The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE attorney defending Prince Hepburn posed questions about the way in which DNA evidence was handled by police in the Nellie Mae Brown-Cox murder case.

As the case continued yesterday, a local forensic examiner testified that blood and other samples were collected from the suspect and victim, and sent abroad for DNA profiling analysis.

Cpl Ruthmae Brown of the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s Forensic Lab told the court that on July 21, 2011, a number of samples collected from both Prince Hepburn and Nellie Mae Brown-Cox were handed over to another officer to be sent to the Fairfax Identity Laboratory  in Richmond, Virginia.

However, she admitted under cross-examination by Murrio Ducille that her handing the samples over to a colleague before they were sent off was not mentioned in her initial police report.

And, she agreed with his assertion that the DNA results came back to the lab in November 2011, yet her initial report in connection with samples – prepared prior to this – was not printed until July 2012.

It is claimed that on April 6 or 7, 2011, Hepburn caused the death of Brown-Cox, the 42-year-old former president of the Bahamas Heart Association.

Hepburn and Brown-Cox were involved in an extramarital affair, though both had tried to divorce their spouses to be together.

Brown-Cox was found dead in the kitchen of an apartment on Bougainvillea Blvd, South Beach, with multiple stab wounds.

Hepburn, her partner at the time, was charged in connection with her death six days later when he was arraigned in the Magistrate’s Court.

Since his arraignment in the Supreme Court, Hepburn has denied the murder charge.

In yesterday’s proceedings, the woman corporal told the court of her involvement in the case when questioned by public prosecution’s deputy director Franklyn Williams.

Cpl Brown said that she received from Constable Nathan Dorsett, “on May 10, 2011” a suspect evidence collection kit containing a number of toxicological samples taken from Hepburn for examination.

The items that were contained in either a sealed plastic bag or cardboard box included fingernail scrapings, pubic hair, head hair, saliva, seminal material and blood.

She testified that she received items from Corporal Cyprian Collie on June 27, 2011 that contained biological samples (spleen) taken from Brown-Cox.

When asked by the prosecutor what, if anything, happened to the samples, the forensic examiner said that after examining the items, and preparing a report based on the examine, she handed over samples that were to be sent to Fairfax Identity Laboratory to a fellow officer.

Brown said the samples sent off included Brown-Cox’s spleen, Hepburn’s blood, seminal material, blood swabbed off the cutlasses found at the murder scene, and cuttings from the pillow covering Brown-Cox’s private parts.

In cross-examination, Mr Ducille asked the officer if her report was dated July 31, 2013. Cpl Brown replied that it was.

Mr Ducille asked the officer if her report contained any note of her handing a report to a Corporal King before the items were sent off.

“It is not,” Brown answered.

“Wouldn’t you agree that your report was prepared after you received a report from a DNA analysis?” the attorney asked.

“It was printed after receiving the DNA analyst report,” Brown responded.

Mr Ducille asked her when it was printed and she answered “July 31, 2012”, adding that the DNA report came in November 30, 2011, seven months before her report was printed.

The trial resumes today before Justice Indra Charles.