Behind the Scenes of an Investigation
Murder is often described as the “ultimate crime.” The fear of meeting death at the hands of another is as primal as is the fear of fire or drowning. Murder investigations are the most complex, sensitive and labor intensive investigations conducted by any law enforcement agency. No other type of case generates the same amount of public interest, has the same propensity to dominate the news media, or can propel once anonymous people to the national spotlight. Likewise, sensational murders can subject the investigating law enforcement agency to the intensive scrutiny of the lengthy judicial process, media analysts, and public opinion.
Each year hundreds of fiction and non-fiction books are published about murderers, their victims and the investigations that seek to bring them to justice. Scores of motion pictures and television programs dramatize the dynamics of murder investigations, court cases, and incarceration. In many cases, these programs, motion pictures and books are wildly inaccurate, and promote entertainment value over fact.
Police Chief Rob Davis is offering visitors to this website a glimpse inside the world of a murder investigation. With approximately one million residents in the City of San Jose, citizens will be touched, in some way, by a murder investigation. If you have ever known a murder victim, or have been a witness to a murder, or have been contacted by detectives seeking leads, or have been delayed on the freeway due to “police activity,” your life may have been touched by an act of violence.
As part of this website, Chief Davis will permit you to look on the other side of the yellow crime scene tape by walking you through a simulated homicide investigation.
The Initial Report Most murders are reported to law enforcement by ordinary people who have had little, if any, prior contact with law enforcement. Should you become involved in a murder investigation, the following narrative will tell you what to expect.
Most people contact law enforcement by telephone. Depending on the agency involved, the call may be answered by a sworn peace officer or a civilian employee. In San Jose, the call is handled by a highly trained civilian call taker or dispatcher. Although the caller may be frightened or emotional, the officer or call taker processing the call will attempt to obtain a great deal of information from the caller.
It is common for citizens reporting an emergency by telephone to become frustrated or angry at the many questions asked of them, but call takers have been trained to elicit detailed information that will maximize public and officer safety as officers respond to the scene. Emergency first aide directions will be provided, if necessary. In some instances, several calls involving the same incident will be received by the law enforcement agency at the same time, and the telephone lines may temporarily be tied up.
Every caller will be asked to provide their name, address and telephone number. If the caller has information regarding a suspect or vehicle description, or the perpetrator’s direction of travel, the call taker will insure that the information is transmitted to responding units while the caller remains on the telephone. This can be instrumental in the safe apprehension of the offender. In larger agencies, such as the San Jose Police Department, the call taker may not recognize local landmarks such as “...the drug store on Main Street,” and so persons reporting crimes should strive to provide an exact address of the incident.
It is important to remember that “911” calls made from regular (hard-wire) telephones, as well as cellular phones in San Jose, will be routed to the Police Department’s Communication Center. If you find yourself in the position of having to notify law enforcement of any emergency, please bear in mind that the information you will be providing is vital to the immediate response and subsequent investigation.
The Uniformed Response The police officers on patrol in the City of San Jose are, by definition, “first responders” to any emergency situation, including the report of a murder. Their responsibilities are many, and in almost every case they will be called upon to make decisions in a matter of seconds that the courts may take years to review and reconcile.
When a murder is reported, several police units and a sergeant will be dispatched. The officers will have a great deal to consider as they drive to the scene. In addition to assessing the information provided by the caller, they will be coordinating their response “tactically” to insure that they will be in a position to respond to any eventuality. In many cases, killers have remained at the scene, and have either barricaded themselves in a residence or business, or have attempted to blend in with the crowd.
When officers arrive on scene, several actions will take place simultaneously. One or more officers will examine the victim to determine if he/she exhibits any sign of life. The preservation of life takes precedence over all other activities, and every effort will be made, with the assistance of medical personnel, to evacuate any victim who exhibits a heartbeat, pulse or respiration.
Other officers will establish a “perimeter” which may involve the blocking of streets, removal of non-law enforcement personnel from the scene, and stringing yellow crime scene tape in such a way to protect any evidence which may be present. This activity very often is misunderstood by the public, who may find themselves unable to leave their homes, drive their automobiles into their garages, or experience similar inconveniences; sometimes for a period of several hours. In extreme circumstances, a crime scene can be maintained for several days.
Citizens who find themselves separated from their homes, or who are unable to move their automobiles, are encouraged to contact one of the uniformed personnel present who may be able to explain the circumstances and lend assistance if possible. Law enforcement personnel will arrange to escort residents in or out of their homes, or permit vehicles to be moved, as soon as such movement can be accomplished without compromising the investigation.
