Faye Springer

Please tell us where you work?
I am a retired Federal Agent formerly with the Sacramento  Crime Lab.

Before you retired what were your duties?
Mostly working in the Sacramento Trace Evidence Lab, I had also supervised the DNA Unit, and am considered a general Criminalist for California's Department Of Justice. I have worked with both Firearms and biological evidence, and formerly blood alcohol toxicology for Santa Clara County for a number of years.

What labs did you work out of?
Riverside for 16 years, Sacramento for 8 years.

Tell us about the Sacramento Lab?
 It serves Sacramento County through the DA's Office, as well as other counties for trace evidence.

How many years have you been practicing forensic sciences?
41 years.


What is trace evidence?
Materials that are not firearms related, not biological, and most often need a microscope to observe.

What was your education?
Bachelors in Biology and Chemistry from UC Davis.

Have you trained other people?
 Yes.

And you have qualified as Expert Testimony how many times?
 Over 500.

For trace evidence?
Yes, 120+ times for hair, ~100 for fibers, ~50 times for paint, ~10 times for glass.

**She was qualified as an expert witness, Defense did not object or ask more questions, she will be able to give opinion in her testimony.**

REG-9#9b: Listed as trace evidence from right arm of subject's [Asha's] sweatshirt, placed on sticky part of post-it note, sealed, shipped, packaged properly.
"numerous blue/green particles, 20-30."

REG-9#9d: Same, collected from front of sweatshirt.
REG-9#9c: Same, collected from left arm of sweatshirt.
REG-9#9e: Same, collected from back.

All of them consistent with one another. 
Other items compared to victim's sweatshirt particles are vacuum captured materials from McClish's truck.

Filter from vacuum = REG-15#6 : Vacuum capture from McClish's truck [believe it was the area located between the passenger seat and passenger door].
~SUBITEM: REG-15#6e: post-it with the blue/green debris/particles.

What did you do with these particles?
 I checked the particles found in the truck to those found on the victim's sweatshirt. 9 from the shirt, 3 from the truck. I compared them 3 ways, visually, with a microscope, and with instrumentation.

And the goal was to determine the source of these particles?
Yes.


Stereo microscope (explained):
They all appeared indistinguishable. 

Polarized light microscope (explained):
They all appeared indistinguishable.

PEOPLES EXHIBIT 130
Picture of particles under polarized light microscope, taken by Faye Springer.
**She said she is looking at the color, pigment size and location, micro-cracks on particles, and oxidization/degradation.**
They all appeared indistinguishable.

Did you dtermine what they are made of?
 Not yet, not until I looked at all of them.

You looked at the particles under fluorescent light?
Yes, 4 different bands of light, the particles were still indistinguishable.

You then used instruments to determine polymers? Elements? Color?
Yes.

And you used Infrared Spectrophotometry [explained]?
Yes. Determined that the particles were polyethylene.
Both the particles from McClish's car, and Asha's sweatshirt both had indistinguishable spectrum's. And indistinguishable light absorbtions.

What did you do next?
I used Raman Spectroscopy [explained]. It uses a laser and gives me more information on the pigment by making it more active. Again the samples from McClish's car and Asha's sweatshirt were indistinguishable.

At any point was there any sign of difference between the two samples?
No there was not.

[DA Jeff Rosell then went down the list of tarps collected from McClish's house and truck during their search warrant, none of them were a match to the particles found on Asha or in his truck]

As part of the investigation, Mata sent you a body bag just like the one the victim was placed in. Did the two samples match that?
No, it was a different material and color.

What did you examine next?
Finger nail clippings. There was a waxy, blue material under the nails. And a small piece of skull.

REG-13#1 : Black material found on skull.

What did you do with REG-13#1?
I used Infrared Spectrophotometry to determine it was epoxy paint or finish, black in color.

**explained that this coating is seen on painted tools, floor finishes, primer on cars, and adhesives.**
**Next line of questioning was a Circus, several rounds of objections from the Defense because of wording, no foundation being laid for the questions, ate up 15 minutes of court time for no reason.**
**DAJR was trying to ask about paint transfer from a painted tool to bone on a victim. The Defense would not allow him to ask Springer if paint could/would transfer to bone from someone being struck hard enough with a painted tool. Eventually when the grounds/foundation had been laid for the line of questioning, Faye Springer answered with a "no shit" attitude because it was such an easy and obvious question/answer.**
**Yes, if there is black paint on something like a hammer, and I hit someone hard enough to crack their skull, paint CAN and probably WILL transfer. Thanks for wasting 15 minutes TW! I am not amused**

Did you look at hair next?
Yes, REG-15#6c: Human hair, dyed.
REG-9#5: Asha's hair.
I requested that REG-15#6 be sent to SERI (Serological Research Institute) for Mitochondrial DNA testing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DEFENSE:
There was human and animal hair in the vacuum collection was there not?
Yes.


And your focus was Trace Evidence?
Yes.

You cannot say that the blue particulate found in the Defendant's truck and on Asha were from the same source?
Not conclusively [**they would have had to have found the tarp and matched the 2 samples to it. Even though the two samples are indistinguishable from one another she cannot say conclusively they are from the same source unless they have the suspected source to compare to. McClish went to the dump the morning of the September 10th, an educated guess would say that among the things he threw away were the tarp and murder weapon that had the black epoxy paint on it. Anyone with half a brain gets rid of the murder weapon and any major evidence immediately after the crime, I guess that's the one thing he did right.**]

You cannot say that the hair is from the same source?
Not conclusively.


You examined some tools collected from McClish against the paint residue found on the skull?
Yes, a hammer, metal wedge and chainsaw chain. No match. [**Again, first thing he would have done is get rid of the tool, proves nothing.**]


REDIRECT FROM THE PROSECUTION
In your experience are these particles concurrent with tarp particles?Yes.