TAINTED EVIDENCE IN MURDER CASE #4? ANOTHER KOFOED CSI MYSTERY IN COURT

David Kofoed (Photo: Bill Kelly)

Here we are again.

Another seemingly slam-dunk murder conviction. 

Another claim the crime scene investigator planted evidence.

The common denominator is Dave Kofoed.

Kofoed, once the respected leader of the Douglas County Sheriff’s crime lab, landed in jail for planting evidence in a notorious double-homicide investigation in a neighboring county. In the wake of that debacle three other convicted murderers have gone to court claiming their cases may have been tainted by Kofoed as well.

(The case was the subject of the NET documentary “CSI On Trial.” Watch it here.)

Today the Nebraska Supreme Court heard convicted murderer Richard K. Cook request evidence presented at trial by Kofoed get a second look.

Fifteen years ago Amy Stahlecker’s body was found on the banks of the Elkhorn River on the western edge of Douglas County. She’d been shot repeatedly. Her blood was found on the bridge nearby and inside Cook’s truck. 

A few days later Mike Horbacher went to police claiming his friend Cook admitted he’d killed the girl. In the following weeks there were complicated, conflicting stories about what led up to the murder. Cook’s version implicated his friend who went to the police.

What the jury believed was this: in the middle of the night Amy Stahlecker got a flat tire driving home to Fremont. Richard Cook had pulled over nearby. He had sex with the victim. There had been a struggle. Cook “unloaded” his 9mm pistol into the woman and dragged the body to the edge of the river.

Richard Cook (NDCS)

Five years later the crime scene investigator who handled Cook’s case was also in jail.

A district court judge in Douglas County ruled there wasn’t sufficient reason for Cook to get a hearing to review evidence in the case. The Nebraska Supreme Court has been asked to overturn the ruling. Oral arguments were heard today.

Cook’s attorney, long time Kofoed nemesis Jerry Soucie argued that Cook’s previous attorneys had been ineffective in that they did not present the suspicions that Kofoed could have fabricated some of the evidence in the investigation.

Soucie says because there had been no effort by the Nebraska Attorney General or the Douglas County Attorney to review the body of Kofoed’s work after it was clear he…in Soucie’s words…was a “dirty cop” it was left to the defense attorneys in each individual case to return to court to seek a fresh hearing on the integrity of the former CSI’s work.

Two pieces of evidence raise red flags for Soucie. Blood smears matching Stahlecker were found inside Cook’s truck on the door and the floor mat. Soucie raises questions about how the victim’s blood could have gotten inside the truck when the shooting occurred on the bridge away from the vehicle. In court filings Soucie points out Kofoed was convicted for planting evidence inside the car of two innocent men. In a third murder investigation under scrutiny, Kofoed is accused of similarly planting blood evidence in the convicted killer’s car.

At the Stahlecker crime scene, Kofoed also located a bloody shoe print, size 10 ½, on the outside of Cook's truck. Soucie claims there was never evidence his client owned that type of shoe that matched the print but Kofoed himself had purchased a pair.

Soucie says he is not asking the court to reverse the guilty verdict but only to grant a hearing where the integrity of the evidence can be reviewed.

Arguing for the State of Nebraska, Assistant Attorney General Erin Tageman challenged every aspect of Cook’s demand for a new hearing. She told the justices even if there had been indications Kofoed had fabricated the blood smear and foot print Cook’s attorney “would not be able to show his case was tainted.”

In documents filed by the state noted the nature of the evidence and the methods used by Kofoed “were not similar to his unlawful conduct in the two other investigations.” Tageman added in court that primary responsibility for this homicide were with the Nebraska State Patrol and Kofoed’s role was “very small.”

For the justices there may be a broader issue than whether the questioned evidence would have altered the verdict in Cook’s trial. Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman made reference to “a more global view” where courts should be obliged to re-examine the integrity of evidence brought into court by law enforcement agencies entrusted by the public with that responsibility.

