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Provo • On the sixth day of testimony in Conrad Truman's murder trial, evidence centered around the forensic testing that took place after the man's wife was shot and killed in their Orem home in September 2012.
Doug Squire, a forensic investigator with the Utah County Attorney's Office, took the stand Thursday morning and testified about the blood spatter found in the Truman home, and fielded questions from attorneys about gunshot residue testing.
After Heidy Truman was shot inside the home, her husband went to her side, attempted CPR and called 911, according to previous testimony. Because of this, Conrad Truman had blood on him when police arrived.
Squire said Conrad Truman had blood on his hands that he considered "transfer" and not "spatter," meaning that the smeared blood came from touching his wife after she was shot, and not necessarily from blow-back from being near her when the gun was fired.
The husband did not have blood spatter on his pants, Squire testified, but did have spatter on his shirt — which could have come from Heidy Truman coughing up blood.
Squire also testified that the couple's hands were not tested for gunpowder residue. He said this testing would not have definitively shown who shot that gun that night, and would have likely showed results if someone had shot a gun even days before the incident.
Conrad Truman, 32, was charged on July 19, 2013 with first-degree felony murder and second-degree felony obstructing justice for allegedly fatally shooting his 25-year-old wife the night of Sept. 30, 2012.
His motive, prosecutors have claimed, was to collect nearly a million dollars in life insurance benefits. But Conrad Truman told police during the recorded interview that "he had nothing to gain from a dead wife."
Police began to suspect Conrad Truman of murder when he told conflicting stories about her death and even threatened the life of a responding police officer.
After Heidy Truman was shot, police found blood everywhere — in the kitchen where Heidy Truman's naked body lay, in the front entry, the living room, a bedroom, a bathroom and on Truman himself.
Conrad Truman told investigators that he was in another room when his wife was shot. The two had bickered that night, and she went into the bathroom to take a shower, he allegedly told police. He said that she finished showering about 20 minutes later, while he was watching TV in the living room.
That's when Truman told police he heard a pop and saw his wife collapse and begin to bleed from her head.
Orem police Detective Tom Wallace testified last year that the shot that killed Heidy Truman came from Conrad Truman's gun.
However, the state crime lab could not identify any definitive fingerprints on the gun, according to Wallace.
Trial testimony is scheduled to resume Friday.
Twitter: @jm_miller