Vanderbilt rape defendants' DNA not in room, experts say

The room was small, maybe 13 feet wide.

A small entryway opened to the living area. There was a pile of towels and laundry and trash nearby. Walking to the left, the two Metro crime scene techs found two closets and next to them, two towels hanging from hooks. On the white wall nearby hung a Texas state flag.

A set of wooden bunk beds, with the lower bunk jutting out perpendicular to the top, was nestled in one corner.

The room was cluttered with Gatorade and water bottles and food containers. Clothes and shoes were strewn about, except for one area in the middle of the room where it looked like things had been pushed aside.

Sharon Tilley and Felicia Evans entered the room the afternoon of June 27, 2013. The Metro police crime scene technicians were told a sexual assault allegedly occurred there, in Room 213 on the second floor of Gillette Hall at Vanderbilt University, four days prior.

On Thursday, they testified in court about what they found — defense attorneys argued the importance was in what they did not find — in the room. This story is based on the technicians' testimony.

Prosecutors put the techs on the stand as they continued to lay out evidence in the fourth day of trial of 21-year-old Brandon Vandenburg, one of the room's residents, and 20-year-old Cory Batey. Both are facing accusations they raped a woman in the room on June 23, 2013.

Two other former football players, Brandon E. Banks and Jaborian "Tip" McKenzie, both 20, also are charged and are awaiting trial. All four men have pleaded not guilty.

Tilley spent about 2 1/2 hours in the room. She used a light — similar to what you might see on "CSI" TV shows — to check for bodily fluids on the bottom bunk and floor. She collected four towels from the room after being told the room may have been cleaned up.

At least one towel smelled like urine; on another she found bodily fluids. It was the only place in the room the technicians found bodily fluids.

Evans looked for fingerprints. She swabbed furniture, walls, plastic storage bins and the floor.

She found prints on a condom box that was in a dresser drawer and on the doorknob. Those were the only places in the room she found fingerprints.

She said Banks' and McKenzie's fingerprints were on the box, not Batey's nor Vandenburg's. She also said the fingerprints of neither Vandenburg nor Batey showed up on the doorknob. Evans did not say whose fingerprints they were.

That lack of physical evidence shows the importance of witness testimony going forward in the state's case. Defense attorneys have warned jurors that Banks and McKenzie might have something to gain through their testimony.

The techs didn't check the upper bunk because the lead Metro police detective, Jason Mayo, told them it was unrelated. That bunk is where prosecutors said Mack Prioleau slept, and said in their opening statement he was awake during the alleged rape. He also is expected to testify at trial.

Tilley and Evans said though their examination of the scene was complete, getting there four days after an alleged crime is unusual and can cause problems with scene contamination.

"I believe we did a thorough processing of the room as it was," Tilley testified.

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 or on Twitter @sbarchenger.

The trial so far

On Thursday, defense attorneys got their first chance to try and poke holes in the state's case during cross-examination of Vanderbilt University Police Lt. Donnie Harville.

On the stand since Tuesday afternoon, Harville explained surveillance video that shows the defendants entering and leaving the dorm the day of the alleged rape. It also shows the victim leaving the room and going to football player Jake Bernstein's room next door a couple of hours later.

At one point during Harville's testimony Thursday morning, a man in the courtroom's public seating fell asleep and began snoring lightly.

Defense attorneys focused on these things in cross-examination:

• Whether Cory Batey appeared to be drunk in the video and running into walls. Harville said it looked like Batey was distracted by food he was carrying. Batey's attorney has said Batey "blacked out" the night of the alleged rape and did not know what was happening.

• Fletcher Long, Brandon Vandenburg's attorney, began what could be an attempt to discredit the victim. He showed still frames from the surveillance video. Harville said the photos showed the alleged victim, her friend and Bernstein smiling several hours after the alleged rape. Bernstein is expected to testify in this case; the friend is not.

• Long also honed in on several gaps in the security video that are between two and three hours, and gaps in the chronology of the day of the alleged rape. Harville could not say for certain that nothing happened during those times, but said it was his understanding the security cameras were motion-activated.