Kofoed has repeatedly denied planting evidence in any of the cases.

It will be several weeks before the Supreme Court will decide if Cook’s request has any merit in the law.

In the next few weeks expect to hear more about two other cases in which Kofoed is accused of planting evidence.

Edwards

Christopher Edwards. He’s in prison for killing his girlfriend, Jessica O’Grady. Her body has never been found. At his trial in 2006 there was overwhelming evidence Edwards murdered her in his bedroom using a ceremonial sword, however questions arose about blood evidence in the trunk of his car collected by Kofoed. A district court judge in Douglas County is expected to decide soon if a new hearing on the evidence is warranted.

Henk

Ivan Henk. After shouting out in the Cass County Courthouse that he had killed his son because he was the antichrist, Henk was sentenced to life in prison for murdering four-year old Brendon Gonzalez in Plattsmouth. During Kofoed’s trial for planting evidence in another case, a judge ruled there was reason to believe Kofoed tampered with evidence in Henk’s investigation as well.  The CSI claimed to have found blood in the dumpster months after Henk disposed of the child’s body in the trash. A new evidentiary hearing for Henk is scheduled in February.

Did Former CSI Kofoed Plant Evidence a Second Time? While Under Oath,No One Asked.

What did not get asked in court was as important as any of the questions David Kofoed did answer.  

No one asked him under oath if he, rather than the killer, was responsible for the presence of the murder victim's blood in the trunk of Chris Edward's car.  

That will have to wait for a new trial.  If there is a new trial.  That will be the decision of District Court Judge Russell Derr.  

David Kofoed

Kofoed, once the leader of the Douglas County CSI unit, returned to the witness stand for the first time since appearing before a Federal grand jury investigating allegations he planted evidence implicating two innocent men in a double homicide case.  A District Court judge in Cass County found Kofoed guilty.  Evidence indicated Kofoed was the only logical source of a blood smear found on the underside of the dash of a car alleged to have played a part in the murder. Two teenagers who had never been in the car were later identified as the real killers.  They are now in prison.  Kofoed also ended up in jail for a time.

The grand jury testimony six years ago was secret. His appearance this week at the Douglas County courthouse was public. He did not testify at his own trial but continues to deny the old and the new allegations when interviewed.

Returning from South Carolina where he now lives, Kofoed volunteered to testify at a hearing to determine if Edwards deserves a new trial. In 2007 Edwards was sentenced to life in prison for murdering Jessica O'Grady, a one-time girlfriend. Her body was never found but the shocking amount of her blood found at the crime scene left little doubt something violent occurred.

Edwards' attorneys, Jerry Soucie and Brad Munnelly, called witnesses and submitted hundreds of pages of documents in an attempt to convince the judge that Kofoed, with unrestricted access to the collected evidence, at some point added smears of O'Grady's blood to the trunk of the car, a pair of hedge clippers, and a shovel.  

If true, the deception would be strikingly similar to manner in which Kofoed tampered with evidence in the Murdock case.  The special prosecutor who put Kofoed in jail theorized at the time the high-profile CSI director was driven to generate accolades and publicity for himself.

Soucie spent much of the court's time reviewing records and depositions of other law enforcement officials, building a foundation for Kofoed's role in the investigation while demonstrating the one-time investigator had access to blood samples taken from the scene and ample opportunity to tamper with evidence.

The most damning moment, according to Soucie, in Kofoed's reply to his very last question. He was asked if, at the time he was CSI director, one of his employees was the target of an investigation into mishandling evidence whether that investigator would be allowed to process evidence in other cases.  Kofoed said he would not allow it.  That is the point Soucie hoped to drive home to the judge. With hindsight, the evidence in the Edwards case should not be trusted, he argues, because the man put in jail for evidence tampering should not be trusted today when he claims the evidence was handled properly in 2006.

