THUNDER BAY – Forensic testing found DNA on Richard Spence's penis that is essentially a match to a man standing trial for his murder.
A penile swab taken from the body of Spence after a post-mortem examination found DNA from which Daniel Debassige cannot be excluded as the source, court heard Thursday during the third day of the trial at the Thunder Bay Courthouse.
Debassige and Monica Spence, his girlfriend at the time of the alleged killing, are on trial for second-degree murder for the death of Richard Spence after the 62-year-old man was found dead on the bedroom floor of his Secord Street apartment during the early morning hours of Dec. 21, 2014.
Tara Brutzki, a forensic scientist with the Centre of Forensic Sciences’ northern regional laboratory in Sault Ste. Marie, testified the probability of the DNA profile matching another individual unrelated to Debassige was one in 10 billion.
Christopher Watkins, the defence lawyer for Monica Spence, during his cross-examination theorized if Monica Spence and Debassige engaged in sexual intercourse earlier and then Richard Spence had become sexually involved with Spence, that the DNA could have been transferred to the murder victim.
“It’s a possible explanation,” Brutzki replied.
Monica Spence was arrested about 12 hours after Spence’s body was discovered and almost immediately told the lead police investigator “he raped me, he raped me.”
Spence requested a sexual assault kit be conducted the day after her arrest, though she did not initially provide consent to the evidence being turned over to police. The contents of that kit were not tested until this February, when DNA evidence that was found on both external and internal swabs was linked to Debassige. The testing did not find any evidence that could be connected to Richard Spence.
Watkins questioned whether wearing a condom could have prevented detectable DNA from Richard Spence to be transferred to Monica Spence, with the DNA spread from the condom to his penis from the victim’s hands. As well, Debassige’s lawyer Francis Thatcher asked whether intercourse without ejaculation could result in Richard Spence’s DNA not being present in the sexual assault kit.
Brutzki conceded both were possible scenarios.
The 12-person jury, made up of eight men and four women, heard on Wednesday Richard Spence had been previously convicted of sexual assault against Monica Spence in 2007. He received a 15-month conditional sentence, which included an order to not have any contact with Monica Spence.
Another witness – Diane Hanson – took the stand in the afternoon and said Debassige came to their shared residence on Secord Street on the afternoon of Dec. 20, 2014 and said he had “killed a rapist.”
In addition to the evidence on Richard Spence’s penis, the DNA profile from which Debassige could not be excluded as also found in left hand fingernail clippings of Richard Spence, blood on a living room wall and semen on a pair of underwear Monica Spence was wearing at the time of her arrest.
Brutzki found three distinct DNA profiles present in evidence she tested from the Secord Street apartment where the body of Richard Spence was found.
Evidence of the first DNA profile, assumed to be Richard Spence, was found on blood on a pillowcase in the bedroom, blood on the bedroom door, blood on the inside of the apartment door and blood on a jacket worn by Monica Spence at the time of her arrest.
A second DNA profile, from which Monica Spence cannot be excluded as the source, was found on blood-covered tissues, blood on a pair of pants found on the living room floor of the apartment, blood on a sweater and pants that were worn by Monica Spence at the time of her arrest, blood on a white towel found in Debassige’s residence and on underwear she was wearing when arrested.
As well, the pair of jeans worn by Richard Spence at the time of his death had blood from those two DNA profiles.
However, Brutzki admitted she could not determine whether the blood on the towel or the wall would have been from the time of the alleged incident.
Spence was found dead, face down in a pool of blood. A pathologist previously testified he had suffered 74 separate injuries, 44 of which were to his head and neck area including a fractured nose and two damaged teeth.
The trial continues Friday.
