A forensic biologist testified Monday at the trial for a Suburban Hospital maintenance worker accused of killing his boss, but could not tell the jury about what prosecutors consider some of her key findings.
Erin Farr of the Montgomery County crime lab testified that 40-year-old Roosevelt Brockington Jr.’s DNA was on the exterior of a glove recovered from the basement boiler room where he was killed. But Farr was not permitted to tell jurors that the brown stain she saw on the wrist area — the area from which she took the DNA sample — was blood.
Attorneys for 50-year-old Keith D. Little, charged with first-degree murder in Brockington’s death, argued earlier in his trial that there were conflicting test results about whether the stain was blood. In a blow for prosecutors, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Marielsa Bernard ruled that Farr couldn’t testify about whether she believes the substance to be blood.
Farr said both Brockington and Little’s DNA was found inside the glove.
She also testified about DNA from other items found at the crime scene. The major DNA contributor to a ski mask was a woman; Little cannot be excluded as a minor contributor. Brockington’s DNA was found on a knife blade; Little’s was not found on the blade’s handle, she said.
Farr said it’s possible for someone to handle an object but not leave their DNA. Under cross examination from defense attorney Ronald Gottlieb, she said it’s impossible to know when someone left their DNA on an item.
Brockington was found stabbed more than 70 times on New Year’s Day. Little was arrested on Jan. 5, after a coworker said he saw Little washing a glove and ski mask in chemically treated water.
That worker, Charles Jackson, testified Monday that such actions were unusual for an engineer at the hospital. When he looked at the items Little had been handling, Little came over and said, “I’ll take that,” then threw them in a trash bin, Jackson said.
Little was also charged with killing a coworker in the District in 2003, but was acquitted.
His Montgomery County trial began last week.
