Published: March 07, 2006 01:13 pm      

Camm jury explains verdict

Jurors say molest evidence was key, defense says it will be key part of appeal

BOONVILLE — Medical evidence tying David Camm to the molestation of his daughter — and providing a motive for why he killed his family — was a “key factor” in the jury’s decision to convict the former state trooper, according to the jury’s foreman.

Jurors spoke publicly for the first time Monday evening, three days after convicting Camm, 41, of fatally shooting his family in September 2000. Friday’s verdict marked Camm’s second conviction on charges of killing his wife, Kim, and children, 7-year-old Brad and 5-year-old Jill. His first conviction was overturned in 2004, leading to the new trial in Warrick County.

This jury, Crowell said, examined the evidence for four days before taking its first of three votes on Friday. Jury foreman Robert Crowell said the first vote was 9-3 in favor of conviction. It took two more votes to reach a unanimous verdict.

None of the jurors who initially voted not guilty spoke out during Monday’s press conference. When asked about their individual votes or opinions about the exact nature of the murders, the jurors most often said “no comment.”

However, Crowell did say, “Personally, I believe David Camm pulled the trigger.”

The defense team blames the murders on Charles Boney, Camm’s co-defendant, who was recently convicted in Floyd County.

Although blood spatter on Camm’s shirt was another key piece of evidence in their deliberations, Crowell said it was the molestation factor that put things together for the jury.

Before prosecutors, on the last day of the trial, finally said they believed Camm was the one who had molested Jill Camm, Crowell said, “it wasn’t entirely clear” who they believed was responsible for her injuries. Ironically, the link between Camm and the molestation almost didn’t make it before the jury.

An earlier court ruling said prosecutors had to have more evidence than not that Camm molested his daughter before saying that in court. Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson said his experts provided “the conclusive medical evidence” that the kindergartner had been molested prior to the murders, and her father was the most reasonable suspect.

Defense attorney Katharine “Kitty” Liell said the evidence wasn’t conclusive and should have never been allowed, which will be the basis of the appeal she plans to file next month.

Jurors said it was particularly the testimony of Dr. Betty Spivak — a forensic pediatrician with the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office — that convinced them not only that Jill had been molested, but that her father was responsible.

Spivak testified that the injuries to the girl’s genital area were like those found in “relatively acute sexual abuse cases.”

She went on to say, “Sometime within a relatively short period of no more than a couple of days at most, and probably somewhat less, she sustained blunt trauma to her private parts that was by far and away the result of sexual abuse.

“I think there are a number of things that were strong, but that timeline, I think, on the molestation is critical,” Crowell said. “We were convinced that what happened to Jill could not have happened anytime after 7:30 p.m. that night.”

When asked if the jury would have convicted Camm without prosecutors connecting Camm to the molestation, Crowell said, “If it had been only the impact spatter, I think we would have had a much longer discussion.”

The defense has criticized prosecutors for improperly telling jurors Camm was responsible for the molestation, saying if the evidence was so conclusive why wasn’t Camm charged with molestation.

The defense theorizes Jill was molested at the time of the murders by Boney, who acted alone. Boney told police he sold an untraceable gun to Camm, who then killed his family to cover up the molestation of his daughter.

But Crowell said the jury didn’t see anything “really strong from the defense that went against” the state’s evidence.

The other key factors in the jury’s deliberations included the blood spatter found on Camm’s T-shirt and the testimony of 11 alibi witnesses who said they were playing basketball with Camm at the time of the murders.

Although jurors didn’t go into details about their thoughts on the blood spatter evidence itself, Crowell said, “There certainly was some debate over high-velocity impact spatter,” including which side’s blood analysis experts were “the better salesmen.”

If the blood on Camm’s shirt was high-velocity impact spatter — a mist of blood that sprays no more than 4 feet and dries within a minute — it would prove he was within that distance of his family at the time of the shootings, as the prosecution claimed.

If the stains were transfer, caused by brushing against a surface that has blood on it, it would have backed up Camm’s story of getting blood on him when he pulled his son out of the vehicle.

Jurors said they discussed the blood spatter evidence for a full day-and-a-half — about 18 hours of their 44-hour-long deliberations.

Also key in the jury’s decision, according to juror Darlene Short, was the testimony of the alibi witnesses.

“The thing that put (Camm) at the crime scene was that 7:30 to 8:00 time that didn’t close up. Even though seven basketball players said they saw (Camm) every three to five minutes, you just couldn’t close that timeline up definitively,” said Short, a school teacher.

The jury believed there was an up to 45-minute window of time that Camm could have left the gym, driven the five minutes to his home, committed the murders and returned without being noticed by the preoccupied ballplayers.