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The potential clinching evidence was right there, on the blood-soaked pajama top Pasinetta Fitzgerald was found dead in.
And Omaha police had a suspect in front of them with cuts and scratches on his body.
Yet, it would take police more than three years to test that top and, in turn, to link the woman’s death to the man they say caused it, Patrick Bauldwin.
Looking back, Capt. Michelle Bang testified in Bauldwin’s first-degree murder trial this week, police could have cracked the case immediately with DNA tests on the top.
However, Bang made one calculation as she led the investigation — that the top probably contained only the victim’s blood.
As it turned out, DNA tests show it also contained Bauldwin’s blood, something that police wouldn’t uncover for more than three years.
“Quite honestly, I thought that (pajama top) was going to be only the victim’s blood,” she testified.
“I’m not going to say I’m always absolutely right in the decisions I make. We collected that evidence, and we properly stored that evidence. I wish I would have tested it immediately, but I did not.”
Bauldwin’s defense attorney pounced on that indecision. Assistant Douglas County Public Defender Timothy Burns grilled Bang on why police took so long to test such a critical piece of evidence.
Burns has cast the delay as “highly suspicious” and has questioned whether the top could have been tampered with.
Police deny that. Bang noted that the primary goal of DNA testing is to identify and eliminate suspects. A victim’s shirt usually is soaked with the victim’s blood — DNA that does nothing to reveal who the killer was.
On top of that, Bang listed two reasons why police didn’t order DNA tests on the top:
Ÿ Cost. Each time Omaha police want to test a blood spot, it costs $495. While police would love to test every bit of blood evidence, Bang said, it would have cost $20,000 to $30,000 to do so in this case.
Ÿ A crunch on the homicide unit. Bang testified police were investigating 11 homicides in the four months leading up to the February 2006 slaying of Fitzgerald. A check of Omaha homicide statistics shows that 11 in a four-month period is typical for a city that has between 30 and 40 homicides a year.
However, police said, some detectives were taken out of the rotation at that time to deal with high-profile cases, such as the disappearance and death of 12-year-old Amber Harris.
“Our resources were so stretched both financially and with personnel,” said Bang, then a sergeant in the unit. “In that same time, Amber Harris happened. It’s an unfortunate and sad state, but sometimes there just weren’t the resources to do all the testing we wanted to.”
Burns pounced on that suggestion. He noted that Fitzgerald’s pajama top had five areas of blood — meaning it would have cost $2,500 to test it.
Burns pointed out that police officers had interviewed Bauldwin the night Fitzgerald’s body was discovered and had spotted scrapes on his knees and scratches on his body.
With those observations, Burns asked, why wouldn’t Bang believe that blood had gotten on Fitzgerald?
“There was no evidence that the suspect was bleeding profusely,” she said.
Bang said police did test blood spots on the basement floor — smudges they thought might be consistent with the killer’s knee scraping against the floor.
Detectives also tested spots on a comforter that Fitzgerald was found on. All of those tests came back as the victim’s blood.
Police did find Bauldwin’s DNA on jeans found in a closet. Tests showed that Bauldwin’s blood was found inside the jeans, authorities say, and Fitzgerald’s blood was found on two areas along the outside of the jeans.
As months and then years went by, Bang said, the case weighed on her mind.
“It was something that was open, and I wanted to have closure for the family,” Bang said. “I felt bad.”
Later in 2006, Bang transferred out of the homicide unit. She continued to brief prosecutors on aspects of the investigation, but it eventually was designated a cold case.
That brought in Sgt. Todd Kozelichki, one of the original detectives on the case.
Kozelichki, who had moved to the department’s cold-case unit, was able to tap a federal grant in 2009 to further test evidence, including the five blood spots on Fitzgerald’s pajama top.
Two spots came back as Fitzgerald’s DNA. Two came back as matches to Bauldwin’s DNA. The fifth had a mixture of both Fitzgerald’s and Bauldwin’s DNA.
An arrest warrant was issued.
“Had I known, I would have tested that shirt first,” Bang said. “I made the wrong call.”
Fitzgerald’s brother, Anthony, said his family initially was frustrated with the delays in the case. However, he said, he was glad that detectives kept the case alive.
“I was (concerned) at first,” Fitzgerald said. “But (Kozelichki) made it his first priority when he got to the cold-case unit.”
Contact the writer:
444-1275, todd.cooper@owh.com
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