Jas
Active Member
Alot to read but has alot of good info.
Maryland’s Automated Ballistic Fingerprinting IBIS
System Played No Role in Convicting a MurdererPhilip F. Lee, 2/15/06
On April 2, 2005 the Washington Post published a news article [1] asserted that Maryland’s ballistic fingerprinting database was successful in gaining a convictions of Robert Garner for the murder of Kelvin Braxton outside of a Popeye’s restaurant in Prince Georges County on April 23, 2004. The Post quotes PG state’s attorney Glen Ivey saying "It was powerful evidence. I hope this verdict helps our efforts to have the [ballistics identification database] continued and expanded."
This conviction came at just the right moment for stalling an attempt by the Maryland Legislature to kill the program which collects shell casings from new handguns sold in Maryland. Maryland’s program uses the Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS) to image a shell casing from each new handgun sold in Maryland and IBIS is also used for automated searching of a data base of the stored images to match shell casings left at a crime scene. It was imagined that such matches would provide investigative leads for police to find criminals.
Many reports indicate that IBIS doesn’t work, so it was surprising to hear the Ivey statement. It is worthwhile to confirm Ivey’s assertion about the usefulness of IBIS or the stored ballistic fingerprint to this case to justify future actions about Maryland’s shell casing collection process. This usefulness should be evident from the court transcripts [3] of the Garner trial. These transcripts make clear that IBIS played no role at all in solving this case or in convicting Garner of murdering Kelvin Braxton. It’s not even a close call. Police testified that IBIS was not used – rather only manual ballistic examinations were given in evidence! Dates play a important role in understanding what happened and a timeline of events is given here.
The testimony [3] reveals that witnesses observed the license of the shooter’s car as it left the scene. One witness wrote the license down to make sure it would be remembered and gave the license to the police. The car was traced to Themitha Garner who is Robert Garner’s sister. The sister testified [3] that she has lent the car to her brother, but asserted that it was stolen the day of the shooting and that she had gone to the police the next day to file a report of the theft. This theft was refuted by testimony [3] from Garner’s female companion (identified in news article [2] as Kila Robinson) that Garner was driving his car the particular day of the shooting, that Garner was at the location of the shooting with a handgun she saw in his waistband and that Garner made an incriminating utterance when driving away from Popeye’s.
The testimony [3] reveals that witnesses identified Garner’s photograph as being the shooter from an array of photographs prepared by police. And these witnesses didn’t just get a fleeting glance at the shooter; they observed him in line for chicken at the restaurant for several minutes and again during the shooting event. One even testified that she observed Garner because he was attractive.
So, the license plate on the shooter’s car leads to Garner’s sister, investigations lead to Garner and photos are presented to witnesses and they identify Garner as the shooter. Garner is arrested on May 7, 2004.
From this point, this narrative will present events chronologically according to dates given in the accounts of the testimony. To understand the significance of some of these dates and events, you need to know that the evidence technicians collect evidence under the supervision of the detectives and it is the firearms examination unit which has the expertise and the job to examine and evaluate firearms related evidence.
3/27/2004 .40 caliber Taurus, serial number SVH60174 purchased from REALCO by Michele Anderson
4/5/2004 Shell casing from Taurus PT-140, SVH60174 .40 caliber gun placed in the MSP database.
4/23/2004 Kelvin Braxton is murdered at Popeye’s; police collect bullet and fragments, shell casings and witness statements. Among these statements Cynthia Hedgepeth gives license of car used by shooter to police
4/24/2004 Evidence technician collects bullet and fragments during autopsy of Braxton.
4/24/2004 Themitha Renee Garner. (sister of defendant) and her brother report her Mazda stolen on evening of 4/23/04.
4/27/2004 Evidence technician transfers evidence shell casings, bullets and fragments to Firearms Examination Unit from Evidence Unit.
4/27/2004 PG County Police Department Firearm Examination Unit receives shell casings & 4 fired bullets and some bullet jackets.
4/30/2004 JoShaun Smith identifies photo of Garner in array as resembling the shooter
5/3/2004 Barbara McRae-Hunter identifies Garner as shooter from photo array according to lead detective Richardson
5/5/2004 Warrant issued to search Themitha Garner's residence for “Clothing, shell casings, shells, . . .” (transcript of testimony by Detective Richardson has the date as 5/5/2005 which is after the trial, so I believe he meant 5/5/2004 and just misspoke).
5/6/2004 Statement of Charges issued against Garner for murder of Braxton
5/7/2004 Garner arrested and charged with the murder of Braxton and graduates with associates degree
5/10/2004 Evidence technician transfers 6 bullets, a bullet jacket and bullet fragments to Firearm Examination Unit from Evidence Unit.
5/10/2004 PG County Police Department Firearm Examination Unit receives eight envelopes containing fired bullets and bullet fragments from this shooting.
