Prosecution Rests Case in SC Dutch Fork Murder Trial

 
Lexington High School graduate Kierin Dennis buried the knife he used to kill Dutch Fork High senior Da’Von Capers in a neighbor’s yard.  That was some of the testimony on Friday in Dennis’ ongoing murder trial Friday at the Lexington County courthouse.  The courthouse was one of few Midlands government offices open as Hurricane Matthew bore down on South Carolina, forcing mass evacuations and closings across the state.

As the trial moved into its fifth day, Lexington police department investigator Marc Miramontes took the stand.  He said that about a week after the Feb. 17, 2014, fatal stabbing of Capers, 17, at a Lexington eatery after a high school basketball between rivals Dutch Fork High School and Lexington High, he learned that the weapon was buried behind Capers’ house.  Miramontes told the jury – the ground where the knife had been buried “looked disturbed, and it looked like somebody had stepped on it,” .

Later, SLED agent Maryann Boehm testified that of the two knives found in the box that Miramontes had dug up, one of them had DNA on its blade that matched the DNA taken from Capers’ body the night that he died.  The odds the DNA on the knife blade belonged to anyone other than Capers were “one in 1.6 quintillion,” said Boehm, a DNA and blood expert.

Dennis, now 21 but 18 at the time of the killing, is charged with murder and possession of a deadly weapon in the commission of a violent crime. Murder carries a penalty of 30 years to life in prison, but there is a possibility the jury could be allowed to consider manslaughter, which carries a lesser prison sentence.

Earlier Friday, defense attorney Todd Rutherford tried but failed to get Judge Eugene Griffith to keep evidence of the details of police digging up the knife from the jury.

It’s enough that the jury knows – according to testimony earlier in the week – that Dennis hid the knife and eventually told police where to find it, Rutherford argued. The judge disagreed, letting testimony about the digging up of the knife go before the jury.

With Hurricane Matthew approaching, and the likelihood that Lexington County sheriff’s deputies would be needed for emergency duty, and jurors having told Judge Griffith they wanted to watch Friday night’s televised Clemson football game, Griffith adjourned court until 9 a.m. Monday.

Judge Griffith, known for his plain speech, scolded both attorneys for wasting time by going into minute detail that would not make a difference to the trial’s outcome.  Griffith told prosecutor Shawn Graham and Rutherford with the jury out of the room: “You all are both really beating this jury down.”  Griffith, gave his warning, then added, “I’m going to let you do it. But you are killing the jury.”

Graham, who was questioning a prosecution witness about Dennis’s cell phone records at the time, apparently got the message. Within minutes, he sat down.

On Friday, prosecutors rested their case.  On Monday, Dennis may take the witness stand.