Atwood trial: Defense downplays DNA Third day of testimony centers on clues gleaned from discarded cigarette butts

SKOWHEGAN – Defense Attorney John Alsop is banking on some unusual cigarettes to help prove that someone other than his client, Shannon Atwood, 38, killed Cheryl Murdoch, 39, two years ago in Canaan.

During the third day of the Somerset County Superior Court murder trial, Alsop focused on DNA evidence collected from cigarette butts found in Burrill Woods about a mile from the dirt road where Murdoch’s bludgeoned body was found on Aug. 11, 2006.

Although the DNA puts Atwood, Murdoch and Atwood’s estranged and missing wife, Shirley Moon-Atwood, at Burrill Woods, it does not indicate when they were there nor does it link them directly with the spot where Murdoch’s body was discovered.

Alsop was also highly critical of the state police investigation that failed to test any of the cigarette butts found at a home that Murdoch and Atwood shared on Route 23.

Atwood’s trial before Justice Nancy Mills contains only circumstantial evidence, and Alsop is banking that he has built enough reasonable doubt that his client was the killer. In the first three days of testimony, 34 witnesses have taken the stand for the state.

Expert testimony Wednesday revealed that DNA was found on cigarette butts collected at a fire pit about a mile from where Murdoch’s body was found. The Burrill Woods is a warren of dirt roads that crisscross a 30- acre patch of land. At noon, the defense, the judge and state prosecutors drove to the scene, stopped at the site of the fire pit, the location where the body was found, and passed by the Route 23 home where all three people had once lived.

Back in the courtroom, Erin Miragliudo of the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory testified that she found Atwood’s DNA on two unlabeled butts and one Old Gold butt, all found at the fire pit site. The odds that it was not Atwood’s DNA were 1 in 1.05 billion, she said.

Miragliudo said she found Murdoch’s DNA on two Marlboro butts and that the odds it was not Murdoch’s were 1 in 35.3 trillion.

She also testified she found Moon-Atwood’s DNA on two Rizla butts. A Rizla cigarette is purchased empty with a filter and then hand packed with tobacco.

But there is no way of knowing when those butts were left in the woods, Miragluido said.

She also testified that she found no DNA on butts left in the road near where the corpse was discovered, nor did she find any on a small piece of rope found near the body.

“There is no forensic evidence of who handled that rope,” she said. There also was no DNA present on cell phones found in Atwood’s trash.

In his earlier cross-examination of the state police’s lead investigator, Detective Bryant Jacques, Alsop attempted to throw suspicion on Moon-Atwood, who has not been located in more than two years, and neighbors Leslie Minor and Steven Hartsgrove.

Jacques said that he thought it was suspicious that Minor and Hartsgrove had information about Murdoch’s body being found the same day it was discovered, even though state police have a policy to keep mum.

“We have a standing order not to discuss [investigations] even with our spouse,” Jacques said.

During a recess Wednesday, Alsop said he was attempting to prove that testimony made yesterday by Atwood’s former lover, Rachel Hooker, was incorrect.

Hooker said she talked repeatedly to Atwood on July 27 and wrote down directions to the campsite in the woods where he was spending the night, supposedly the night he is accused of killing Murdoch. Alsop said he believed the calls were actually made on July 19, and cell phone records back that up.

That date would mesh with a story Atwood earlier told police.

In the affidavit filed when Atwood was originally charged with murder, Atwood told police that on July 19 he and his wife had returned from a fishing trip to find Murdoch hosting a drug-filled party at his home. Atwood told police he threw Murdoch out after that.

In other statements to police, Atwood blames Miner and Moon-Atwood for Murdoch’s death, allegedly during a fight at Miner’s home nearby.

Alsop has maintained since Atwood’s arrest that Moon-Atwood could have killed Murdoch in a jealous rage.

Throughout the day, the victim’s family monitored the court testimony. They included Murdoch’s mother, Lucille Hoxie, Murdoch’s sister, Lucinda Hoxie, and Murdoch’s teenage daughter, Sarah, who have traveled from Arizona for the trial.

Other witnesses Wednesday included Atwood’s former girlfriend, Barbara Jones of Vassalboro, and Maine State Police Troopers Christopher Carr and Dennis Hayden.

The troopers testified that when they went to Atwood’s home two days after Murdoch’s body was found to execute a search warrant, Atwood barricaded the front door and threatened the officers during a brief standoff. Atwood eventually came out of the house and a compound bow loaded with an arrow, a pellet gun and a Bible were found on the bed in the room he had been hiding in.

The state will continue its case this morning at 8:30.

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