Date not given PG County Police Department Firearm Examination Unit seals shell casing and bullet evidence and stores it at the property warehouse on Harwood Rd.
10/25/2004 Ten evidence shell casings taken from property warehouse on Harwood Rd to Maryland State Police Firearms Lab Reisterstown, Maryland for comparison with shell casing of gun purchased by Michele Garner (Anderson)
Clarence E. Fields, Laboratory Technician with the Maryland State Forensic Science Division, retrieves the shell casing of gun purchased by Michele Garner (Anderson) stored by MSP.
Torin Zachary Suber, Firearms Examiner for the Maryland State Police compares the shell casing of gun purchased by Michele Garner (Anderson) stored by MSP and retrieved by Clarence E. Fields with the evidence shell casings – specifically one of the evidence casings – manually using a comparison microscope and concludes the evidence casing and MSP stored casing are from the same gun.
12/5/2004 Michele Alethea Anderson marries Garner in jail
3/28/2005 Garner trial begins and testimony implicating Garner by his female companion for the day is published by the examiner [2].
4/1/2005 Garner trial ends with guilty verdict
4/2/2005 Washington Post article is published with Ivey’s statement
The testimony [3] and the chronology flowing from it make a few points evident. MSP firearms examiner Suber testified that the MSP stored shell casing of the firearm purchased by Michele Anderson (Garner’s soon to be wife) was matched to the crime shell casings 5 months after the shooting and 4½ months after Garner is arrested. That is, conventional police work had already led to Garner as the shooter – not IBIS. Suber testified using conventional manual ballistic comparisons of evidence casings to the MSP stored gun-sale casing using manual observation from a comparison microscope. Trial testimony reveals that IBIS was not used and the PG lead detective requested a comparison to the casing stored from the specific gun tied to Michele Anderson which was performed manually.
In the trial, Michele Anderson Garner used a spousal immunity to refuse to testify [3]. Inasmuch as she married Garner while he was in custody on 12/5/04 and that the gun she owned had been “traced” to the crime scene, you’d think that this marriage might not have been allowed. It really doesn’t take a lot of cleverness to imagine that she might have some useful testimony to offer. But the state let her gain a spousal immunity by letting her marry Garner.
Ivey makes the point that the stored shell casing from the purchased gun was important to the state’s case against Garner. So, one might argue that taking cases and storing them would be occasionally useful to police even if IBIS didn’t work for closing the loop on stupid criminals like Garner – that is, when a gun can be traced to a criminal by a conventional police investigation.
Maryland’s Automated Ballistic Fingerprinting IBIS
System Played No Role in Convicting a MurdererPhilip F. Lee, 2/15/06
On April 2, 2005 the Washington Post published a news article [1] asserted that Maryland’s ballistic fingerprinting database was successful in gaining a convictions of Robert Garner for the murder of Kelvin Braxton outside of a Popeye’s restaurant in Prince Georges County on April 23, 2004. The Post quotes PG state’s attorney Glen Ivey saying "It was powerful evidence. I hope this verdict helps our efforts to have the [ballistics identification database] continued and expanded."
This conviction came at just the right moment for stalling an attempt by the Maryland Legislature to kill the program which collects shell casings from new handguns sold in Maryland. Maryland’s program uses the Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS) to image a shell casing from each new handgun sold in Maryland and IBIS is also used for automated searching of a data base of the stored images to match shell casings left at a crime scene. It was imagined that such matches would provide investigative leads for police to find criminals.
Many reports indicate that IBIS doesn’t work, so it was surprising to hear the Ivey statement. It is worthwhile to confirm Ivey’s assertion about the usefulness of IBIS or the stored ballistic fingerprint to this case to justify future actions about Maryland’s shell casing collection process. This usefulness should be evident from the court transcripts [3] of the Garner trial. These transcripts make clear that IBIS played no role at all in solving this case or in convicting Garner of murdering Kelvin Braxton. It’s not even a close call. Police testified that IBIS was not used – rather only manual ballistic examinations were given in evidence! Dates play a important role in understanding what happened and a timeline of events is given here.
The testimony [3] reveals that witnesses observed the license of the shooter’s car as it left the scene. One witness wrote the license down to make sure it would be remembered and gave the license to the police. The car was traced to Themitha Garner who is Robert Garner’s sister. The sister testified [3] that she has lent the car to her brother, but asserted that it was stolen the day of the shooting and that she had gone to the police the next day to file a report of the theft. This theft was refuted by testimony [3] from Garner’s female companion (identified in news article [2] as Kila Robinson) that Garner was driving his car the particular day of the shooting, that Garner was at the location of the shooting with a handgun she saw in his waistband and that Garner made an incriminating utterance when driving away from Popeye’s.
The testimony [3] reveals that witnesses identified Garner’s photograph as being the shooter from an array of photographs prepared by police. And these witnesses didn’t just get a fleeting glance at the shooter; they observed him in line for chicken at the restaurant for several minutes and again during the shooting event. One even testified that she observed Garner because he was attractive.
