WACO, Texas — On day three of the trial for Christopher Weiss, who stands accused of killing his girlfriend and her daughter, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Waco Police crime scene examiners laid out their initial analysis of the double-homicide scene.
Allison Zohn, a forensic scientist with DPS, said her office examined all finger prints and residue from the five "projectiles" fired into Valarie Martinez' car that killed her and her young daughter, Azariah.
Zohn said several parts of the DNA swabbed from the car only belonged to Martinez and her daughter. However, in some cases Weiss was "not excluded as a contributor" to the scene. A detail that came to light after investigators swabbed the steering wheel of the vehicle, meaning that his DNA was found along with the DNA of several other people who were not present on the day of the murder, so it could not be ruled out that he was never in the car.
Zohn said no "interpretable" DNA profile was able to be taken from the bullets fired into the backseat that killed Azariah Martinez.
DNA evidence was also swabbed from the loose cigarette butts that were found outside of the car on the day following the 2017 shooting that they determined to be from Valarie Martinez.
Another investigator with the McLennan County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) said he collected Valarie's cellphone and received a photograph of Weiss and helped to secure Weiss' vehicle on Nov. 7 while driving in Temple to arrest him. He testified that there were shooting targets and loose bullets around Weiss' property when it was searched.
Detective Dustin Losak with the MCSO was involved with the initial investigation as he broke down an analysis of Weiss' Facebook page and messages between Weiss and Martinez. The day before the murder on Nov. 4, it was shown that Weiss asked Martinez "where she was at." To which she responded "China Springs" and told him she'd be back by 10 p.m. that evening.
In messages that were also displayed to the court, a conversation following the murder, Valarezy Guerrero asked Weiss why he committed the murder of his wife and child. To which he responded, "I made a mistake and hurt people I didn't want to."
The prosecution also dove into Weiss' cell phone internet search history, which he deleted before being arrested. Several deleted searches included "boiling potatoes in rubbing alcohol", "how to make rotten meat poison", "how to make deadly poisons at home" and how to extract cyanide from apricot seeds."
But seemingly damming video evidence from Watkins Automotive security camera footage in the early morning of Nov. 5 of 2017 shows two different cars making their way out to Tradinghouse Lake Park around 12:50 a.m. Martinez appeared to be following in her car with baby Azariah, behind Weiss' truck. Around 1:27 a.m., only Weiss' pickup truck returns from the scene as it passed by the camera again. Losak estimated the three were at the park for a total of 23 minutes.
Jake Burson with the Texas Rangers assisted the MCSO in their investigation of the crime scene following the double murder, taking photographs, examining the bodies and performed the DNA swabs of the door handle.
In interrogation footage shown to the court on Nov. 7 after an arrest warrant for Weiss was executed, Weiss spoke willingly to investigators without a lawyer present. He told them the gun was stolen from his truck and denied ever being at Trading House Lake, telling them he only met with Valarie at her residence.
At one point during his interrogation video, Burson pointed out that Weiss skipped over his entire story of accompanying Valarie and Azariah to the lake. Telling Weiss they verified that Valarie Martinez told two different sources she was accompanying Weiss out to the lake.
Adding in the video that his guilt appeared imminent based on "all the lies that were proven to be lies" and accusing him of "brushing over" the part of his story where they were killed.
In seemingly an admission, Weis said during his interrogation "you've got enough circumstantial evidence to find me guilty. No jury would find me innocent for all of this. Either way, I'm going down for it."
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