Testimony: Joseph borrowed gun from friend before slayings

George Joseph borrowed a gun from a friend after telling him Keith Monia had been making threatening phone calls, according to testimony Tuesday, the second day of Joseph's trial on charges he murdered his wife, Mary, and 18-year-old son, Matthew.

Mary Joseph's brother, Steven Griffith, described George Joseph as "secretive" but said he trusted him and invested about $200,000 in retirement savings with him.

Assistant prosecuting attorney Angel Woodruff asked Griffith whether he was aware of George Joseph's financial problems.

Griffith replied when he first invested, he was receiving a check about once a month.

"But over a period of time, I'd start getting a check that was 'account closed' at the bank," he said, or checks returned for insufficient funds.

This undated handout photo provided by the Waller County Sheriff's Office shows Sandra Bland. The Texas Rangers are investigating the circumstances surrounding Bland's death Monday, July 13, 2015 in a Waller County jail cell in Hempstead, Texas. The Harris County medical examiner has classified her death as suicide by hanging. She had been arrested Friday in Waller County on a charge of assaulting a public servant. (Waller County Sheriff's Office, via AP)

He said he was aware George Joseph had health problems or had to travel occasionally.

"We were supposed to have a contingency plan in place. ... That didn't happen," he said.

Griffith said he had spoken briefly with George Joseph about his dealings with Monia, who is charged with several counts of financial exploitation of the elderly, and the FBI investigation of Monia's financial activity. He testified Joseph had told him Monia had made an investment with him, which he refunded, satisfying the FBI.

Griffith said Joseph contacted him "out of the blue" in April 2013 about borrowing a gun. He said Joseph claimed to be "under duress" and was receiving threatening calls from Monia. Griffith said George Joseph told him he wanted the gun to protect himself and his family.

Griffith said he encouraged Joseph to contact the police if he was feeling threatened, but Joseph persisted.

"He needed something in case they couldn't respond in time," Griffith said.

Griffith said he ended up loaning Joseph a .45/.410 Taurus revolver, which was found at the home the day of the shootings, although he said Joseph was "adamant" about wanting a .22 semiautomatic.

A question from defense attorney Cynthia Dryden about whether Griffith was aware Monia had been trying to "frame" George Joseph raised an immediate objection from Woodruff.

The attorneys approached the bench to speak with Judge Benjamin Lewis, who sustained the objection and ordered the jury to disregard the question.

The .22 found in the Josephs' pool came from Douglas Seabaugh, he testified Tuesday.

Seabaugh, an investor with and friend of George Joseph, said Joseph asked to borrow a gun so he could take Matthew Joseph target shooting.

Seabaugh said they discussed a 9 mm, but he gave George Joseph the .22, which he had bought from Joseph several years before, because the ammunition was less expensive.

David Warren is a latent fingerprint examiner with the Missouri State Highway Patrol and is an instructor at the Southeast Missouri State University police academy. He said when he arrived on the scene the morning of the slayings May 30, 2013, he was surprised to see the .22 still was in the pool because he knew it would jeopardize potential fingerprints on the weapon.

After the gun was retrieved, he did a visual exam and saw one possible print on the silver gun. He showed Cape Girardeau Police detective Jeff Bonham how to use a small-particle reagent to find latent prints.

Warren testified he found one print, but he had to allow the gun to dry to continue the fingerprint investigation.

He said he told Bonham to let it air dry, put it in a gun box and get it to him as soon as possible -- "essentially breaking policy" for firearms testing.

For firearms experts to complete their analysis of a gun that has been submerged, it has to be kept in the same type of water it was retrieved.

Warren testified he wasn't sure whether he had stressed to Bonham why it was important to get the gun to him as soon as possible.

Because of the deteriorated condition of the weapon by the time it arrived at the highway patrol crime lab in Springfield, no individual characteristics remained that would have allowed that weapon to be matched with the spent casings and bullets found at the scene, said Darian Stinson, who works in the lab's firearm and toolmark section.

Stinson testified she was able to determine all the spent casings had come from the same gun -- a .22 Jennings like the one found in the swimming pool.

"I believe that to be due to the rust that had formed ... " she said.

The state also called experts in DNA and blood spatter.

Kevin Winer, an expert in blood spatters from the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department crime lab, provided an analysis of the bloodstains found in the pool house, where George Joseph was found the morning of May 30, 2013.

He testified the patterns of the blood could have been made by a person bleeding from an artery, from a large volume of blood pouring or spilling or from being vomited. He said no forward spatter was possible, due to there being no exit wound because the bullet lodged at the back of George Joseph's neck, and no backspatter could be accounted for.

"In my opinion, he was in the pool when this pattern was created," Winer said.

Kristina Mill, DNA criminalist with the Missouri State Highway Patrol crime lab in Cape Girardeau, described the process of collecting and testing DNA.

She said testing blood samples taken from the shirt George Joseph wore the morning of the killings revealed the blood to be his own.

Bonham had circled 12 areas for possible testing on the shirt, Mill said. She tested three.

Mill said it was possible swimming pool chemicals could have diluted the blood on the shirt.

Dryden asked Mill whether the spots Bonham had circled looked more like drops of blood compared with the rest of the shirt's streaky or smeared appearance.

"I'm not a blood-spatter expert, but they appear different than the rest of the shirt," Mill said.

Also giving short testimony Tuesday were Cape Girardeau Police officers Matt Peters and Cody Farrow, who helped process the scene; forensic pathologist Dr. Russell Deidiker; and Scott Workman, who works in trace evidence with the Missouri State Highway Patrol crime lab in Springfield.

The trial will continue Wednesday in Jackson.

kwebster@semissourian.com

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