The office of the Douglas County Attorney argues it is not necessary to revisit the case because the most damning evidence has not, and cannot be, disputed.  Edwards bedroom, from a red-stained mattress to droplets covering the ceiling, was awash in the blood of Jessica O'Grady.  

In one short burst of questions to Kofoed,  deputy county attorney Katie Benson listed the inventory of items collected and tested for DNA matching the victim.  

"Did you plant blood on the mattress?"

"No," replied Kofoed.

"The headboard?"

"No."

"The night stand?"

"No'"

"The clock radio?"

"No."

"The laundry basket?"

"No'"

"The ceiling?"

"No."

She did not ask Kofoed if he planted blood in the trunk of the car.  Neither did Edwards' attorney.  Even if everyone suspected they knew what he would say, no one wanted any surprises at this stage.

More documents will be presented to Judge Derr. There may be more witnesses called by the county attorney's office.  It will likely be weeks before the judge makes the call on whether there is enough substance to give Christopher Edwards another day in court.

(The attorney who made the controversial choice of representing both Edwards and later Kofoed in their criminal cases appeared to answer questions at the hearing yesterday.  Read about his testimony here.)

A "Perfect" CSI-based Murder Conviction Questioned. Sword Murder Case Back in Court.

Blood smears in the trunk of a car, on a pair of hedge clippers, and a shovel helped put Christopher Edwards in prison for a gruesome murder.  Seven years later questions about that same evidence may get the convicted murderer a new trial.

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In 2007 NET News covered the Edwards homicide investigation as part of our documentary Murder House.  Watch the program and learn more about the caseby clicking HERE.

(UPDATE:  Click here to read about the opening of the evidentiary hearing) 

Christopher Edwards is scheduled to return to Douglas County District Court this week. He will ask Judge Russell Derr to set aside his conviction. 

Jerry Soucie, one of the attorneys working for Edwards, told NET News “no one should be tried on a charge as serious as murder with evidence that is not reliable and more importantly that might have been developed as a result of misconduct on the part of law enforcement.”

In 2007 Edwards was convicted of murdering his teenaged girlfriend, Jessica O’Grady.  Her body has never been found.  Prosecutors successfully used a wide array of forensic science to indicate O’Grady had been hacked to death in Edwards’ bedroom with an ornamental sword.  Authorities speculated he used his car to move the body to another location.

Since the original guilty verdict, David Kofoed, the lead crime scene investigator, was convicted of tampering with evidence collected in another homicide investigation. 

In their motion to Judge Derr, Edwards’s attorneys argue the original verdict needs to be set aside since Kofoed was “in a position to fabricate evidence under his own name” as well as being able to “set up” other crime scene investigators “to ’find’ evidence that didn’t exist until after Kofoed planted blood on the item in the bio-hazard or property room.”   The court papers claim Kofoed, as commander of the CSI unit, could alter evidence “without any direct trail of evidence” linking him to “a miraculous discovery” benefiting the case.

Soucie told NET News, “We have concerns, given the way that evidence was handled, whether the blood reportedly found on a number of items actually existed on those items before they went to the Douglas County CSI office.”

The Edwards crime scene (Douglas Co. Sheriff)

Edwards requests “post-conviction relief” on the grounds the jury in the original trial “was not given the opportunity to assess whether the forensic evidence was fabricated.  (Read the motion filed in District Court here.) 
His appeal found new life in 2010 after a Cass County District Court convicted and jailed Kofoed for planting evidence in an unrelated homicide case in Murdock, Neb.  Wayne and Sharmon Stock were killed with a shotgun during a botched robbery of their home.

Investigators from Cass County and the Nebraska State Patrol succeeded in getting Matt Livers, a distant relative of the Stocks, to falsely confess and implicate a second man, Nick Sampson.  It was later determined the confession was coerced and the lie detector test had been improperly done.

The Douglas County CSI unit processed the crime scene at the request of Cass County officials.  With Livers and Sampson in jail, Kofoed claimed to have found a small trace of blood in a vehicle owned by Sampson’s brother.  The case fell apart when other evidence lead to the arrest and conviction of the real killers, a pair of teenagers from Wisconsin.

