Prosecution presents physical evidence in Blagg trial

<p>The prosecution's methodical presentation of physical evidence in the trial of Michael Blagg included graphic testimony about attempts to get fingerprints from his murdered wife's mummified hands.</p><p>The testimony Monday about the condition of Jennifer Blagg's body, found in a landfill months after she went missing, elicited tears from the woman's mother, who left the courtroom wearing dark glasses.</p><p>Blagg, 41, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife. He reported his wife and 6-year-old daughter, Abby, missing in November 2001.</p><p>Jennifer Blagg's body was found in a Grand Junction-area landfill in June 2002. Blagg was arrested later at his mother's house in Warner Robins, Ga., 120 miles southeast of Atlanta.</p><p>Abby is still missing and presumed dead.</p><p>The prosecution continued to present bits of physical evidence _ fingerprints, the child's backpack, contents of a vacuum and grocery receipts _ taken from the Blagg home after the mother and daughter disappeared.</p><p>Darren Jewkes, a former Colorado Bureau of Investigation certified fingerprint examiner, testified that many of the fingerprints he was able to collect from the Blagg home and the family van belonged to Blagg.</p><p>He collected other fingerprints he couldn't identify but which he said were consistent with those of a small woman or young girl.</p><p>The unidentified prints are important to the case because Blagg's lawyers are trying to show through fingerprints, unidentified hair and blood that an intruder entered the home and killed Jennifer Blagg.</p><p>Prosecutors claim Blagg, a nuclear engineer, staged a burglary and killed his wife to get out of a troubled marriage. Defense lawyers say the couple were happy and had no problems.</p><p>Jewkes described the painstaking process of extracting fingerprints from Jennifer Blagg's body, which had mummified from months of lying in a landfill. He said he used powders, glycerin solutions and even cut off pieces of skin to obtain usable prints.</p><p>Jewkes was expected to take the stand again Tuesday, the fourth day of testimony in the trial, which is expected to last a month.</p>

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