Joanne Paul, mother of Monica Paul, was visibly emotional today upon hearing testimony from Detective Robert Harris of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Homicide Squad and Crime Scene Unit, who initially collected evidence from the crime scene at the trial of accused murderer, Kenneth Duckett.
Harris was one of the detectives present at Paul’s autopsy, conducted the day after the murder on June, 27, 2008. He brought back bags of evidence including hair, nail clippings, the clothes Paul was wearing and three bullet projectiles.
When the State was questioning Harris, as he was going through the evidence in the court room, he confirmed that it was the same from two years ago. When it was time to look at the grey, blood-stained t-shirt Paul was wearing, Joanne Paul became emotional, rubbing her eyes and wiping away tears. A gentlemen sitting in the back of the courtroom asked the bailiff for the box of tissues that was next to the judge and he placed it next to her shortly after.
Lt. Scott Buehler of the Montclair Police department and Detective Michael Bozsolok of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Homicide Squad and Crime Scene Unit, also testified this morning. Buehler, who was the evidence officer in 2008, managed, collected and logged all evidence that came through the Montclair Police Department. One bag of evidence that MPD collected and Buehler had to hand over to the detectives was a black ski mask found on North Willow and Walnut Street right after the shooting.
Detective Bozsolok was on the scene of the Montclair YMCA the night of shooting, where he collected evidence and took pictures of the exterior and interior of the Family Y. Bozsolok said when he arrived he noticed personal items scattered throughout the room and Paul’s body, seated in the chair leaning against the wall and the observation glass window shattered behind Paul’s head. He then went down to the pool area where he found two bullet projectiles, about 15-20 feet from where Paul was sitting.
“In this case, basically everything was collected as evidence in that room,” Bozsolok said, referring to the evidence that was collected and photographed from the observation room. “You couldn’t establish who the personal items belonged to.”
While Bozsolok was handling collecting the evidence at the scene he received calls of a gun, car and item of clothing (the ski mask) found.
Items that were found in the car were personal documents with Kenneth Duckett’s name on it, a black shirt, a black knit cap, and half a sandwich with the receipt from the Montclair Quick Check.
Before court started that morning, Defense Attorney Thomas Ashley had an objection to the State attorney’s showing photographs of Paul after the shooting and the other photos that Bozsolok took that night.
Judge Joseph Cassini said he would allow the photos to be shown, with an on-going objection from Ashley. “None of the photos are gruesome and so horrific that any normal juror should be shocked,” Judge Cassini said.