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Heber • In a cold-case murder trial purportedly cracked by a DNA match, attorneys told a jury Thursday that DNA testing and gathering will be a central part of the evidence.
Joseph Michael Simpson, 49, is accused of beating 17-year-old Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch to death with rocks near the Provo River in Heber in 1995. The case was cold for years, until new technology led to a 2013 DNA match to Simpson, who was charged in 4th District Court with first-degree felony aggravated murder.
During opening statements Thursday, Deputy Wasatch County Attorney McKay King told jurors that DNA testing shows Simpson had sex with the teen, who had been working as a prostitute in Salt Lake City, and that Simpson had "his hand on the rock used to crush her skull."
But defense attorney Richard Gale said that while Simpson's DNA showed he had sex with Beslanowitch, DNA from two other men also was found on the teen's body.
And on the rock used to kill Beslanowitch, Gale said, there were three DNA profiles — those of Beslanowitch, Simpson and an unknown man.
Gale said the jury will have to decide whether the DNA evidence is strong enough to link Simpson to the crime.
"There is a connection in this case to Joe," Gale told jurors. "But a connection is not enough."
Gale also noted that the crime lab compared Simpson's fingerprints to a bloody print found on Beslanowitch, but couldn't make a match.
The first witness to testify Thursday was Wesley Wilson, who was 21 years old when he spotted Beslanowitch's body on Dec. 16, 1995.
"My father and I had gone to feed the cows and we discovered a dead body," Wilson recalled, adding that he first thought it was a mannequin.
Once he came within 10 feet of the naked body, Wilson said he realized it was a person. He yelled at his father to not come any closer, he testified, and the two went home and alerted police. Wilson said neither he nor his father ever touched the body, which was found near where North River Road crossed the Provo River, about five miles north of Heber.
Beslanowitch had "an extensive amount of blood around and on her head, back and shoulders," according to court records. Nearby, several large granite rocks — believed to be the murder weapons — were covered in fresh blood.
Wasatch County Sheriff Todd Bonner testified Thursday that blood smears and stains indicated to him that the girl's body was dragged across the rocky shore.
"I stood there in disbelief for five to 10 minutes," Bonner testified of responding to the crime scene. "Thinking, 'Oh my gosh, this is real.' "
Plastic-wrapped rocks that were gathered by police 20 years ago were wheeled into the courtroom Thursday for the jurors to observe.
Bonner, who was then an officer, said the police followed all of the leads they could in 1995, but the case went cold.
But in 2008, more sensitive DNA testing became available. The granite rocks were tested, but only a partial DNA profile was found, according to court records.
A few years later, in 2011, DNA samples found on Beslanowitch's body, including sperm samples, were tested, but a match to Simpson's DNA was not returned until January 2013.
In May 2013, the rocks were re-tested using newer technology called an M-Vac — a sort of wet vacuum that can gather DNA samples — and a "major DNA profile" was returned. It matched to Simpson, according to court records.
Simpson was arrested in Florida in 2013 after Wasatch County investigators flew there, got his DNA from a discarded cigarette and matched it to the evidence again. His trial is expected to last until late October.
Prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty for Simpson, so the maximum penalty he could face if convicted is life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Simpson used to live in Utah, and this is the second time he has been accused of killing someone. He pleaded guilty to second-degree felony murder in 1987 after he stabbed a man 13 times — a crime he said he committed in self-defense. He was released eight years later, in April 1995. He was returned to prison briefly in 1997 for a parole violation and was on supervised parole until June 2003.
Beslanowitch was last seen on Dec. 15, 1995, by her boyfriend, when she left their North Temple motel to get a bite to eat at a nearby convenience store. When she did not return, the boyfriend called police.