Scottsdale Police Lieutenant testifies about DNA evidence in Allison Feldman murder

PHOENIX — After a two-week break, the trial for the man accused of brutally murdering 31-year-old Allison Feldman in her home back in February of 2015 continued Monday.

Scottdale Police Lieutenant Hugh Lockerby was the first witness called back to the stand. He last worked on the case as supervisor of the violent crimes unit. 

RELATED: Allison Feldman’s father testified on third day of murder trial

During the prosecution’s direct examination, he talked about evidence they collected at the scene during the 4 days following Allison’s murder. 

He said placards were placed on 26 pieces of evidence investigators felt were significant to the initial investigation… and one of those pieces of evidence was a substance that investigators thought was out of place when compared to blood stains they discovered on the tile floor in Allison’s home. 

He also told the jury about glass shards investigators found in her living room and kitchen areas and one larger piece of glass – the top of a broken beer bottle they found under the couch in the sunken living room.

“The main reason is all of the different beer glass, broken beer bottles that we were finding in the home… we were concerned because there wasn’t enough to make an actual beer bottle,” said Lt. Hugh Lockerby of the Scottsdale Police Dept. “…so we found this this neck of the part of the bottle, it was important to us, because we found a significant part of a bottle that of all the other pieces that we had collected, we weren’t finding an entire beer bottle, there was definitely some pieces missing.”

Monday, Lieutenant Lockerby took us back to early 2017. He said he talked about discussions he had within the Scottsdale police department about using familial DNA and made a request to DPS to proceed with that process.

Prosecutor: “And do you later learn in April of 2018 that an individual named Mark Mitcham may be a male relative of the person who left PM H?”

Prosecutor: “Do you learn that Mark had three brothers, Eric, Craig and Ian and that they have a father who at that point in 2018 was deceased?”

Prosecutor: “That Ian has a nexus to the City of Scottsdale?”

Lt. Lockerby: “Yes, he does.”

Prosecutor: “Ultimately, do you request additional DNA work be done by the scottsdale crime lab?

Prosecutor: “And ultimately, does the crime lab let you know that there was a match to PM H?

Lt. Lockerby: “Yes, they do.”

During cross-examination, the defense asked him if he was present during a chemical test they used during their initial investigation when they found blood stains in the backyard. Lt. Lockerby said he was and explained why.

“We had observed, and we had believed in our investigation that there was significant cleanup,” said Lockeby. “…and we believe that there (were) voids in blood stain on the cool deck of the patio of the pool, because we had found evidence of potentially that Ms. Feldman was in the pool, so we had used the Bluestar chemicals to see if anything that we could not see with the naked eye would be detected with Bluestar either chemicals or blood that may have been no longer there because of that void.”

Monday afternoon, the state called their next witness to the stand – Bri Davis, a crime scene specialist with the Salt River Indian community.

She was a crime scene specialist with the City of Scottsdale when this case happened in 2015.

At that time, Davis was tasked with being the lead at the Feldman crime scene, documenting everything.

Investigators say they identified Ian Mitcham as the suspect after DNA evidence from the crime scene closely matched genetic material belonging to Mitcham’s brother, who was already in prison. 

Police later located a vial of Mitcham’s blood from a 2015 DUI arrest. A sample of that, according to reports, should have been destroyed years earlier.

Without obtaining a new warrant, Scottsdale police tested that blood and created Mitcham’s DNA profile, which they say matched evidence from the Feldman crime scene.

While that decision sparked privacy and ethical debates that reached the Arizona Supreme Court, justices ultimately upheld the use of the evidence.

Court resumes Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.

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