ME testifies woman died from beating

PALMER — According to the State Medical Examiner, Stacey Johnston died from injuries received in a beating.

Johnston’s boyfriend, Frank Adams, 47, is on trial now, accused of her murder. Johnston’s body was found in the back of Adams’ hatchback when he was pulled over for drunken driving in July 2007. His trial is expected to last three weeks or more.

On Tuesday, Robert Whitmore with the medical examiner’s office presented the findings of then-medical examiner Franc Falico.

The death was ruled a homicide, Whitmore said, caused by, “multiple blunt-force impact injuries due to beating.”

More specifically, Whitmore said the cause of death included two main factors — injuries to the brain and injuries to the heart.

He also said that Falico listed a third factor that played a smaller role in the death — drugs and alcohol in her blood.

Defense attorney Scott Sterling spent the bulk of his time talking to Whitmore discussing that third factor and teasing out exactly what that meant.

He pointed out that the toxicology report listed four chemicals in Johnston’s system — alcohol, Benadryl, antidepressants and aspirin.

He also pointed out that the autopsy began slightly more than two days after Johnston was brought to the medical examiner’s office. He asked what would happen to concentrations of those drugs over that time.

The answer was unclear.

Whitmore said the Benadryl would tend to migrate into blood pooled in the heart and the alcohol would remain in largely the same concentrations and locations as at the time of death. He conceded that blood tests were not done on blood taken from other parts of Johnston’s body.

As for the antidepressants — “I’m not familiar with the post mortem redistribution capabilities of (anti-depressants).”

Whitmore, under questioning from Sterling, said the combination of alcohol and Benadryl could have slowed Johnson’s breathing to the point at which it stopped. When breathing stops, minutes later the heart does, too.

“If the heart stops, what is that?” Sterling asked.

“The person’s dead,” Whitmore said, after which Sterling briefly broke off questioning, letting the words hang in the air.

Assistant District Attorney Rachel Gernat spent her time interviewing Whitmore focusing on what the medical examiner said was the main cause of death — the blunt-force injuries.

And they were extensive.

Multiple autopsy photos, which Gernat took pains to show as briefly as possible to the jury, showed bruising up and down Johnston’s body.

Her face, in particular, was a mass of puffy, swollen flesh. Whitmore described the injury as “subscalpular” meaning it was underneath Johnston’s scalp.

“We don’t usually see subscalpular hemorrhages that cover the whole head. That’s a lot of bleeding,” he said.

He also pointed out injuries that seemed to consist of two parallel lines. Those, he said, are classically associated with beatings from sticks, bars or other long instruments.

In opening statements, Assistant District Attorney Alison Collins said Adams used the handle of a splitting maul to beat Johnston.

Whitmore also pointed out large, dark bruises to Johnston’s hands and arms.

Those, he said, are commonly called defensive wounds, caused by, “raising the back of the forearm up to cover the face because they don’t want to get hit in the face.”