The animal cruelty trial for the twin teens accused of setting fire to a pit bull stretched into its fourth day Wednesday as prosecutors tried to show that inconclusive lab tests on a dog collar did not rule out the use of flammable substances.
Lawyers for the suspects Travers and Tremayne Johnson called a fire investigations expert to cast doubt on Baltimore police lab tests that showed unknown substances on the collar. The tests did not reveal the use of common "ignitable liquids," such as gasoline or propane.
However, during a cross-examination, prosecutor Jennifer Rallo argued that the test results did not rule out all substances that could have started the blaze, such as turpentine.
"You can tell this is not an ignitable substance?" Rallo asked expert Craig Beyler during cross-examination.
Beyler responded that "we cannot determine" if it is, saying that only "unknown miscellaneous substances" were detected.
During his testimony, Beyler said fire investigators should have used samples from not only the dog collar, but also the sweater a city police officer threw onto the dog to douse the flames and the towel that the dog had been wrapped in. Only the collar and clothes of the brothers were tested.
A police lab analyst testified that she found a mixture of flammable substances on two pairs of jeans and sneakers seized from the 19-year-olds' home, but defense lawyers pointed out that the materials could have been household items such as glue or bug spray.
The analyst said the items were probably contaminated because they were improperly stored by police.
As testimony stretched on, some jurors appeared to lose focus.
One woman seemed to sleep Wednesday morning, her head nodding, while a second woman closed her eyes for minutes at a time and several others yawned or rested their heads in their hands.
The jury listened to a largely inaudible tape of a statement Travers Johnson gave Baltimore police June 5, 2009, more than a week after Phoenix was set on fire.
During the interview, Johnson said he was not outside on the day the dog was attacked or even in the area, because he was in a community detention program for a previous incident that kept him from leaving his father's house in the first block of S. Pulaski St.
He refused to answer any more questions after the detective suggested that there might be video footage of Travers Johnson and his brother on the street with the dog, however.
"I don't want, I don't want [to] answer no more questions," reads a transcript of the interview.
A police surveillance camera recorded several males handling Phoenix shortly before the May 27, 2009, crime, which occurred near Presbury and North Gilmor streets in West Baltimore. Two of the males were identified as the Johnsons by police and one witness.
A representative from the state's Juvenile Justice Center testified Wednesday morning that Travers was not on community detention during the month of May.