Prosecution Rests in McKinzie Trial

Prosecutors wrapped up their case in the murder trial of Kenneth McKinzie on Wednesday, and the defense is expected to open its case Monday.

McKinzie, 39, of Oxnard, faces a possible death sentence if found guilty of murder and related charges in the December 1995 slaying of 73-year-old Ruth Eloise Avril.

The Oxnard woman was fatally beaten outside her second-story apartment four days before Christmas by someone who had waited in the shadows by her garage.

As she walked downstairs to turn off a porch light, she was jumped and a deadly struggle ensued, prosecutors said.

On Wednesday, they called a final witness to bolster that theory. Crime lab expert Ed Jones told the jury that blood patterns in Avril’s garage and her car suggest that she was beaten there.

In addition, Jones said, blood smears in the trunk of the car indicate that she was shoved inside the trunk while she was alive.

“You’d have to be moving around to make those smears,” he testified, pointing to a series of photographs.

Jones said he also found hair fibers inside the car that were similar to hairs taken from the defendant.

Avril’s body was found Dec. 22, 1995, by two surfers in a ditch near Ormond Beach.