The defense and prosecution spent Friday's court session grilling detectives and crime scene investigators about the evidence they collected the morning after Ricky Clyde Prestwood killed Travis Gilley by beating him to death with a concrete block on June 20, 2008.
The state says Prestwood, 46, murdered Gilley, 28, in cold blood.
Prestwood's attorney, Scott Reilly, admits that Prestwood killed Gilley, but says he did so in self-defense.
When Prestwood was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, he told police he hit and killed Gilley after Gilley threatened to steal his moped and came at him with a knife.
Lt. Scott Hildebrand was the sergeant overseeing the Hickory Police Department's investigations division when Prestwood killed Gilley. He went to the homeless campsite where the altercation took place the morning Prestwood was arrested.
He helped the crime scene investigators process the evidence at the site. He was there when investigators found Gilley's Kobalt brand folding box cutter knife. He said the knife was folded closed when it was found and seized as evidence.
Hildebrand said he also saw several bloody concrete blocks and block fragments that were taken into evidence.
Several crime scene photos were shown to the jury. Among them was a picture of Gilley's knife taken in the police station.
Reilly asked why there was no picture of Gilley's knife taken at the crime scene to show what condition it was in when it was found.
Hildebrand said he didn't know.
"A picture of the knife at the scene was not taken," he said. "In hindsight, it might have been helpful, but we do not have that."
Hildebrand also testified that the area around the place Gilley's body was found about 100 yards from the camp was well-guarded. Officers entering the area were required to sign their names and note the time they entered.
Similar precautions were not taken at the crime scene, though Hildebrand was at a loss to explain why.
An SBI lab technician testified that she tested several items for the presence of bodily fluid and found blood on them. She passed them along to technicians for DNA testing.
Among the items tested was Gilley's knife. No blood was found on it and it was passed along to the fingerprint lab.
DNA swabs taken from Prestwood's mouth were also sent for DNA testing.
Items testing positive for blood included:
*Swabs taken from stains on Ricky Prestwood's neck and hands
*Prestwood's shoes
*A baseball hat found at the scene
*Concrete pieces
*Green wire believed to have been used to bind Gilley's body
*Prestwood's shirt
*Eyewitness Dewey Sweet's boots
*Sweet's pants
The trial will continue at 9:30 a.m. Monday. Crime lab experts and investigators are expected to testify.
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