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Michael Blagg's defense points out math error in effort to prove he didn't kill his wife

Just how dense is trash in a landfill, exactly?
Credit: Courtesy Mesa County Sheriff's Office
A recent mugshot of Michael Blagg.

JEFFERSON COUNTY - Just a matter of feet could be the difference between proving the body of Jennifer Blagg was found in a plume of trash from her husband’s office … or that she had been dumped in the Mesa County landfill some other way on an entirely different day than what the prosecution’s alleging.

Public Defender Scott Troxell tried to prove that it was the latter scenario on Tuesday afternoon as he continued his hours-long cross examination of Mesa County Surveyor Frank Kochevar, who first took the stand on Monday to show the jury how investigators narrowed down which part of the Mesa County landfill to excavate during the spring and summer of 2002.

The green punch outs that came from Ametek Dixson are small, but they’re a big part of the prosecution’s case against Michael Blagg.

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MONDAY RECAP | How searchers found Jennifer Blagg’s body in the Mesa County landfill

The now-55-year-old is standing trial for the second time for the murder of his wife Jennifer Blagg — this time in Jefferson County, where the case was moved because of its notoriety on the Western Slope. Michael Blagg was found guilty of killing his wife in 2004, but that conviction was thrown out after a juror was caught lying on her questionnaire about being the victim of domestic violence.

Prosecutors say during the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2001, Michael Blagg shot his 34-year-old wife in the face while she was sleeping, wrapped her body in a tent, took it out to the family minivan and then threw her into the dumpster at Ametek Dixson, where he was the operations director.

Michael Blagg’s public defenders claim this wasn’t the case, that instead a child predator broke into the house, killed Jennifer Blagg and kidnapped her daughter Abby. The 6-year-old has not been found to this day — but investigators did find the body of her mom in the Mesa County landfill on June 4, 2002, on the 17th day of their search during a summer that was one of the hottest in recent memory.

PREVIOUS STORY | Michael Blagg joked about being single after wife, daughter's disappearance

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PREVIOUS STORY | Murder trial focuses on Michael Blagg's demeanor

Jennifer Blagg’s dismembered leg was found the next day a few feet away from the rest of her body.

Kochevar plotted the GPS coordinates of evidence found during the at-times gruesome search where investigators had to rake through human excrement, hundreds of Home Depot flyers, medical waste and animal carcasses for the tiny, distinct green punch outs that were thrown away by Ametek Dixson.

Investigators used these punch outs — which Kochevar says formed a pattern — to guide their search of an area that accounted for just three-tenths of one percent of the Mesa County landfill.

But Troxell claims what Kochevar admitted in an email to him was a “major flaw” in a mathematical calculation about the density of the trash in the landfill is proof that Mesa County officials tailored their data to meet their predetermined conclusion: that Michael Blagg was guilty.

Troxell says those green punch outs from Ametek Dixon were not as close to Jennifer Blagg’s body as prosecutors claim, and that Kochevar’s data indicates they likely could have been dumped into the landfill on a different day entirely.

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The crux of his argument comes down to the density of the trash in the landfill. This was only measured once a year, the prosecution was quick to point out, but is a vital clue to when waste could have been placed in a specific area.

Most of the green punch outs were near the bottom of the space investigators were searching, Troxell argued.

Jennifer Blagg’s body was 4.3 feet from the bottom — and her leg was 9.8 feet away, Kochevar testified. He calculated that the density of each day of trash was around 2.88 to 3.4 feet, a number that was different from a calculation he initially gave Troxell in an email earlier this year.

Nevertheless, he says he used a simulation software to indicate that the trash from Ametek Dixson formed what he likened to a “vein” and that Jennifer Blagg’s body and leg fit in that curve when they were plotted in a 3D map of the landfill.

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During redirect examination, Kochevar told the prosecution that there were four to five items from Ametek Dixon within two to three feet vertically from Jennifer Blagg’s body, something within the density of trash deposited on a given day.

A newspaper dated Nov. 13, 2001, was found near Jennifer Blagg’s body, but so were newspapers from other days that November.

Kochevar says he used those newspapers and the Ametek Dixson trash to help direct the search area.

He also told prosecutors that no, he didn’t use his conclusion to direct his data — he’s a scientist, it was the other way around.

Kochevar wasn’t the only person who gathered extensive data related to the Michael Blagg case to take the witness stand on Tuesday afternoon.

Darren Jewkes is an expert in latent fingerprint analysis, and he went to the Blagg’s two-story home just outside of Grand Junction on Nov. 15, 2001 to help gather evidence for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

He took fingerprints from all over the house, most notably the family’s minivan, the nightstand in the master bedroom and the back door.

CBI did not have fingerprints from Jennifer or Abby Blagg. They did have prints from all 10 of Michael Blagg’s fingers, but not his hands.

Since it was his house, Michael Blagg’s fingerprints were all over place. They were all over the minivan and the back door, as well as in the bedroom and bathrooms.

Sixty two fingerprints were taken from the Blagg home. Many could be identified as Michael Blagg’s. Some of them were impossible to analyze. And a few of those were unidentified, but Jewkes said they could belong to Michael Blagg, or Abby or Jennifer or a stranger.

It was also virtually impossible to tell how long the fingerprints had been there. The defense showed photos of the jewelry box that had been knocked over in the Blagg’s master bedroom and the nightstand right next to their mattress, which was splattered with blood. Fingerprints collected in both of these locations were unidentified … but as the prosecution said, they could belong to Michael Blagg, or Abby or Jennifer or a stranger.

The Blagg home in Mesa County near Grand Junction.

Jewkes was also asked to analyze some beads found in the Blagg home and compare them to a bracelet found in the street near their house. He says it was clear to him that they weren’t the same type.

His testimony then took a grisly turn.

In July 2002, after Jennifer Blagg’s body was found in the landfill, he received her frozen and decomposed hands. He was supposed to try and get fingerprints from them.

“As you can imagine, human remains left for months in a landfill in Grand Junction for multiple months are going to be very dry,” Jewkes said.

So, he tried to moisturize her hands by first dipping them in ink and later soaking them in photo development liquid and water with detergent. He then applied Vaseline and powder, and and at one point even injected a substance into the fingers that morticians use to plump up dead tissue.

Credit: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Colorado has 65 missing & exploited children. Anyone with information should call 911 or 1-800-843-5678

Still, nothing he could use.

The jury looked at large photos of the slain mother’s hands on the large video screen at the front of the courtroom.

“There was little to work with,” Jewkes said. “I was relatively unsuccessful.”

As of around 5 p.m. Tuesday, Michael Blagg’s second trial was two weeks behind schedule. The prosecution says they expect to finish with testimony on March 23, but that could spill over to March 26.

The defense says it could use up to 14 days for testimony.

Testimony in the Michael Blagg trial will continue on Wednesday morning. 9NEWS is in the courtroom and will post updates to 9NEWS.com during the lunch break and at the end of the day.

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