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JERSEYVILLE - Right before the lunch break of day two of the murder trial of Bonnie Woodward, Bonnie’s step-daughter Heather Woodward testified.
Roger Carroll is accused of the murder of Woodward. Carroll, of 20758 Creek Road in Jerseyville, was charged with three felonies in two counties. He is accused of luring Woodward to Jersey County where authorities say he killed Woodward with a Stoeger Cougar 9mm Luger by shooting her several times about the body before burning her corpse and concealing it.
Heather testified that after she ran away from home and she went to a teacher's house and hid. She said she stayed there until Bonnie came looking for her then she called Roger and Monica Carroll and she went there and stayed.
She said that while in Goreville with the Carroll's, she and Roger went on a walk but she told the prosecution, “I can't remember what we talked about.”
While she was at the Carroll’s, Roger wouldn’t let her use the computer or phone Heather said.
The prosecution asked Heather if Roger ever asked her about Bonnie’s work schedule to which Heather replied “yes”.
During the cross-examination, defense attorneys asked Heather if Nathan and herself had a relationship she said no. The defense also asked how well she knew the Carrolls and Heather said pretty well.
Mike Metzler was the evidence officer for the Alton Police Department during 2010 when Bonnie was missing. During his testimony after the lunch break, the prosecutors asked if he processed Bonnie’s car and he said, "yes."
Metzler explained that he dusted for fingerprints on Bonnie’s doors of the truck.
He told the jury he found several fingerprints on Bonnie’s truck and eight of the prints were of Roger Carroll, mainly on the driver door. He also said he took 12 DNA swabs from the truck.
During the cross-examination defense asked Metzler why he didn’t dust the roof, hood and bed of the trunk for fingerprints and Metzler said he was instructed to dust the doors of the truck only.
The prosecution called Amy Hart, an expert witness with the Illinois State Police Forensic Unit. Hart is a forensic scientist for latent fingerprints. Uhe asked her about all her schooling she had to do to become a latent fingerprint examiner. Uhe asked Hart if she matched prints from the truck to Roger Carroll and she said, "yes."
During the cross-examination, the defense asked Hart if it is possible that two fingerprints could be the same she said, "I have never seen that in my years of doing it." Also, the defense asked if fingerprint comparisons could be faulty. He brought up an old case where an FBI examiner messed up a case. He asked Hart if she could have made any errors during this case.
Verna Patterson is Monica Carroll's mother. She testified while the Carrolls and Heather were in Goreville, Roger and Heather took an hour walk alone and she thought that was strange because Monica didn’t go along.
Mike O’Neill was the case detective in 2010, he said that on June 26, 2010, they found Bonnie's truck on the parking lot of the nursing home with the windows down. O’Neill said since 2010 no bank activity or credit card activity has been linked to Bonnie’s account. He also talked about the warrant they served on Roger Carroll's house.
During the cross-examination, the defense asked O’Neill if Nathan took the police to where Roger supposedly killed Bonnie. O’Neill said Nathan pointed out where Roger killed Bonnie, the burn pit and the creek where Bonnie was dumped. The defense asked O'Neill if it could be possible that Nathan killed Bonnie and did all the things since he knew all that information and asked if there was any evidence pointing to Roger at the house.
That was all the testimony for the day and the trial will resume Thursday with more witness testimony.
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