ST. CLOUD – The state took six days, 55 witnesses and 136 pieces of evidence to present its case that Brian G. Fitch, during a routine traffic stop, murdered Mendota Heights police officer Scott Patrick last summer. Fitch's defense attorneys, when it was their turn Thursday, put one item into evidence, called no witnesses and questioned Fitch just long enough for him to say he wouldn't take the stand.
The last word from both sides will come Monday when jurors hear closing arguments. The delay was brought on by the Super Bowl. Dakota County District Judge Mary Theisen told jurors this week that she didn't want the prospect of missing the game or any Super Bowl parties to be a distraction during their sequestered deliberations.
Patrick's family members, about a dozen of whom sat through the entirety of the trial, said Thursday they would have no comment until they hear a verdict.
Patrick was killed July 30. Fitch, accused of the murder and of shooting at three police officers when he was captured in St. Paul hours after Patrick's death, could go to prison for life if convicted. The trial was held in St. Cloud because of pretrial publicity.
State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension analyst McKenzie Anderson testified Thursday that bloodstains on the 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun found with Fitch when he was arrested yielded a DNA sample that matched Fitch. She also tested a cartridge case found on the floor of the Pontiac Grand Am that officer Patrick had stopped before he was killed, but there was not enough DNA on it to yield a result.
Anderson also took DNA samples from the Grand Am. The car belonged to Fitch, but in squad car videos shown to the jury during the trial, it's impossible to see who's in the car when the driver sticks a gun out the window and shoots Patrick three times.
The DNA samples from the Grand Am point to Fitch, but not conclusively. Defense attorney Lauri Traub, on cross-examination, said it shouldn't be surprising to find Fitch's DNA in the car, since he drove it.
Fitch's fingerprints were found on the map he allegedly passed to another inmate at Oak Park Heights state prison last month, a state fingerprint expert testified. The map, which showed the home address of a key witness in the case, was part of Fitch's scheme to have that witness killed, prosecutors said. BCA fingerprint expert Jennifer Kostroski said she found two fingerprints on the map that matched Fitch's left index finger and left thumb.