The officers establishing the perimeter take no joy in inconveniencing the public, but they have a vital job to perform in protecting the crime scene. Every person who enters or leaves a crime scene changes that scene in some way, often unwittingly, and that presents a major risk to the integrity of the investigation. Every law enforcement officer or medical personnel who has entered or left the scene must account for his/her reason for being there, and must report their observations and activities. It is not unusual for emergency services personnel who have been at a murder scene to be compelled to provide fingerprints or samples of their DNA for elimination purposes.
Law enforcement officers and fire department personnel who respond to the scene of a murder in which the victim's body is found outdoors are discouraged from covering the body with any object, including a blanket or sheet. Although this sometimes results in criticism by the public, there is a sound reason for not doing so. The placement of a sheet or other object over the victim can destroy “trace evidence.” Later in court, such a placement will provide a defense attorney the opportunity to assert that the trace evidence in fact came from the sheet or blanket, not from the killer.
Police officers are aware of the anguish that is experienced by the family and friends of a murder victim whose body remains uncovered. Some agencies have developed “body shields,” which can be erected to mask the victim from public view.
Once the crime scene has been properly secured, officers will seek out members of the public who may have witnessed all or part of the incident. People remaining at the scene will be contacted, and a canvass of surrounding residences and businesses will be conducted.
The fact of the matter is, when the murder case comes to trial in 2-3 years, no defense attorney, no judge, and no jury will accept the explanation of, “We wanted to clear the crime scene” as a reason for a superficial and hurried investigation. Certainly, no victim's family wants to hear that the killer was acquitted because, in their haste to clear the crime scene, law enforcement investigators missed or improperly collected vital evidence.
Uniformed patrol officers play a vital role in the investigation of a murder. Only they can provide detectives with information relating to what occurred at the scene between the time of the initial report and arrival of investigators. Very often it is patrol officers, acting on information from witnesses, who locate, identify and apprehend the killer.
Once the uniformed officers suspect that a murder has been committed, they will continue to contain the crime scene and request that Homicide investigators be dispatched to the scene. While the process for notifying detectives (the terms “investigator” and “detective” are synonymous) differs from agency to agency, there are many areas of commonality.
Most law enforcement agencies staff a detective unit, and the number of detectives assigned to that unit generally reflects the overall size of the agency. The larger agencies have detectives assigned specifically to conduct death investigations, while smaller agencies may have “generalist” detectives who investigate all crimes. The San Jose Police Department has a full-time Homicide Unit that is staffed by approximately ten detectives and seven crime scene investigators (CSI). Complex murder investigations can take years and thousands of hours of investigative time to complete. For this reason, there are two “Cold Case” investigators assigned to work on previously unsolved investigations.
The initial response to homicide cases is crucial to the potential success of the investigation. Several “Day” and “Night” Detectives are assigned to respond to all major investigative crimes and to direct the preliminary investigations. The Day and Night Detectives insure that notifications are made, crime scenes are properly protected, canvasses for witnesses are conducted, and that ultimately the suspect is identified and apprehended. The component of having trained detectives respond to a fresh crime scene in tandem with patrol officers is often the key to the solving of challenging homicide cases.
The majority of murders occur during the late evening, or early morning hours, and the designated 24/7 on-call homicide detectives will usually respond to the crime scene from their homes. Depending on the distances traveled, their response time to the scene will vary, but most detectives will be on-scene within an hour of being dispatched. The initial detective response to a reported murder in San Jose will be two detectives and a supervisor along with two crime scene investigators. Of course the number of detectives assigned can be increased if more resources are required.
When the detectives arrive at the crime scene, they will meet with the uniformed officers who conducted the original investigation. From the beginning to the end of the investigation, the detectives will begin to take detailed and extensive hand written notes on every aspect of the investigation. What they are told, pertinent details of the scene, every person interviewed, and every piece of evidence collected is reduced to writing. These notes will eventually be refined to printed reports, which along with other documentation will comprise the investigative file. Even the most basic murder investigation can easily involve several hundred pages of documentation. The documentation of complex cases can number into the tens of thousands of pages.
The detectives will be met at the crime scene by CSI personnel. Once the CSI investigators have surveyed the scene, they will help prioritize the order of evidence collection. The typical crime scene will involve the taking of a significant number of photographs. These photographs make up approximately 90% of the exhibits introduced in court.
