DNA Expert Says Stains Tie Man to Jasper Death

John William King, a white supremacist on trial in the dragging death of a black man, had a shirt in his apartment with the victim’s blood, a DNA analyst for the FBI testified Friday.

Another witness testified that the denim shirt, along with jeans that had four bloodstains, was worn by Shawn Berry the night James Byrd Jr. was killed. Berry, who is to be tried later, shared an apartment with King.

The stain was one of several DNA samples prosecutors say link King to the slaying of Byrd, a 49-year-old black man who was allegedly chained to a pickup truck and dragged three miles along an east Texas road last June until his body was torn to pieces.

Frank Baechtel, an FBI forensics examiner, said Byrd’s blood was found on the tires from the truck that prosecutors say was used.

Altogether, 13 pieces of evidence, including a shoe, a boot and a sandal--one each from King and his two white companions, Berry and Lawrence Russell Brewer--were found to contain Byrd’s DNA.

In addition, cigarette butts and a beer bottle found at the crime scene were tied to King, Berry or Brewer.

It also was possible, Baechtel said, that Byrd also smoked at least one of the cigarettes.

Baechtel also said a 24 1/2-foot chain, which prosecutors believe was attached to Berry’s truck and Byrd’s ankles during the dragging, lacked any DNA evidence.

“We examined every link of that chain for presence of blood,” he said.

Prosecutors previously said two of the defendants took it to a car wash to clean it. It later was found covered in a hole in the ground behind a friend’s trailer home where the men used to play paint-ball games. King, Berry and Brewer could get the death penalty if convicted.