So, the license plate on the shooter’s car leads to Garner’s sister, investigations lead to Garner and photos are presented to witnesses and they identify Garner as the shooter. Garner is arrested on May 7, 2004.
From this point, this narrative will present events chronologically according to dates given in the accounts of the testimony. To understand the significance of some of these dates and events, you need to know that the evidence technicians collect evidence under the supervision of the detectives and it is the firearms examination unit which has the expertise and the job to examine and evaluate firearms related evidence.
3/27/2004 .40 caliber Taurus, serial number SVH60174 purchased from REALCO by Michele Anderson
4/5/2004 Shell casing from Taurus PT-140, SVH60174 .40 caliber gun placed in the MSP database.
4/23/2004 Kelvin Braxton is murdered at Popeye’s; police collect bullet and fragments, shell casings and witness statements. Among these statements Cynthia Hedgepeth gives license of car used by shooter to police
4/24/2004 Evidence technician collects bullet and fragments during autopsy of Braxton.
4/24/2004 Themitha Renee Garner. (sister of defendant) and her brother report her Mazda stolen on evening of 4/23/04.
4/27/2004 Evidence technician transfers evidence shell casings, bullets and fragments to Firearms Examination Unit from Evidence Unit.
4/27/2004 PG County Police Department Firearm Examination Unit receives shell casings & 4 fired bullets and some bullet jackets.
4/30/2004 JoShaun Smith identifies photo of Garner in array as resembling the shooter
5/3/2004 Barbara McRae-Hunter identifies Garner as shooter from photo array according to lead detective Richardson
5/5/2004 Warrant issued to search Themitha Garner's residence for “Clothing, shell casings, shells, . . .” (transcript of testimony by Detective Richardson has the date as 5/5/2005 which is after the trial, so I believe he meant 5/5/2004 and just misspoke).
5/6/2004 Statement of Charges issued against Garner for murder of Braxton
5/7/2004 Garner arrested and charged with the murder of Braxton and graduates with associates degree
5/10/2004 Evidence technician transfers 6 bullets, a bullet jacket and bullet fragments to Firearm Examination Unit from Evidence Unit.
5/10/2004 PG County Police Department Firearm Examination Unit receives eight envelopes containing fired bullets and bullet fragments from this shooting.
Date not given PG County Police Department Firearm Examination Unit seals shell casing and bullet evidence and stores it at the property warehouse on Harwood Rd.
10/25/2004 Ten evidence shell casings taken from property warehouse on Harwood Rd to Maryland State Police Firearms Lab Reisterstown, Maryland for comparison with shell casing of gun purchased by Michele Garner (Anderson)
Clarence E. Fields, Laboratory Technician with the Maryland State Forensic Science Division, retrieves the shell casing of gun purchased by Michele Garner (Anderson) stored by MSP.
Torin Zachary Suber, Firearms Examiner for the Maryland State Police compares the shell casing of gun purchased by Michele Garner (Anderson) stored by MSP and retrieved by Clarence E. Fields with the evidence shell casings – specifically one of the evidence casings – manually using a comparison microscope and concludes the evidence casing and MSP stored casing are from the same gun.
12/5/2004 Michele Alethea Anderson marries Garner in jail
3/28/2005 Garner trial begins and testimony implicating Garner by his female companion for the day is published by the examiner [2].
4/1/2005 Garner trial ends with guilty verdict
4/2/2005 Washington Post article is published with Ivey’s statement
The testimony [3] and the chronology flowing from it make a few points evident. MSP firearms examiner Suber testified that the MSP stored shell casing of the firearm purchased by Michele Anderson (Garner’s soon to be wife) was matched to the crime shell casings 5 months after the shooting and 4½ months after Garner is arrested. That is, conventional police work had already led to Garner as the shooter – not IBIS. Suber testified using conventional manual ballistic comparisons of evidence casings to the MSP stored gun-sale casing using manual observation from a comparison microscope. Trial testimony reveals that IBIS was not used and the PG lead detective requested a comparison to the casing stored from the specific gun tied to Michele Anderson which was performed manually.
In the trial, Michele Anderson Garner used a spousal immunity to refuse to testify [3]. Inasmuch as she married Garner while he was in custody on 12/5/04 and that the gun she owned had been “traced” to the crime scene, you’d think that this marriage might not have been allowed. It really doesn’t take a lot of cleverness to imagine that she might have some useful testimony to offer. But the state let her gain a spousal immunity by letting her marry Garner.
Ivey makes the point that the stored shell casing from the purchased gun was important to the state’s case against Garner. So, one might argue that taking cases and storing them would be occasionally useful to police even if IBIS didn’t work for closing the loop on stupid criminals like Garner – that is, when a gun can be traced to a criminal by a conventional police investigation.
