Today marked the 6th day of Zachary Paul Witman's murder trial for allegedly
murdering his brother Gregory Witman on Oct. 2, 1998.
Several days ago Debra Calhoun testified as a science expert about the blood
splatter where basically she tried to sound like she knew what she was talking
about with claims that relumed explaining liquid turbulence, another words she
claimed blood splatter could only skirt, spirt, and or drip only in certain
directions, and only by a few certain directional movements.
I'm certain that if I stood in front of a black wall and filled my hand with
white paint, and then proceeded to throw it at the black wall, the end result
would be white paint spatters on the black wall. Debra Calhoun claims from the
splatter she could tell which direction my hand was pointing, which is exactly
what Attorney McGlaughlin is calling "subjective conclusions", there is no way
to tell exactly how the white paint was thrown at the black wall, and every
time it would be as different as DNA.
The most apparent thing about Debra Calhoun expert testimony was that she was
obviously bias almost every time Attorney McGlaughlin asked her a question as
she would immediately turn away and speak directly to the jury with extended
answers that included opinions that she was not being asked. Most questions
should have been answered with a simple yes or no. Attorney McGlaughlin was
seen a few times quite frustrated at her opinionated answers.
Debra Calhoun included in her testimony how she created an experiment in which
she had blood drawn from her while she was still pregnant and the blood was
used to soak a material and she then proceeded to stab at the material to see
just how hard a hand had to come in contact with the bloody material in order
to create simular blood splatter on a white sweat shirt for compare-cent reasons
in order to come up with a conclusion as to how Zackery Witman got the blood on
his sweatshirt.
Once again Debra Calhoun was trying to use what Attorney McGlaughlin is calling
"subjective conclusions".
Today included testimony from Zackery Witman's friends one of which was very
close to Gregory Witman and spoke to him daily after school, also neighbors,
Amelia Witman the mother and Ronald Witman the father, all of which when asked
Zackery Witman's character to perform any
violence was none, and that both boys were very nice.
The saddest part of all this is that when Zackery Witman was asked a few questions
from Judge John C. Uhler, he could hardly raise his voice loud enough to be
heard because of his apparent low self esteem, of which is not known if it is
the result of seeing his murdered brother in blood or from being on house arrest
for the past four years or both.
Monday, 19th of May 2003
Closing arguments were heard from both sides today as
Defensive Attorney McGlaughlin explaining in complete detail the defensive
view of how Zackery Witman simply was trying to help his brother and thats why
he had Gregory Witman's blood all over his shirt. Evidence of gloves and knife
apparently used and buried in the yard does not give any DNA evidence or
otherwise linking to Zackery Witman. Therefore everything seems circumstantial.
DA's office explaining that all evidence is apparently pointing to Zackery
Witman and is just too convenient as far as they are concerned that Zackery
Witman stayed home that day, had a knife collection, blood and soil all over
his shirt from just trying to help Gregory Witman.
Quite frankly I can see that it is going to be quite hard for the jury, but no
un-disputable evidence seems to be evident so the obvious outcome seems to be
in order.
Results: Guilty in the first degree murder!
I personally find it hard to believe that a 14 year old boy asked to stay off
school because he didn't feel good, all to await to kill his own brother when
he came home from school with a Nappa exacto knife and have gloves on and leave
no finger prints and then hide the gloves and knife in the yard. Then call 911
all within minutes!
A fund called the “Zach Witman Defense and Future Fund” has been set up at
Provident Bank in Shrewsbury for those who wish to contribute, Ron Witman said.
Donations can be sent to the bank at:
Provident Bank
698 Shrewsbury Commons Ave.
Shrewsbury, PA 17361
