7.Stephanie Waite — Direct/Cross
166 linesSTEPHANIE WAITE, duly sworn
COURT CLERK: Have a seat. State your name and spell your last name for the record, keep your voice up and speak into the mic.
STEPHANIE WAITE: Stephanie Waite, W-A-I-T-E.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. WEINREB:
MR. WEINREB: Good afternoon.
STEPHANIE WAITE: Good afternoon.
MR. WEINREB: Where do you work?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory.
MR. WEINREB: How long have you worked there?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Almost seven years.
MR. WEINREB: What are your job responsibilities?
STEPHANIE WAITE: I'm a forensic scientist in the Crime Scene Response and Criminalistics units.
MR. WEINREB: Where did you go to school and what degrees have you earned?
STEPHANIE WAITE: I have an undergraduate at Lycoming College in Pennsylvania, I have a master's of forensic science as well from the University of New Haven, and in undergraduate, I have biology and chemistry bachelor of science degrees.
MR. WEINREB: Can you say a little more about what you do for a living?
STEPHANIE WAITE: The Crime Scene Response Unit, I respond to crime scenes to process items and the area for biological evidence and trace materials. Biological evidence would be things like blood, semen, saliva, and then trace materials could be gunshot residues and hairs and fibers. And then in the lab I do mostly the same thing with items that I have either collected from the crime scene or that other agencies have collected and submitted to the lab.
MR. WEINREB: Do you have any specialized training in doing those things you just described?
STEPHANIE WAITE: In addition to the in-house training that I was under, I've also taken courses in blood stain pattern analysis.
MR. WEINREB: After getting trained, did you have to take an examination to ensure that you knew how to do what you do properly?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes. During the training there were written and competency tests, and then at the end there was a cumulative written exam and a cumulative competency test.
MR. WEINREB: Did you pass?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, I did.
MR. WEINREB: Any additional training over the years?
MR. WEINREB: I'm sorry. Any additional tests over the years?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes. Every year I have what we call proficiency tests, and it's just to make sure that I'm still able to perform all of the testing as I should be. I have one in crime scene, one in trace, and one in biological fluid identification each year.
MR. WEINREB: So in the course of your work, how many blood, semen, other types of samples have you analyzed?
STEPHANIE WAITE: I'm not sure because we don't count by sample; I count by case, and I have been involved in over a thousand cases.
MR. WEINREB: Did you participate in the Sean Collier murder investigation?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, I did.
MR. WEINREB: As part of that investigation, did you process items for blood?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, I did.
MR. WEINREB: How do you determine if there's blood on an item of evidence?
STEPHANIE WAITE: It's two separate tests. The first one is a screening test, and that can indicate that a stain either is or is not blood, and that's called the Ouchterlony, or OT, test. And then if I get a positive result with that one, I will go on and do a more confirmatory test -- it's the HemaTrace test -- and that confirms that the sample is blood and indicates the species origin is from a human.
MR. WEINREB: Can I have Exhibit 907 for the witness, please.
MR. WEINREB: So looking at your screen, do you see Exhibit 907?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, I do.
MR. WEINREB: And that's a photograph of a pair of gloves?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, it is. Well, they're not a pair of gloves; it's two separate gloves.
MR. WEINREB: Fair enough. But they're two gloves. And at the bottom of the picture are the initials SJW, correct?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes.
MR. WEINREB: Are those your initials?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, they are.
MR. WEINREB: Now I'd like you to take a look at the Exhibit 908.
(Photograph displayed.)
MR. WEINREB: And now 909.
(Photograph displayed.)
MR. WEINREB: And now 910.
(Photograph displayed.)
MR. WEINREB: Are those four photographs fair and accurate photographs of what's depicted in them?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes.
MR. WEINREB: The government offers 907 to 910.
MR. WATKINS: No objection.
THE COURT: Okay.
(Government Exhibit Nos. 907, 908, 909 and 910 received into evidence.)
MR. WEINREB: Let's start with 907.
BY MR. WEINREB:
MR. WEINREB: So what are we looking at here?
STEPHANIE WAITE: This is the exterior dorsal, or back side, of the gloves.
MR. WEINREB: Did you take this photo?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, I did.
MR. WEINREB: Where did you take it?
STEPHANIE WAITE: At the crime laboratory.
MR. WEINREB: Where did you first see these two gloves?
STEPHANIE WAITE: When I was on-scene in Watertown on Laurel Street, there was a Honda Civic parked in the middle of the street, and this set of gloves was in there, in the front driver's side floor area.
MR. WEINREB: Who collected the gloves from the Honda?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Kelley King. She's another criminalist that works with me.
MR. WEINREB: Do you know what she did with them?
STEPHANIE WAITE: She collected them the next day and put them in a brown paper bag and submitted them to the crime lab.
MR. WEINREB: And then that's how you received them?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Correct.
MR. WEINREB: When you received them, were they packaged properly?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, they were.
MR. WEINREB: Were they assigned a lab number?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, they were.
MR. WEINREB: What number?
STEPHANIE WAITE: 13-08140.
MR. WEINREB: Did they get an item number in addition to the -- that number?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes. They're Item No. 12-9.
MR. WEINREB: Did you test the outside of these gloves for blood?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, I did.
MR. WEINREB: Did you collect -- well, let's just take a look. So you said we're looking at the backs of the gloves here?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Correct.
