A folding knife with a black handle.
A baggy containing marijuana.
A sweatshirt and a pair of bloodied sweatpants.
With his hands protected by violet-colored exam gloves, Concord police Officer Patrick Ofrias carefully reviewed for jurors Friday key evidence obtained by investigators following the fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Sabrina Galusha on the night of May 30, 2017.
On the fourth day of trial in the murder case against Daswan Jette, jurors saw for the first time the items of clothing witnesses say he was wearing at the time of the murder, in addition to several knives recovered by police from his residence at Penacook Place. That included a folding knife that Galusha’s friends said Jette brandished in the vestibule of the apartment building at 36 Pinehurst St., where they had driven to that night to sell him a half-ounce of marijuana.
Prosecutors allege that Jette stabbed Galusha in the chest after the confrontation in the vestibule and while she was attempting to leave the apartment complex. But defense attorneys maintain Jette was acting in self-defense after Galusha and two friends pursued him into the 369-vestibule to get back the marijuana they say he stole.
The group had never met Jette before that night and could only identify him through his social media accounts.
Ofrias was one of three police officers who responded in the early-morning hours of May 31, 2017, to an already active murder scene to execute a search warrant of Jette’s apartment on one of the building’s upper floors.
On paper, he sketched out for jurors the layout of the apartment to include the kitchen, living room and two bedrooms. He focused on what he identified as the “south-facing bedroom” or master bedroom where multiple items belonging to Jette were located, including two ID cards.
Those cards were in what Ofrias described as a jewelry box, which also contained “a green leafy vegetative substance” believed to be marijuana and a glass smoking device. Inside the bottom drawer of a clothes dresser located near the bedroom door, Ofrias said he also found what he described as a steak knife.
“When you found this knife did appear to be wet or did it appear to be dry,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati asked Ofrias.
“It appeared to be dry,” he replied.
However, in the closet, Ofrias came across a gray and black-colored sweatshirt with two front pockets, and in the right one discovered a folding knife with a black handle. The knife itself contained a substance on the blade, Ofrias told jurors, noting that it was sent to the state lab for further analysis.
Reports prepared in the state lab detailing what if any DNA was located on the knife has not yet gone before jurors.
Unfolded and wrong-side-out underneath the sweatshirt, he found a pair of gray sweatpants that had several red spots or stains he believed could be blood. However, he said the stains were only visible with the pants were right-side-out as they would have been worn and that the substance had not penetrated through the fabric.
After initially reviewing the evidence with Agati, Ofrias then took questions from public defender Caroline Smith, who spoke about other items recovered from the apartment that may or may not have been linked to the murder case. That included a pair of jeans and a pair of Air Jordan sneakers, both of which Smith noted had apparent stains on them.
“Daswan specifically did not want those shoes, and, in further examination of them, we observed a substance on them and so we seized them,” Ofrias said.
The sneakers, however, were not shown to jurors, nor were the jeans.
“The fact that you found a set of jeans does not mean there’s blood or it’s related to this case, right?” Smith asked Ofrias.
“Correct,” he replied.
She also asked him whether he knew if the stains on the sweatpants were from Galusha’s blood.
“I do not,” he said, noting that would be for the lab to determine.
He explained that the team of officers on scene that day were trying to gather any evidence that could be linked to the fatal stabbing, even if down the road it turned out to be of no significance. For example, police seized a butter knife located in between two couch cushions in the living room, simply because it was out of place and could have been used as a weapon.
Concord police Officer Thomas Sheveland also testified Friday and told jurors he had found a knife in the area of the vestibule following Galusha’s death.
Madison Campbell, a friend of Galusha’s, told jurors earlier this week that Jette had displayed a folding knife with a black handle and made threatening motions with it. Campbell; her then-boyfriend, Sam Chase; and Galusha were able to work together to get the knife out away from Jette, Campbell said. Specifically, she said Galusha took the knife from Jette’s right hand and then folded it up. She did not recall what happened to it after that.
Jette is scheduled to stand trial through Jan. 24 in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord, where he is facing charges of first- and second-degree murder in connection with Galusha’s death. Testimony from Concord police officers who responded to the scene is expected to continue Monday morning.