Defense takes over during sixth day of trial in 1984 Eleanore Roberts homicide
WISCONSIN RAPIDS − A defense witness testified Monday that a man's palm prints could have been left in the bathroom of a 73-year-old Saratoga woman's home three months before she was killed there.
The testimony was among the first chance for John A. Sarver's attorneys to challenge evidence presented last week at the start of his two-week trial in a homicide that happened 38 years ago. Prosecutors finished their case Monday in the trial of the 59-year-old Sarver, who is charged with murdering Eleanore Roberts in her Saratoga home on Nov. 26, 1984.
The trial, which is scheduled to last through this week, began Oct. 24 in the Wood County Courthouse in Wisconsin Rapids.
Sarver's attorneys began with the defense portion of the trial Monday afternoon, after prosecutors presented testimony from a lead investigator in Roberts' death.
More:Jurors learn about finger and palm prints during fifth day of 1984 murder trial
More:Witness testifies to being with defendant at murder victim's home the night of her death
Special Agent Andrew Simon, of the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, worked for the Wood County Sheriff's Office from 2004 until he joined the state agency in 2020. He said he took over as the lead investigator on the Roberts case in 2017 when former Wood County Investigator Jay Shroda left the department. Simon continued to work on the case in his position as a special agent in the Division of Criminal Investigation.
Roberts son, Marshall, found her dead in her home Nov. 27, 1984. Roberts had been hit over the head several times and stabbed more than 20 times with a scissors.
Simon talked about interviewing a witness who testified last Thursday about being with Sarver and another man at Roberts' house the night she was killed. The Daily Tribune is not naming the witness due to safety concerns.
The man at first said he wasn't sure if his memories about that night were true or dreams, but investigators worked with him to ensure the information they were getting was accurate, Simon said. They were careful about what they told him and, when he asked questions about details of the murder, they would ask him what he remembered about it himself.
The man described what he called a breezeway he walked through to get into Roberts' house, so Simon showed the witness a picture of the house. Simon said the breezeway sounded like the hallway that ran the length of the back of the house and had doors going outside, into the garage and into the kitchen area of the house.
Simon said the witness at first denied going into the house, but then said he had gone in after Simon asked him if he would give fingerprint and DNA samples. Simon said he collected the samples from the witness.
The man didn't have clear memories of what happened that night because of the amount of time that has gone by and because he drank a lot of alcohol that night, Simon said.
Witness might be barred from testifying for following trial news
When the prosecutors rested their case, they asked Wood County Circuit Judge Nicholas Brazeau Jr. for a hearing outside the jury. Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Nathaniel Adamson said he had received information from the Wood County Jail that Lisa Sarver, the defendant's wife, had been reading newspaper accounts of the trial. Lisa Sarver was a sequestered witness and was ordered not to read or listen to news accounts of the trial.
Adamson said there were recordings of the conversations between Lisa and John Sarver and they needed to verify Lisa Sarver had been reading the news accounts. Brazeau said, if they had proof, Lisa Sarver could not testify. She was in court Monday afternoon and did not take the stand.
Katherine Bright-Birnbaum, owner of Desert Forensics in Arizona, took the stand for the defense Monday as an expert in finger, palm and footprints.
Bright-Birnbaum agreed that John Sarver's palm print matched prints found in the sink of Roberts' bathroom sink the day after Roberts' body was found. However, she said it is possible the print had been there for an extended period of time.
Sarver had told investigators he might have washed his hands in the bathroom after fixing Roberts' lawnmower. Sarver worked at a business that had sold the mower to Roberts, and he was the employee who repaired it. The oil on his hands could have allowed the prints to survive on the sink from August until they were found Nov. 28, Bright-Birnbaum said.
Several witnesses previously reported that Roberts was a meticulous housekeeper and her home was extremely clean. Roberts' son, Lon, said he had spent several days at his mother's house during deer hunting the previous week and had wiped out the sink after shaving each day to get rid of his facial hair.
Bright-Birnbaum said whether the print would survive the cleaning would depend on things like what type of cleaner was used, how much pressure was used when wiping the sink and how thoroughly the sink was cleaned.
Bright-Birnbaum also commented on two articles written about prints that had survived being underwater and being out in weather. She again emphasized a lot of factors go into how long a print will last and whether it would survive cleaning.
The defense is expected to continue on Tuesday.
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This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: Eleanore Roberts 1984 homicide trial turns to defense, prints challenged
