Testimony in Poutre case centers on blood, DNA evidence

By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff

SPRINGFIELD -- Blood, DNA, and fingerprint evidence suggesting that Haleigh Poutre's severely injured body was near the basement stairs and the first-floor bathroom of her Westfield home dominated today's testimony in the child-abuse trial of her stepfather.

This evidence has been considered critical to the prosecution's case alleging that her stepfather, Jason Strickland, threw Haleigh down the stairs and then carried her unconscious body to a first-floor bathroom in an attempt to rouse her.

Haleigh was 11 when the alleged abuse took place on a September weekend in 2005. Prosecutors say her adoptive mother, Holli Strickland, also played a role in the violence that weekend, or at least observed all of it.

State Police chemists and a trooper also testified that blood belonging to Holli Strickland was detected on a Barbie towel found in the home. After six days of testimony, Hampden County prosecutor Laurel Brandt has yet to show forensic evidence that links the stepfather to the blood stains near the basement stairs or first-floor bathroom.

Defense attorneys have also pointed out to jurors that there is no evidence how long these blood stains existed in the home. For at least five years, the state's child-protection agency believed Holli Strickland's account that the girl's multiple bruises and burns were due to a psychological disorder causing her to hurt herself, including sometimes hurling herself down stairs.

Defense attorneys say the stepfather had also believed his wife's explanation for Haleigh's repeated injuries on her body.

Kathleen Gould, a DNA expert with the State Police crime lab, testified that Haleigh's DNA was found in blood stains in numerous spots along the walls of the basement stairs, as well as a half-dozen spots around the first-floor bathtub. Haleigh's blood was also found on a pair of pink pajamas that she was wearing when she was rushed to Noble Hospital on Sept. 11, 2005, she said. Gould testified that DNA tests ruled out the possibility that any of these blood stains belonged to Holli or Jason Strickland, or Alicia Weiss, a neighbor who baby-sat Haleigh on Sept. 11 shortly before she was brought to the hospital.

In the afternoon, jurors viewed a digital video shot from security cameras at the Holyoke Mall on the evening of Sept. 10, 2005, which prosecutors allege was taken hours after Haleigh suffered her traumatic head blow. The video showed Jason Strickland, with Haleigh's two younger siblings, Samantha and Cody, walking along the mall corridors and visiting stores from roughly 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. The video shows the absence of Haleigh from this family scene, but also places Holli Strickland potentially alone with Haleigh at that time.

The prosecutor presented the detailed forensic evidence a day after she suffered a major setback. Her chief witness, Haleigh's younger sister, Samantha, could not identify her stepfather in court despite saying she saw him push Haleigh down the stairs in 2005. When asked to identify Strickland, she pointed to a different man who was sitting in the audience.

Defense attorney Alan Black initially had been prepared to cross-examine the child. After the girl showed jurors an inability to even recognize the defendant in court during her 30 minutes on the stand, Black decided against having her address any of his questions. As a result, the prosecutor did not have the opportunity to re-question the girl.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Monday with the prosecution presenting a child abuse expert. The trial before Superior Court Judge Judd Carhart was originally scheduled to last two or three weeks.

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