INDIANAPOLIS -- Prosecutors rested their case against bail bondsman Kevin Watkins on Thursday after a final hour-and-a-half of testimony reviewing the expansive DNA evidence.
Watkins began trial Monday on two counts of murder in connection to the deaths of 15-year-old Timmee Jackson and 16-year-old Satori Dionne Williams on Christmas Eve 2015.
Prosecutors have suggested to jurors that Watkins was “hunting” for the people who broke into his house a week earlier on Dec. 18, 2015 – and that he suspected the teens in the crime. When he encountered them on Christmas Eve, Watkins is accused of using a tactical tomahawk to murder both boys.
On Wednesday, the jury saw autopsy photos and heard testimony from the forensic pathologist who examined both teens’ bodies. Dr. Darin Wolfe testified that Williams and Jackson both suffered seven wounds – almost all to the head – and that none of those wounds appeared on the front of the body. It was “more likely than not,” he said, that all of the injuries came from behind.
READ MORE | Kevin Watkins Trial Day 3: Forensic pathologist says wounds indicate teens likely killed from behind | Day 2: Jurors see tomahawk, teen’s shallow grave
Prosecutors further developed their case Thursday by calling David Smith, biology section supervisor for the Marion County Crime Lab, to review DNA evidence recovered from Watkins’ home and vehicle and numerous items recovered in the case.
Those items included a severed finger found in Watkins’ SUV that was matched to Williams and a bucket found at his house with blood matching both Williams and Jackson.
Smith also addressed two items of particular importance: a wad of used duct tape that tested positive for Williams’ DNA; and blood spatter recovered from the wall of Watkins’ house, found roughly 6 inches above the ground, that tested positive for Jackson’s DNA.
The defense, in its opening arguments, told jurors that Williams and Jackson ran up on Watkins and pulled a gun on him, causing Watkins to react in fear for his life. During Wolfe’s testimony, Watkins’ attorneys tried to establish that all of the wounds sustained by the teens could have been inflicted while both were upright.
READ MORE | Bail bondsman Kevin Watkins killed two teens in self-defense, attorneys argue in trial opener
Prosecutor Mark Hollingsworth countered that theory by asking if both teens could have been lying on the ground when they were struck with the tomahawk. Wolfe said that was also possible.
Although his defense declined to answer questions about whether their client would testify, Watkins was expected to take the stand Friday morning to give his version of the events on Dec. 24, 2015, that resulted in the deaths of Williams and Jackson.
Defense attorney Jeff Neel informed the court Wednesday that he anticipated his entire presentation would take less than an hour, and possibly not even 30 minutes. If Watkins does in fact take the stand, the prosecution will then be given the chance to cross-examine him.
Jurors were expected to be handed the case for deliberation by Friday afternoon.
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