Depending on the circumstances, the investigators may request additional CSI personnel, or specialized equipment, to be sent to the scene. These specialists may be required to locate and collect biological evidence. If the crime scene is indoors or on private property, the detectives will consider case law and determine (often with the assistance of a Deputy DA) whether or not a search warrant will be needed to process the crime scene.
Once the victim's remains can be removed from the crime scene without contaminating or destroying other evidence, the police request that the Medical Examiner's Office dispatch a Coroner's investigator. If the victim has been pronounced dead at a hospital, the Medical Examiner's Office will dispatch an investigator to the medical facility.
When the Coroner's investigator arrives on scene, a brief interview with the detectives is conducted in order to record facts relating to the death, and a brief examination of the body is completed. During the course of the examination, the presence of traumatic injuries is documented, and the Coroner's investigator takes custody of all of the victim's personal effects. Once the Coroner's investigator has completed the necessary on-scene tasks, the victim will be transported to the Coroners Office morgue. Under California law, the Coroner or Medical Examiner has sole jurisdiction over the victim's body, and is responsible for determining the cause and mode of death.
Efforts will be made to identify the victim by talking to family members who may have remained at the scene. In some instances, the victim's identity cannot be readily determined, and authorities must rely on fingerprints to do so. If a victim has been previously arrested, or has been in the military, or has held a job that required fingerprinting, the identification can usually be made within several hours.
Once the detectives have completed their investigation of the crime scene, witnesses will be contacted and interviewed. Witnesses who have agreed to wait at the police station will receive the first priority. The introduction of a new California law that requires the courts, law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to maintain the confidentiality of the witnesses’ address, date of birth and place of employment should serve to encourage witnesses to come forward and assist the investigation.
Though the late night / early morning crime scene investigation and initial witness interviews are time consuming, the work of the detectives is only just beginning at this stage of the investigation.
The Crime Lab The Santa Clara County Crime Lab maintains a crime laboratory that processes evidence for every law enforcement agency in the County. In the last decade, there have been dramatic advances in forensic science both nationwide and at the County Lab, particularly in the areas of DNA and fingerprint identification. Crime labs are divided into various sections, each responsible for conducting different kinds of forensic analysis.
Murder has no statute of limitations in California, and many cases require several years, or longer, to acquire sufficient evidence to file charges against the person responsible. Consequently, the cases are never closed until they are solved.
One of the detectives' tasks is to attend the post mortem examination (autopsy) of the victim, which is conducted at the Medical Examiner / Coroner's Office. During the autopsy, the pathologist can ask questions of the investigators concerning the crime scene and other factors that assist in the determination of the manner and cause of death.
Homicide investigators, perhaps more than any other detectives, must be “people” oriented. Their stock in trade is the ability to obtain information, and become a practitioner of the gentle art of persuasion and offer short and long-term support. A detective must be able to persuade a reluctant witness to be forthcoming, truthful, and willing to appear in court to testify. As such, effective investigators sometimes form associations with witnesses and/or the families of the victims that last for years.
Most investigators have a great deal of law enforcement experience before being assigned to a Homicide unit. Every day of that experience is called upon when an investigator faces a suspect in an interview room, knowing that he may have only one chance to obtain an admission or confession from the suspect. An effective Homicide investigator must have the ability to establish rapport with the suspect (if at all possible), no matter how vile the crime or how unrepentant the suspect may be.
In most law enforcement agencies, detectives are encouraged to be resourceful, tenacious, and innovative. Detectives become familiar with dealing with the media, and, at times, holding press conferences soliciting the assistance of the public. Homicide investigators become masters of finding people who do not want to be found. Computers have greatly enhanced the ability to locate people and correlate information.
Detectives will complete enough reports during their careers to fill a very large room. The ability to write effectively is an absolute necessity, as is the ability to communicate verbally with people in all walks of life, and of every culture. In spite of all the scientific advances that have taken place, and the bevy of informational databases available, very often the solving of a case is the result of “old fashion police work.” Detectives must still canvass and re-canvass neighborhoods, pursue leads that often lead to dead-ends, and interview and re-interview witnesses. It also entails never accepting any statement at face value, seeking to corroborate every statement from every person, delving deep into the personal lives of victims, witnesses and suspects and asking the hard questions. All Homicide detectives have cases that keep them up at night, cases that have caused them to miss birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays, or cancel vacations. The worst are the cases in which the suspect is known, but insufficient evidence exists for a criminal filing or conviction. When detectives talk among themselves, more often than not, it is not their successes they speak of, but the others . . . the cases in which the murderer is still out there.
