corbett stumbled out of bed when he was struck again, he said.
Blood spatter on the wall was ‘consistent with impact to the head of Mr Corbett’. ‘His head was impacting the wall as well as an object striking him,’ Dr James added.
Dr James has more than 40 years of experience in bloodstain pattern analysis case work, and has consulted on cases in the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and South Korea.
The New York native also coauthored a number of text books on forensic science and bloodstain pattern analysis, and testified for the defence in the 2007 murder trial of music producer Phil Spector.