The knife that penetrated Sabrina Galusha’s heart left a stab wound approximately six inches deep and caused her chest cavity to fill with almost one liter of blood, the state’s chief medical examiner testified Tuesday.
“This is a rapidly fatal injury,” medical examiner Jennie Duval told jurors. “Her heart could still be pumping for a few minutes at most.”
Duval, who performed the autopsy on May 31, 2017, described in court Tuesday how she believes the knife entered Galusha’s chest – first penetrating the skin, then fat, muscle tissue, the chest wall and, ultimately, the full thickness of the 23-year-old’s heart. She said her examination of Galusha’s body showed that the knife had also grazed a rib, where there was an obvious incision in the bone.
Galusha had suffered two other deep stab wounds – one to the knee and another to her buttock – on the night of May 30, 2017, but neither of those was life-threatening, Duval concluded. She said the chest wound would have instantaneously stopped blood flow to Galusha’s brain, likely causing her to lose consciousness within seconds.
Duval concluded that Galusha, a Concord native, had died by homicide.
The medical examiner’s testimony about the manner and cause of Galusha’s death began the tenth day of the trial in the case against Daswan Jette, who faces charges of first- and second-degree murder.
Prosecutors with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office allege that Jette stabbed Galusha in the chest after attempting to steal a half-ounce of marijuana during a drug deal gone bad outside the Penacook Place Apartments more than two years ago. Galusha and three friends had traveled to the apartment complex on the night of May 30, 2017, to carry out the deal, which quickly unraveled and led to an altercation that ended Galusha’s life.
Witnesses testified that Galusha and two friends pursued Jette into a vestibule of the apartment building at 36 Pinehurst St., where Jette was living with his then-girlfriend. Through his attorneys, Jette maintains he acted in self-defense when he stabbed Galusha in the chest during the scuffle in the vestibule, but prosecutors say the evidence clearly shows that Jette ran back to the friends’ car as they tried to escape and targeted Galusha.
Duval told jurors Tuesday that all of the injuries she observed to Galusha’s body except for some bruising on the shins appeared to be very recent. Galusha suffered bruises on the base of her left thumb, on the back of her left index finger and on her right forearm, in addition to a cut above her belly button. Duval said she also observed a small hemorrhage when she was examining Galusha’s scalp.
She explained that the minor bruises on Galusha’s extremities could have been defensive injuries.
Two of Galusha’s friends who testified earlier in the trial said that they saw her reaching for the knife that Jette was armed with while in the vestibule on the night of May 30, 2017. However, they said, they never saw her get stabbed until she returned to the car.
As part of the autopsy, Duval viewed Galusha’s clothing and said she was able to match the locations of the penetrating stab wounds on Galusha’s body to the holes or slits in her garments. She also examined a steak knife found by police outside the vestibule and viewed a photograph of a black-handled folding knife, which an officer located in the pocket of a sweatshirt that witnesses said Jette was wearing.
Last week, state criminalist Katie Swango testified that she found no blood evidence on the steak knife, which was recovered outside in the rain. However, she found blood and other bodily fluids on the folding knife that tested positive for Galusha’s DNA. She said the “grease-like deposit” on the folding knife’s blade led her to believe it had penetrated fatty tissues.
Duval told jurors Tuesday that she does not believe the folding knife penetrated Galusha’s heart but that the steak knife, which has a longer blade, could have caused the fatal injury. She did not speak specifically to whether she believes the folding knife could have caused the stab wounds to Galusha’s buttock and knee.
Concord police found small blood spots on a wall of the vestibule that tested positive for Galusha’s DNA. However, friends said Galusha never showed signs of injury until they had all returned to the car from the vestibule. They said it was then that they observed Jette reach into the vehicle as if appearing to punch Galusha, who then yelled out, “He (expletive) stabbed me.”
Investigators said Galusha’s clothing was saturated, and that the backseat of the car where she was sitting was also covered in blood. Police officers who’ve testified so far have made no note of finding blood on the path from the vestibule to the parking lot at Penacook Place.
Toxicology results requested by Duval show that Galusha had marijuana in her system, in addition to the stimulant drug kratom and Suboxone. She noted that there was a “therapeutic level” of Suboxone, meaning it was being used to help treat opioid dependency. Duval said she can not conclusively pinpoint when Galusha had ingested the marijuana because body tissues release the drug sometimes days and weeks after initial use.
She said the drugs in Galusha’s system in no way contributed to her death.
Duval will retake the stand again Wednesday morning as the murder trial continues in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord.