Stephanie Waite

Stephanie Waite testified for the prosecution on Day 35 about identifying blood and preparing forensic samples. A Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory forensic scientist, she described testing two separate gloves recovered from the front driver's-side floor area of a Honda Civic on Laurel Street in Watertown. She reported human blood on their exterior surfaces and collected four separate samples for DNA testing. Photographs of the gloves, Exhibits 907–910, were admitted without objection. She also described preparing the defendant's known blood sample from three tubes and preserving it for DNA analysis.

On cross-examination, Waite described processing an Adidas sweatshirt and transferring it to an FBI agent. She corrected counsel's suggested count of seven blood-positive spots: she had identified ten areas, eight of which were later tested for DNA. She confirmed sending samples from the gloves and sweatshirt to John Drugan for gunshot residue testing, which she did not perform herself. Her testimony established testing and sample handling, not DNA matches or gunshot residue results.

The defense's proposed use of Waite to introduce the brothers' clothing prompted a separate foundation dispute. Weinreb argued that laboratory receipt and photography did not establish who wore the items. Watkins relied on Waite's case notes and said the clothing would help correct an earlier identification answer. The court declined to sustain a generalized objection to defense exhibits introduced on cross-examination, but left individual foundation questions open and did not admit the clothing in that exchange.

Laboratory colleague Jennifer Montgomery later identified Waite as the sweatshirt sampler and confirmed her experience. When Watkins asked whether Montgomery relied on Waite to find every testable spot, the court sustained an objection. Montgomery did not answer that question, leaving the completeness of sampling unestablished by that exchange.