Spotlight turns on investigators for alleged botching in Melgar case
Bloody fingerprint wasn’t tested for DNA, defense attorney says
Crime scene investigation is taking center stage at the murder trial of Sandra Melgar, accused of killing her husband then staging a home invasion.
A crime scene investigator, who took almost 1,000 photos after the stabbing death of 52-year-old Jaime Melgar in his northwest Harris County home, remained on the witness stand Thursday to continue his marathon testimony about police procedure at the scene.
The investigator’s photos and his testimony about how the Harris County Sheriff ’s Office handled the murder case has become the major point of contention in the murder trial against Melgar’s widow.
Sandra Melgar, 57, is accused of brutally stabbing her husband on the eve of their 32nd anniversary, then tying herself up and locking herself in a closet by putting a chair against the outside door handle.
Melgar’s defense team has argued that two detectives, one of whom was later fired for backdating a search warrant in a murder case, decided within hours of the slaying on Dec. 22, 2012, that Melgar was guilty and stopped investigating any other leads.
Defense attorney Mac Secrest has argued in court filings that investigators failed to properly process the evidence, including a bloody fingerprint found on a safe in the closet. The fingerprint was never tested as a latent print or for DNA.
The print is visible in crime scene photographs, but sheriff ’s investigator Maurice Carpenter testified Wednesday that there was not a testable fingerprint on the safe. Carpenter was the first witness. The trial, in state District Judge Kelli Johnson’s court, is expected to last about a week.
If convicted of murder, Melgar faces a maximum sentence of life.