In California, as in most states, the local District Attorney's office has the responsibility for filing felony charges in a criminal case and prosecuting the defendant in a court of law. District Attorneys are elected officials, and in all but the smallest counties, Deputy District Attorneys (DDA’S) actually file the cases and represent the People of the State of California in trial.
Once Homicide investigators have developed sufficient evidence that they believe will establish the guilt of a defendant in court, they present the case reports and evidence to a “filing deputy” from their District Attorney's office who reviews the case. If the filing deputy agrees that evidence exists to prove the guilt of the suspect beyond a reasonable doubt, specific charges are filed that reflect actions of the perpetrator. In California, a person responsible for the unlawful killing of a human being may be charged with a variety of offenses ranging from Involuntary Manslaughter to the capital crime of First Degree Murder with Special Circumstances.
Also in California, once a suspect has been arrested, he must be brought into court for arraignment within specified times. For example, a suspect who is arrested on a Monday must appear in court for arraignment no later than the following Wednesday at 4:00 PM. This tight timeline can put tremendous stress on the investigators, who may have been working around the clock on the case, and who have not had the opportunity to complete their reports, let alone organize all of the associated documentation and evidence required for the filing of the case.
In cases where the filing DDA does not agree that sufficient evidence exists to establish the guilt of a defendant “beyond a reasonable doubt and a moral certainty” in a jury trial, the decision may be made to “reject” the case until additional evidence is developed.
The filing DDA is rarely the prosecutor assigned to try the case. Ideally, the same prosecutor who represents the People at the preliminary hearing, will also try the case in the jury trial, however, this is not always the case. Homicide detectives will work closely with the assigned prosecutor to prepare the case for trial.
When a defendant is charged with murder in this state, his first court appearance is the “arraignment.” At that hearing, which lasts but a few minutes, the defendant is advised of the charges against him. He will be asked to enter a plea of “guilty” or “not guilty”; however, even if the defendant has confessed to the murder and wishes to plead guilty, the judge will not permit an unrepresented defendant to do so at the arraignment.
The next court proceeding in the judicial process for the defendant is the “preliminary hearing,” which normally takes place, in a murder case, within several months of the arraignment. The hearing takes place before a judge with no jury present. In a preliminary hearing, the prosecution normally presents an abbreviated case, since the judge will rule on whether sufficient cause has been presented to believe the defendant committed the offense - not guilt or innocence. If the judge believes sufficient cause was established, the case is sent forward to a jury trial.
If a defendant has been “held to answer” at the preliminary hearing, he will be ordered to appear for arraignment in Superior Court. At that hearing, the defendant is re-advised of the charges against him, and he is again required to enter a plea. In rare cases, a defendant, with the concurrence of his attorney, may enter a plea of guilty at this hearing.
One of the most frequent hearings to be held involves issues of “discovery.” California law establishes a system of mutual discovery in which both the prosecution and the defense exchange all of the documents, reports, photographs, audio recordings, and other material associated with the case.
It is important to realize that after and between each of the hearings described above, many additional hearings may be scheduled. Those hearings may be for the purposes of bail setting, hearing motions to reduce the amount of bail, motions to exclude certain evidence, motions to order evidence to be analyzed by defense experts, motions for “live line-ups,” or a myriad of other reasons.
The courtroom is the final arena. No matter how extensive the investigation, or how compelling the evidence, all is for naught if the case cannot be presented persuasively to a jury. The burden of the prosecution is huge, since a unanimous finding of guilt by the jury is required for conviction. The defense on the other hand must only create a “reasonable doubt,” in the mind of but one juror, to cause a hung-jury and a mistrial.
Everyone is aware of murder cases that have resulted in conviction, and some of which have resulted in the defendant being acquitted. The finality of the jury's verdict closes the book on cases which may have involved the participation of hundreds of people; including police officers, witnesses, criminalists, forensic pathologists, lawyers, court clerical staff, judges, court reporters, and many more. Each trial involves thousands of decisions - both by the defense, prosecution, and judge – all with the common goal of achieving justice, but within their individual frame of reference. With murder convictions, the case is automatically reviewed by the appellate court, and if glaring legal errors are found, they are addressed at that level. But in most murder trials the wisdom inherent in the jury’s verdict is conclusive.