MR. WEINREB: Can we have 908, please.
MR. WEINREB: And what's that a picture of?
STEPHANIE WAITE: This is the exterior palmar side of the gloves.
MR. WEINREB: 909, please.
STEPHANIE WAITE: That one is the interior palmar side.
MR. WEINREB: Let's just focus on the outside of the gloves. Did you test the outside of the gloves for blood?
MR. WEINREB: If you could go back to 908, please.
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, I did.
MR. WEINREB: What was the result of the test?
STEPHANIE WAITE: I did confirm the presence of blood and indicated that it was from a human.
MR. WEINREB: Did you collect a sample of that blood for DNA testing?
STEPHANIE WAITE: I collected four separate samples.
MR. WEINREB: How did you do that?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Once I had confirmed what stains were blood, I took a sterile swab, I added some water to it and I just swabbed up the stain. And then once the swabs were dry, I packaged them in a little tube and put it in a special storage area for DNA testing.
MR. WEINREB: Why four?
STEPHANIE WAITE: I had wanted one from each side, so exterior palmar and dorsal of left and right separately.
MR. WEINREB: How were the samples labeled?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Each tube has the case number, my initials, the date I made the sample, and then the separate sample number of each item.
MR. WEINREB: Where did you actually put those samples after you took them?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Once I was done with them, we put them in a -- I put them in a cold room, which is essentially a very large refrigerator that is temperature and humidity controlled.
MR. WEINREB: And is that something that DNA analysts have access to so they can get those materials when they need them?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, they do.
MR. WEINREB: Now, the way that you processed the gloves, everything you've said to us, is that the standard practice at the lab for collecting and preserving blood samples for DNA testing?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, it is.
MR. WEINREB: Did you also prepare a blood sample obtained from the defendant, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, via search warrant for DNA testing?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, I did.
MR. WEINREB: Exhibit 1519, please, which is already in evidence.
MR. WEINREB: Do you recognize this?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes. That's a biohazard bag that has a blood tube in it -- or three blood tubes, rather.
MR. WEINREB: And 1521, please.
STEPHANIE WAITE: That is the same bag, just the other side of it.
MR. WEINREB: And again, you took these pictures?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, I did.
MR. WEINREB: These were assigned an identifying number?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes.
MR. WEINREB: What's the number?
STEPHANIE WAITE: They're with Case No. 13-08091, and specifically, Item No. 12-1 within that case.
MR. WEINREB: How did you prepare this known blood sample for DNA testing?
STEPHANIE WAITE: I took just a portion of the liquid blood from each tube separately and put it on a special piece of paper that has preservatives to preserve the DNA in there. And once it dried, I put it into an envelope and put it into that cold room area again.
MR. WEINREB: Thank you.
MR. WEINREB: I have no further questions.
CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MR. WATKINS:
MR. WATKINS: Good afternoon, Ms. Waite.
STEPHANIE WAITE: Good afternoon.
MR. WATKINS: Did you also process a sweatshirt?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, I did.
MR. WATKINS: And was that an Adidas sweatshirt?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, it was.
MR. WATKINS: Do you recognize this picture that's on the monitor now?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes; that's the sweatshirt I processed.
MR. WATKINS: And I'm showing you what's been admitted as Exhibit 3061. Do you recognize that as --
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, this is the packaging for the sweatshirt you see in the photo.
MR. WATKINS: Now, that's FBI packaging. Is that correct?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes.
MR. WATKINS: And when -- do you know, after the Massachusetts State Police were done with it, did it indeed go to the FBI?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes; I transferred it to an FBI agent.
MR. WATKINS: Before you transferred it to the FBI agent, did you conduct the similar kinds of tests for blood and other fluids?
STEPHANIE WAITE: I tested for blood, yes.
MR. WATKINS: And did you find blood on this Adidas sweatshirt?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, I did.
MR. WATKINS: You found blood on several different spots, right?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, I did.
MR. WATKINS: And actually, seven different spots that you processed for further testing, right?
STEPHANIE WAITE: There were ten areas that I identified blood on. Eight of those were tested later on in DNA.
MR. WATKINS: And you anticipated my next question. You did indeed send those samples on for DNA processing?
STEPHANIE WAITE: That's correct.
MR. WATKINS: Now, at the Massachusetts State Police Criminalistics, there a lot of different kinds of tests that can be performed and a lot of people who can perform them, correct?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes.
MR. WATKINS: So in addition to DNA, there's also gunshot residue that can be tested for?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes, it can.
MR. WATKINS: Moving back to the gloves that the government introduced, that was -- are -- those gloves were also sent for gunshot residue testing?
STEPHANIE WAITE: I took a sample from the gloves and sent that forward for GSR, or gunshot residue, primer testing.
MR. WATKINS: And that's not a test that you do; there's a specialist who does that test?
STEPHANIE WAITE: That's correct.
MR. WATKINS: And that would be John Drugan?
STEPHANIE WAITE: Yes.
MR. WATKINS: Similarly, the sweatshirt that you see before you on the screen, was that sent for gunshot residue testing?
STEPHANIE WAITE: I did take another sample from the sweatshirt and I did send that to John as well for gunshot residue testing.
MR. WATKINS: That's all I have. Thank you.
MR. WEINREB: I have nothing further.
THE COURT: All right. Thank you. You may step down.
(The witness is excused.)
MR. WEINREB: The United States calls Jennifer Montgomery.