Jason Young trial: Defense continues to raise questions

NBC17.com is providing live coverage of the Jason Young trial. Here is Monday’s testimony as it unfolded in Wake County Superior Court.

The highlight of Monday's testimony in the Jason Young first-degree murder trial was a forceful fight by the defense, especially in the morning. 

Defense attorney Mike Klinkosum established that Jason Young had no cuts, bruises or scratches on him, other than a bruise on his left big toe, and endured an inspection that had him stripping all the way being naked.

Klinkosum also got CCBI agent Mike Galloway to confirm that no blood was found in Young's white Ford Explorer despite an extensive search.

After days of the prosecution pushing hard, with emotional evidence and specific details on Young's movements, it was the first time the defense seemed to gain some ground.

4:28 p.m., pretty dry afternoon: Much of the afternoon has been simply going over some details of the evidence - some bank statements, where items were discovered, that sort of thing. One witness just testified that Jason Young moved $17,000 in monies from one retirement account to another on Oct. 4, 2006. 

Another example - the prosecution just entered into evidence "State's Exhibit No. 59," which was Jason Young's luggage. 

It's all necessary stuff, of course, but it is tedious. It does remind you of the scene in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," where the high school kids are glazing over as the teacher (Ben Stein) explains the impact of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. ...

The most significant testimony came earlier, when the defense pushed hard in the morning to establish some doubt. If you're skimming this blog, be sure to read that. 

3:28 p.m., time frame issue: Defense attorney Mike Klinkosum pressed detective Brent David of the Wake County Sheriff's Office on the time frame. David testified that he spent six months working on the case. 

Klinkosum wanted to try to address the time line, and whether Jason Young had the time to return to Raleigh from Hillsville, Va., to commit the murder. Klinkosum noted that David, in the course of his investigation, wondered about the time issue, and even inquired as to whether there were any flights from RDU International to Hillsville (there were not) or whether a private plane had made that trip.

“In your mind, this was a lot of distance to cover for Mr. Young to commit this crime, correct?” Klinkosum asked.

David acknowledge that it was.

Prosecutor Becky Holt followed up and asked if others from the Sheriff's Department had made that drive to check the time and distance. David said they had, and that he had not been one of the ones who did that.

3:07 p.m., David's testimony: Detective Brent David said he interviewed Meredith Fisher, sister of Michelle Young, for three hours on Nov. 5, 2006. He also walked through the crime scene with her on Nov. 6.

2:52 p.m., inspector on the stand: Detective Brent David of the Wake County Sheriff's Office is on the stand now going over what he saw the day Michelle Young's body was found.

2:52 p.m., back to blogging: OK, trial is back in session. Your blogger had to listen in on the President for a while to help post that to the website. Nice of him to come to the Triangle to read our live blog. 

1:01 p.m., another strong defense point: Defense attorney Mike Klinkosum, with CCBI's Mike Galloway on the stand, got Galloway to testify that he inspected Jason Young's white Ford Explorer shortly after Michelle was found dead, and that there was no blood anywhere in the vehicle.

Klinkosum lingered with this point a while, asking Galloway to go over all the parts of the Explorer he inspected.

“You scoured this Ford Explorer for the presence of blood, correct?” Klinkosum asked.

That's correct, Galloway said.

“I collected no blood from that vehicle,” Galloway said.

12:32 p.m., defense on the attack: Defense attorney Mike Klinkosum just had his finest moment in the trial so far. He just pushed hard to show that Jason Young had no injuries, scratches or cuts on his body when agent Mike Galloway of CCBI took photographs of him on Nov. 7, 2006.

Galloway testified that he took photographs of multiple parts of Young’s body, including his hands and head. Young also had to stand nude for inspection, Galloway testified, to see if there were any injuries of any kind on his body.

Defense attorney Mike Klinkosum pressed Galloway, who testified the only injury on Jason Young’s body that day was a small bruise on his left big toe. Otherwise, there were no scratches, cuts, bruises or lacerations that Galloway saw. 

11:16 a.m., interesting point on entering the room: One bit of evidence that came up last week was Jason Young did not re-enter his Hampton Inn hotel room, according to the hotel records, after he checked in. On Monday, CCBI agent Mike Galloway took photos and videos of the Hampton Inn, but one thing he showed clearly was ways to make it so you could re-enter the room without having to use a key card.

For example, a person could slide over the deadbolt, put a “Do Not Disturb” sign between the door on the frame, or even flip the security latch over to keep the door from locking.

That’s an important point – if Jason Young drove to Raleigh and killed Michelle Young, how did he get back into his hotel room if he needed to do that?

We know he checked into the hotel just before 11 p.m. on Nov. 2, 2006.

We know he was in King, N.C., sometime between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 3.

We know he was at a meeting in Virginia around 10:30 a.m. that day.

And we know it's almost three hours between Raleigh and Hillsville.

Where was he between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.? And between 5:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.?

Galloway’s testimony shows that he would have had ways to get into the room without using a key card.

10:55 a.m., update: Agent Mike Galloway has testifed all monring, basically going over evidence in the bedroom and then showing a video he took from up in Hillsville. He did say he didn't get any fingerprints from the video camera that he could remember, and he didn't know of any from the video camera at the Hampton Inn.

Galloway did say they took into evidence a rock that was on the sidewalk outdside the door of the exit that had been blocked by a rock.

10:40 a.m., video from Hillsville: Agent Mike Galloway of CCBI is showing the jury video he took recently from Hillsville, including the exterior of the Hampton Inn and the interior of Room 421.

He just showed the jury photos of Jason Young's white Ford Exporer and other bits of evidence. He also explained how he found fingerprints in the bedroom, including finger prints from the inside of the door to Jason's closet.

9:40 a.m., court in session: The Jason Young trial resumed slightly late on Monday morning. Judge Donald Stephens said one of the jurors was running behind, but the court is in session now.

Agent Mike Galloway of CCBI is back on the stand. He testified on Friday and showed the jury gruesome photos and a video of the crime scene.

Right now, Galloway is going through evidence he found at the scene, including sheetrock from the walls that had impressions on them, two bloody pillows and a clump of hair found at Michelle Young's body.