ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — When Benji Barnes' trial began a month ago, police were still waiting for test results related to his DNA. Specifically, whether his DNA profile matched that of a male profile found on the body and clothing of a woman who had reportedly been forcibly confined, sexually assaulted and choked in her own home last fall.
When Barnes' trial resumed in provincial court in St. John's Tuesday, the court learned the test results were in.
Testifying via video from Ottawa, biologic forensic specialist Louise Cloutier went over the report she had compiled for the RNC, after having tested swabs taken from the woman's sexual assault exam at a hospital in St. John's. Bloodstains from the front and back of the woman's shirt were found to contain the DNA of an unknown male, as did a swab of the woman's nipple. Vaginal swabs and swabs taken from the woman's neck were found to contain male DNA, but not enough to determine a specific profile.
Cloutier then presented a second report, which she had compiled after receiving a DNA sample from Barnes, obtained by the RNC at Her Majesty's Penitentiary. The unknown male DNA profile on the woman's shirt and nipple were a match to Barnes. The probability of another person having the same DNA typing profile was one in 54 quadrillion, Cloutier explained.
"Mr. Barnes has an identical twin. Would that affect that rate of probability?" Barnes’ lawyer, Stephen Orr, asked.
"Yes, identical twins have the exact DNA typing profile," Cloutier responded. "The regions of interest that the lab examines would all be identical."
Orr also questioned the DNA expert on how DNA is transferred, and whether one might expect to find a decent sample on a person's neck if someone had grabbed them there. Cloutier said it's possible, but not guaranteed.
"With vaginal intercourse, would we expect a transfer of DNA?" the defence lawyer asked.
"A lot of factors come into play, including ejaculation, the period of time until collection of the sample and the length of the encounter. Even if there is no male DNA detected, it's still possible there was an interaction," Cloutier said.
Barnes, 36, has pleaded not guilty to breaking into a woman's Mount Pearl home and forcibly confining her, sexually assaulting her, choking her, and threatening her and her two children last Oct. 26.
Prosecutor Shawn Patten has called a number of witnesses so far in the trial, including police officers who attended the woman's home after receiving a report of the incident.
Const. Robyn Dunn of the RNC's criminal investigation division testified she had gone to the home and found a woman sitting on the living room couch, with visible marks on her throat and chest. The woman seemed "spacey," Dunn testified, and appeared to have a hard time concentrating when she was being questioned.
Dunn said she asked the woman specifically about the alleged sexual assault, knowing evidence would have to be collected quickly, and the woman agreed to go with police to the hospital for a sexual assault exam.
Dunn said she noticed during her walk through the house that a basement window was open, its arm broken.
Sexual assault nurses collected the swabs from the woman's body at the hospital, where she also gave a urine sample. The results of forensic testing on the sample were presented in court Tuesday by Gillian Sayer, a toxicologist in Ottawa, who explained a number of drugs had been found: amphetamine and methylphenidate, two prescription stimulants used to treat ADHD; opiate painkiller oxycodone; and metabolytes left as a result of consuming the prescription sedative clonazepam.
Metabolytes left by cocaine were also present, Sayer said, as was acetone, which is a chemical in nail polish remover but also present naturally in healthy humans. Levels of acetone can increase with stress or diet issues, she said.
Sayer said she expected the time period in which the substances had been consumed before the urine sample was collected differed for each drug, but ranged from one day to one week.
Barnes was arrested hours after police attended the woman's home, at the residence of a longtime friend. That friend told the court last month Barnes had been staying with her for about a week at the time he was arrested.
She said Barnes had come home from work that day and had chatted with her a bit before getting ready to go out. He left between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., and she received texts from him around 10:30 p.m. saying he was on his way home.
The woman said Barnes told her that he had gone to see the complainant, whom he knew, but left her place after an argument.
"All I know is what he told me," the woman testified.
When Barnes came home, he seemed "completely normal," she said.
"He smelled a little bit like alcohol, but he wasn't falling over or anything," she told the court. "He didn't seem any different than before."
The woman said she went to bed shortly after Barnes arrived, and was awoken by police officers at her door around 5:30 a.m. They arrested Barnes and took him from the house in handcuffs, she said.
Mitchell Keeping, a civilian who works for the RNC as an IT specialist, also testified Tuesday, bringing with him two detailed reports he had compiled on an iPhone and a Samsung cellphone Barnes had been carrying when he was arrested. Through forensic analysis, Keeping said, he extracted an enormous amount of data from the phones, including photos, videos, audio files, text messages, Facebook Messenger conversations, Internet search keywords, locations, and the times and dates various applications had been used. The iPhone had taken a little longer to analyze, Keeping said, because it had been protected by a password and had to be sent to specialists on the mainland for the password to be disabled.
Keeping went over the types of data files collected, but the court has yet to review the content of them. He said an account belonging to the complainant — or someone with her name — had been logged into the Facebook Messenger app at the time the Samsung phone was examined.
Keeping will be back on the stand when Barnes' trial resumes May 7. The court has yet to hear from the complainant in the case.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
