She Survived by M. William Phelps Page B

volumes about the guy’s mind-set and motive. Apparently, in one of those cases up north, Saxton broke into an elderly woman’s home and wound up waking her up while on top of her. She was able to get away, grabbed a shotgun she had nearby, and chased him out of her house.
    Buttram believed Saxton’s true motivation revolved around a repressed, abnormal sexual nature, surrounded by violent tendencies many serial rapists display. And the only reason he didn’t commit a rape that they knew of was because “he just hadn’t gotten to that point yet” in his evolutionary development as a sexual predator.
    â€œFirst he’s caught peeping,” the detective concluded. “Then he’s standing over the women after breaking and entering into their homes. Then there’s Melissa’s case, where he attacks. And I think he would have killed Melissa and the army sergeant if they hadn’t fought back.”

CHAPTER 29
    FINGERPRINT MAN
    There are not too many cases like Melissa’s and the additional attacks Scott Saxton was accused of that ever go to trial. Most of the time the perpetrator is faced with overwhelming evidence—either DNA, blood, or eyewitness testimony—and the crimes so vile and violent—with the victim sometimes ready and willing to sit in a court of law and tell her story—the perp is forced into cutting a deal.
    There was a hearing several months after Saxton’s arrest in which the prosecutor, Phil Blowers, laid out part of his case against Saxton. During this hearing Saxton’s attorney, Jeff Baldwin, was able to question the forensic examiner, scientist David Zauner, who had found the fingerprint evidence connected to Scott Saxton inside Melissa’s apartment. As evidence in these cases go, this was not a slam dunk by any means—Saxton lived across the hall at one time. He could—and would—say that he had been invited into Melissa’s apartment.
    On the other hand, once Blowers brought Melissa in to tell her story, which would sit as a precedent, before the other victims of Saxton’s madness and violence told their stories, there was no juror in the county who would ever believe this man was not a serial offender and a great threat and danger to society.
    At this hearing David Zauner explained to the court that during a “high-intensity light source” search of Melissa’s apartment, he was unable to find any prints. “In my visual examination, [however], I did.”
    Zauner explained further that the prints he located were actually found “in some dried reddish brown material and it was on a short section of wall on the left side of the entry from the front hallway into the living room.”
    He was speaking of the archway and a “partial palm print” found there.
    The second print Zauner located happened to be on the “exterior of the sliding glass door at the back of the apartment.”
    Saxton’s lawyer questioned Zauner over how he took prints from Saxton and if there was anyone else on hand when he did. It was a simple defense tactic: attack the MO of the witness and see if anything pops.
    Zauner said that, of course, there were others present. Scott Saxton was in jail at the time.
    There was some discussion about palm prints and how good they were as compared to a thumb or any other fingerprint.
    Basically, there was no difference. Everyone had a different palm print. It being a partial palm print also had little to do with disproving it was Scott Saxton’s.
    What Zauner testified to emphatically was that the palm print was definitely not Melissa’s. Her palm print had “distortion,” and the one he found on the archway did not. This was a clear indication that it was not hers.
    What made the print so easy to read was the fact that Saxton had blood on his palm at some point while inside the apartment and touched the archway with that palm, leaving behind a print