From WRAL's 4pm internet news:
Lead Detective Faces Tough Questions from Abaroa Defense
Durham, N.C. — The fifth and final lead detective investigating the fatal stabbing of Janet Abaroa spent much of Wednesday morning being cross-examined by her husband's defense attorneys, who said police ignored or improperly handled evidence in the eight-year murder investigation.
Defense attorneys have maintained he was at a soccer game when Janet Abaroa died and that he returned to the couple's Durham home to find her body in an upstairs office. Their 6-month-old son was also home at the time but was not harmed.
Prosecutors have painted Raven Abaroa as a verbally abusive and controlling husband who cheated on his wife and had been in trouble for embezzling money from his job.
Defense attorneys are trying to show that, although Raven Abaroa might not have been an ideal husband, there's no physical evidence to suggest that he killed his wife but that there was evidence that might have cleared him.
Detective Charles Sole, who inherited the case in 2009, however, dismissed some of the defense's claims during his testimony Wednesday.
For example, investigators found DNA in a blood stain on a door that belonged to an unidentified person. But Sole said the print was on the interior glass door of a common entrance to the house and that DNA already on the door’s surface would? Could? have gotten into the blood sample collected by investigators.
Defense attorneys say investigators also ignored evidence of a K-9 police dog picking up a scent that ended at a creek in front of the Abaroas' home, where police found some coins that were never examined.
Sole, who was also the K-9 handler on the case, said the search with the dog was an article search and not a scent-tracking search.
Defense attorneys could begin calling witnesses soon. Last week, Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson told jurors that he expected the state to wrap up its case by the middle of this week.
So far, at least 60 witnesses have testified about everything from the crime scene to Raven and Janet Abaroa's marriage.
Prosecutors, however, haven't offered a clear motive for why Raven Abaroa would have wanted to kill his wife.
Friends and family members of Janet Abaroa have testified that she was scared of him and that he had drastic mood swings and thought he might had bipolar disorder.
At one point, the couple had separated after Raven Abaroa admitted to having an affair, but they eventually got back together when Janet Abaroa found out she was pregnant with their son – a decision she made after she considered having an abortion or giving the baby up for adoption.
According to an autopsy report, she was in the early stages of pregnancy when she was killed.
Sole testified Tuesday and Wednesday that one of many things that made him suspicious of Raven Abaroa was the lack of a struggle at the crime scene.
There were no signs of forced entry, and the house had been in order except for the small upstairs room where police encountered Janet Abaroa's body.
"The nature of her injuries were a knife wound. In order to do that you had to be close. Given the account of Mrs. Abaroa's physical ability, her child is in the next bedroom, I'm pretty sure she's not just going to give up," Sole said. "There was nothing disturbed. It was all in one central location between the desk and the wall. There was nothing knocked over in the room."
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