Later, a special prosecutor investigated how the victim’s blood ended up in a car unrelated to the case, leading to Kofoed’s conviction for evidence tampering.  He has since served his jail time and was released on probation.

Edwards’ legal team will argue in court revelations arising from the unrelated Murdock case must be considered when reviewing the evidence in the O’Grady murders.   The Murdock and Edwards investigations were going on simultaneously in 2006.

“If any member of the defense team employed by the government takes action which taints a trial with false or manufactured evidence it taints the whole trial,” Soucie said.  “The jury hasn’t gotten to hear the whole story.”

Small amounts of blood claimed to have been discovered in the trunk of Edwards’ car raise the most vexing questions, according the court filings. 

Days into the investigation, Kofoed ordered a second inspection of the Honda’s trunk and a second round of chemical tests for human blood on items removed from the Honda.

Sheriff's Dept. evidence photo showing Kofoed in the trunk of Edwards' car. (Douglas Co. Sheriff)

An evidence photo presented at the original murder trial shows Kofoed lying on his back in the trunk taking the photos. During an interview for an NET News documentary in 2007, he recalled locating the blood. While examining a rubber gasket along the edge of the trunk he claims he spotted “a darker stain.  It could have been grease.  We didn’t know what it was, we did a field test and it came back presumptive for blood.”  Kofoed also ordered second tests on a shovel and hedge clippers and previously undiscovered blood was found on those items as well.  The items were hand delivered by Kofoed to the University of Nebraska Medical Center DNA laboratory.   It was a perfect match to O’Grady’s DNA.

The evidence was essential to the prosecution theory that the teenager’s body had been removed from the scene in Edwards’ car.

(Read the original crime scene report filed by the Douglas County Sheriffs' CSI Team)

To Edwards’ legal team, discovery of another blood smear in a difficult-to-reach spot in a vehicle seems suspiciously similar to the tainted Murdock investigation. 

“Our allegation is that there are facts that point to a similar pattern, a similar type of conduct, that calls into question the reliability of certain evidence that was discovered,” Soucie said.

In a 2011 interview with NET News following his conviction, Kofoed specifically denied planting any evidence and specifically the blood in the trunk.  He said he welcomed a new court hearing where he could “lay this stuff out.” 

Edwards also argues his legal counsel in the original murder trial, Steve Lefler, had a conflict of interest because of the attorney’s personal friendship with Kofoed.  Lefler became the CSI’s defense attorney in the Murdock evidence tampering case while still representing Edwards in his appeal process. 

Soucie said “the arrangement was really unusual.  I’d say that’s an understatement.”

The motion filed on Edwards’ behalf claims Lefler’s questioning of the CSI personnel during the original murder trial “was noteworthy in failing to challenge ANY of the procedures regarding the collection and testing of blood from the Honda automobile, the hedge shears, shovel” and other evidence collected. (Emphasis from original document).

The original poster seeking clues in O'Grady's disappearance. (NET News)

Both the Douglas County Attorney and Nebraska’s Office of the Attorney General challenged Edwards’ accusations before the Nebraska Supreme Court when attempting to block Edwards’ motion for a new hearing.  They argued nothing about the points raised by Edwards justify rejecting the original verdict of second-degree murder.  Neither office would comment directly when asked about the allegations raised in the latest court filings.

Privately, law enforcement officials express frustration Edwards might get a new trial based on Kofoed’s misconduct in an unrelated case, since so much evidence seemed to point to O’Grady’s violent death in Edwards' bedroom.

The evidentiary hearing scheduled in March will not directly address the question of whether Edwards is guilty or innocent of murder.
“It’s based on a violation of the United States Constitution,” said Brian Munnelly, another member of Edwards’ defense team.  “The statute allows you to raise an allegation that a person’s constitutional rights have been violated.”