A mostly navy blue T-shirt adorned with a Beatles logo, a long-sleeve plaid button-up and a pair of black slacks.
That is what Sabrina Galusha was wearing when she left her childhood home for the final time on the night of May 30, 2017. Just as it was getting dark, she hopped into the backseat of a black Chevy Cruze, where three friends were waiting, and they headed to Penacook Place Apartments.
Galusha, 23, had left her wallet and cellphone behind. Her friends said Galusha probably assumed she wouldn’t be gone long and didn’t need them.
She had with her 12 grams of marijuana that her friend, Sam Chase, had asked her to obtain for a drug deal he had set up at the Penacook apartment complex. They expected the deal to take a few minutes and then the friends planned to continue on with their night – maybe enjoy a bonfire.
The deal, however, quickly fell apart. As the friends sped out of Penacook Place sometime after 8:30 p.m., Galusha was clinging to life and no longer responsive.
More than two years later, the purported marijuana buyer, Daswan Jette, is standing trial on first- and second-degree murder charges in connection with Galusha’s death. Prosecutors allege Jette fatally stabbed Galusha in the heart after attempting to rob her of the marijuana outside the apartment complex, where he lived at the time with his girlfriend.
The clothes that Galusha was wearing that night were just some of the evidence shared with jurors Thursday as the trial entered its eighth day in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord. Through photos taken during an autopsy, jurors saw the blood-saturated clothing that investigators removed from Galusha’s body after she was pronounced dead at Concord Hospital.
Concord police Detective Joseph Chaput identified several holes found in Galusha’s clothing, including the buttock of the blank pants, and the chest area of her Beatles shirt.
During pretrial hearings, prosecutors said that Galusha suffered three stab wounds: one to the inside of her right knee, a second to her buttock and a third to her chest. The chest wound was fatal as the knife penetrated her heart.
Though jurors have not yet heard from the medical examiner who performed that autopsy, they got a glimpse Wednesday and Thursday into some of the evidence reviewed in preparation for it. In addition to Galusha’s clothes, Chaput said he was instructed by his supervisor to bring a folding knife with a black handle.
That knife is the same one that Concord police Officer Patrick Ofrias said he had seized during a search warrant executed in Jette’s apartment at 36 Pinehurst St., where bloodied gray sweatpants, a sweatshirt and a steak knife found in a dresser drawer were also secured by investigators.
While Ofrias and two other officers searched the apartment, separate investigative units were outside collecting evidence from the parking lot and a vestibule – both spots where Galusha and her friends had an altercation with Jette.
Detective Chris DeAngelis began his testimony Thursday about his work at the crime scene at Penacook Place, in addition to his analysis of the Chevy Cruze, where witnesses say Jette stabbed Galusha in the chest. As attorneys showed DeAngelis photos of the vehicle on a projector, he pointed to what he identified as blood stains on the interior of the vehicle, including the rear, passenger’s side door. He also identified several spots on the interior and exterior of the door where he collected fingerprints for further analysis at the state lab.
Jurors also heard Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning about how investigators tried to extract text messages, photographs and other data from cellphones recovered in the parking lot of Penacook Place. Through witness testimony, the jury has already heard the specifics of some texts exchanged between Jette and Chase in the days and hours leading up to Galusha’s death.
Testimony in the trial will continue Friday morning in Concord.
(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319 or at adandrea@cmonitor.com.)