Inmates, attorneys question credibility of state's Vaughn prison riot investigation

Inmates facing murder charges for the fatal uprising at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center attacked the thoroughness and credibility of the state police investigation into the riot Tuesday.

It was the first full day of trial testimony for four men charged with murder, riot, conspiracy, kidnapping and assault for the February 2017 hostage standoff in Smyrna.

After prosecutors finished showing hundreds of crime-scene photographs that depicted myriad physical evidence — bloody and burned clothes, knit masks, gloves and makeshift weapons like shanks, mop ringers and fire extinguishers — the defendants questioned why investigators sent fewer than two dozen of those items for DNA testing.

“Would you agree that testing those items had the possibility of shedding light on this investigation … meaning it could shed light on people who could be possible suspects?” defendant Jarreau Ayers asked State Police Detective Cpl. Roger Cresto Tuesday.

Cresto testified that it was his responsibility to catalog hundreds of items of evidence from Building C where the riot occurred.

Ayers, one of two defendants representing themselves in the trial, used his cross examination of Cresto to question the "impartiality" of detectives' analysis. He seized upon an evidence report detailing that most items gathered from the jail — including potential murder weapons like shanks — were not tested for DNA evidence.

Cresto said investigators prioritized items "conducive" to the injuries to Correctional Officer Lt. Steven Floyd, who was killed by multiple blunt force traumas and stab wounds during the standoff. 

"You just left five shanks and bloody gloves off the list?" Ayers asked. 

Cresto did not attempt to explain why.

Ayers' line of questioning parallels his opening statements Monday in which he accused prosecutors of "picking and choosing who the bad guys are" and bolstering their case by cutting deals with dishonest inmates.

Deputy Attorney General Nichole Warner had previously said Ayers and his co-defendant Deric Forney were responsible for wielding mop ringers and shanks in the initial assault on officers that began the 18-hour hostage standoff. 

Ben Gifford, the attorney representing Forney, tried to get Cresto to explain how detectives and prosecutors decided which weapons and clothes discovered in the ransacked prison wing warranted DNA testing and which didn't. 

He asked Cresto to describe what was going through his mind when they were deciding what would be tested, if he had documented why some items were tested and some were not and if he remembered any statements made in the decision-making meeting.

Cresto described it as a “collaborative process” with detectives and prosecutors but could not offer specific answers to Gifford's questions. 

Deputy Attorney General John Downs quizzed Cresto into saying water that flooded the building during the standoff could have damaged potential DNA evidence. He also elicited from Cresto statements about how DNA testing costs the state money.

Gifford then noted the high profile of the investigation and asked Cresto if police decided not to order testing for some items in this case because of cost. Cresto responded that cost was not a factor in the Vaughn inquiry. 

Jason Antoine, an attorney representing defendant Roman Shankaras, also took aim at the thoroughness of the investigation.

During Antoine's cross-examination, Cresto also said he was unaware of a camera looking toward the building's yard that could bolster Antoine's previous argument that the riot was "pretty much over" by the time Shankaras returned inside. 

Antoine showed the jury a picture of evidence Cresto described as a handwritten list of demands scrawled across multiple sheets of paper and given to officials during the standoff.

Antoine quizzed Cresto as to why that list of demands was not sent to a state lab to assess potential DNA evidence on the letter. Cresto offered no specific reason why it was not tested with other correspondence gathered in the investigation. 

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At this early stage, it appears letters, known in prison as kites, may carry significant weight in the case against Shankaras. 

Warner, a prosecutor, on Monday said Shankaras was a “shot caller” and lead organizer along with his co-defendant Dwayne Staats. She said Shankaras admitted as much in a letter written after the riot to Royal Downs, an inmate who has already pleaded guilty to a riot charge and is expected to be an important witness for prosecutors.

Antoine countered in his opening statements that his client is being set up to take blame in place of Downs.

After prosecutors showed the jury several makeshift weapons fashioned from different items in the jail, Gifford asked whether Cresto tried to match those weapons to a potential source. He used a glass shank as an example, asking whether Cresto tried to match that glass to something like a broken window in the building.

“Did it occur to you at any point to try to go through C Building and try to identify where these shanks came from?” Gifford said. 

Cresto said no and upon further questioning from John Downs, the prosecutor, said the building was littered with debris and flooded with inches of water during the riot.

“It would not be feasible because of the damage done to the building,” Cresto said. 

What weight the items presented Tuesday will carry in convincing the jury of the defendants' guilt is unclear. Prosecutors have not noted the existence of DNA or fingerprint evidence against the men and said the prison did not have surveillance footage of the riot. 

Ayers argued that prosecutors can’t show that the weapons admitted as evidence were used to murder Floyd or to assault other hostages so parading those items front of the jury ran afoul New Castle County Superior Court's rules of evidence. 

“If you put them in evidence, the jury will draw an inference that it was used,” Ayers said.

Gifford, Forney's attorney, joined in the objection. Absent a “nexus” showing a relationship to the crime, pictures of shanks will improperly infer a "prior bad act" because it is illegal to possess such items in jail, he said. 

Presiding Superior Court Judge William Carpenter overruled the objections, saying Ayers' and Gifford's arguments speak to the weight the jury should give the evidence, not the items' admissibility under court rules.

“Someone along the way is going to testify that someone else was attacked using shanks and weapons,” Carpenter said.

The four men are part of a larger group of 18 that were indicted on charges stemming from the uprising. The entire group is set to be prosecuted over a series of trials stretching to February 2019. 

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.