A retired St. Paul police sergeant who interviewed Jeffery Trevino in connection with his wife's disappearance and death is expected to take the witness stand Friday afternoon, capping prosecutors' witness list for the trial.
Jurors could begin deliberating the case on Tuesday, Ramsey County District Judge Leonardo Castro said. Retired Sgt. John Wright will be the prosecution's 42nd witness; it's unclear how many witnesses, if any, the defense will call.
Also unclear is whether Trevino will testify, but he must decide by Monday whether he'll take the stand. Trevino, 39, faces two counts of second-degree murder for allegedly killing his wife, Kira Steger, 30. She was last seen alive Feb. 21, and her body was recovered May 8 from the Mississippi River.
Prosecutors believe Trevino killed Steger in a jealous rage because she was having an affair with a co-worker and wanted a divorce.
The sixth day of testimony in Trevino's murder trial resumed Thursday afternoon with defense attorney John Conard's cross-examination of a DNA scientist who tested several spots of suspected blood from the alleged crime scene and two cars.
McKenzie Anderson, a DNA scientist with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), testified Wednesday that several spots of suspected blood from the couple's master bedroom, other areas of the home and Steger's car trunk matched Steger's DNA.
The interpretation of forensic evidence is Conard's key strategy, and he's aggressively questioned other scientists who have testified. He questioned the BCA's decision to test only some of the suspected blood evidence collected from the couple's house in the 500 block of Iowa Avenue E.
Conard cross-examined Anderson on Thursday, addressing complications presented by diluted samples and mixed DNA results. He asked Anderson if DNA can remain on surfaces for a long period of time, not just around the time evidence was collected.