MINNEAPOLIS — Legal experts always caution that it is risky for a criminal defendant to testify. And when Demetrius Wynne took the witness stand in his own defense in the trial for the murder of Minneapolis northside artist Susan Spiller, his own testimony helped prosecutors clear one of their hurdles.
"That's your fingerprint on her window, isn't it?" asked Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Dan Allard.
"Yes, sir," Wynne answered.
"That's your DNA under her fingernail, isn't it?" Allard asked.
"Yes, sir," Wynne said.
Prior to that testimony, the jury was told throughout the entire trial that police could only narrow down the DNA match to a male in Wynne's family, because it was a partial Y-chromosomal profile.
Wynne is on trial for a second-degree murder charge in the death of Spiller, his next door neighbor. Wynne, now 21 years old, was 14 when Spiller was killed in 2015.
Police detectives testified that an intruder forced open one of Spiller's back windows to enter her home, then stabbed and choked her to death in her bedroom. The jury was shown a gruesome crime scene photo that showed Spiller's body hanging off the side of her bed. The only thing stolen from Spiller's home was her cell phone, which was never recovered.
Although crime scene investigators were able to lift fingerprints from the open window — as well as another window that was tampered with — they did not receive a match in their computer database until 2019 when Wynne was arrested on an unrelated weapons charge.
When questioned by his own attorney Ira Whitlock, Wynne said that he was surprised his fingerprint was found on the windows, but said it wouldn't be surprising if a fingerprint was elsewhere inside the home because Spiller had let him in before to use the bathroom.
Wynne also testified that he sometimes walked Spiller's dog. He said the day before the crime, he was with her when she stumbled and fell and he caught her.
During cross-examination, Allard accused Wynne of making up the story in an attempt to explain why his DNA might be underneath Spiller's fingernails. Wynne never told police that story when they questioned him.
When police in 2019 showed Wynne a photo of Spiller and her home, Wynne told them he didn't know her and had never seen the bright blue house, despite living next door for three years.
In explaining those contradictions, Wynne's testimony at several times became confusing and contradictory, as he admitted to his own attorney that he lied to police -- but then claimed to the prosecutor that he never lied and instead didn't recognize Spiller and her house on the photos.
The trial is expected to draw to a close Monday morning after closing arguments, when the jury will begin deliberations.
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