State presents various evidence, witnesses in Burns' murder trial
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The trial of James Burns, accused of first degree murder in connection with the 2004 death of Edwin Thomas Condon, continued Tuesday in Saline County and is expected to last most of the week.
The state continued to present its case to the jury and Chief Judge Mark Clarke through various evidence and eyewitness testimony Tuesday.
Condon's body was discovered Dec. 28, 2004, by Harrisburg Police Officer James "Whipper" Johnson, who was conducting a welfare check requested by Condon's daughter, who lived out of state at the time and was concerned after not hearing from her father for an unusually long period of time. Johnson testified that Harrisburg Police Officer Terry Sisky arrived at the crime scene on Feazel Street shortly after Johnson discovered the body. They could not determine a cause of death due to the advanced state of decomposition, and contacted the Illinois State Police to assist with the investigation.
Illinois State Police Officer James Minckler was dispatched to 1116 Feazel St., where Johnson had discovered Condon's body. He testified he collected evidence from the Feazel Street crime scene, at the autopsy which took place the following day in Evansville, Ind., from Burns' vehicles and at Burns' Brookport residence in rural Pope County.
Reports at the time of the discovery of Condon's body indicated police were led to investigate Burns because he had done some work for Condon in a remodeling project.
Minckler said a .22 caliber pistol was discovered wrapped in a towel inside a filing cabinet in a shed outside Burns' home in Brookport, where he and other officers executed a search warrant Dec. 30. The handgun had five live rounds in the barrel and one spent casing.
Michael Putzek, who in Dec. 2004 was working for the Illinois State Police crime lab in Carbondale, was called as an expert witness in the field of firearms and tool mark identification. He testified he examined the handgun found at Burns' residence, as well as the bullet removed from Condon's body during the autopsy. He said he was not able to positively identify nor eliminate Burns' handgun as the one that fired the bullet that killed Condon.
Burn's handgun was also examined by forensic scientist Stacy Speith, who also works at the Illinois State Police crime lab in Carbondale. She testified she was able to match blood found on Burns' handgun to a bone marrow sample from Condon's autopsy through DNA testing. However, Defense Attorney Nathan Rowland's cross examination of the witness revealed bone marrow is not the preferred method of DNA testing and in her years of doing this work and thousands of analyses she has performed, this was the only case in which bone marrow has been used.
While other officers were searching Burns' residence, Johnson and Special Agent Bryan Harms interviewed Burns about his relationship with Condon. Johnson testified that the interview was recorded with a camcorder, but the battery ran out at some point during the interview. The prosecution is expected to play the partial recording for the court Wednesday.
Former Saline County Coroner Randy Reed was also called to testify. Reed testified that Condon's autopsy was performed at the Vanderburgh County morgue by forensic pathologist Mark Levaughn, who has since moved out of the area. Reed said the autopsy report identified the cause of Condon's death as a gunshot wound to the back of the head, in addition to blunt force trauma to the back of the head. However, cross examination revealed inconsistencies in the report. At one point in the report, Levaughn said that Condon's skull was fractured, then later said in the same report there was no skull fracture. Reed could not account for the inconsistency.
Other witness testimony included Correctional Officer Briten Clark and former Correctional Officer Jacob Palmer who overheard Burns threaten fellow inmate Raymond Moss that he would be "the next m----f-- killed" if he did not stop aggravating Burns.
Various neighbors of Condon also testified to having seen Burns or his truck at Condon's residence during the month of Dec. 2004, when Condon was killed.
The state will continue its case on Wednesday in Saline County.