West jury told no signs of struggle were found in trash can

Kim Smith

Tuesday, July 10, 2001 | 10:07 a.m.

If Christine Smith was alive when she was sealed inside a trash can three years ago, she didn't struggle.

Dr. Gary Telgenhoff, a forensic pathologist, told jurors Monday that Smith's body and clothes bore no signs of a struggle. Nor were there claw marks inside the trash can.

Telgenhoff testified Monday in the second day of Brookey West's murder trial.

Prosecutors believe West, 46, killed her mother in February 1998 out of greed and stored her remains inside a plastic trash can. The 64-year-old woman's body was found three years later inside the can in the corner of a commercial storage unit.

The key question jurors will be asked to answer is whether Smith was alive when she was placed inside the trash receptacle.

West claims her mother died of natural causes and she chose her mother's coffin in a panic.

And while Telgenhoff couldn't say what caused Smith's death, a forensic entomologist is expected to testify that maggots found on the body indicate Smith could have died inside the can.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Frank Coumou told jurors during opening statements Friday that West continued to live off her mother's Social Security checks.

Telgenhoff went into gruesome detail Monday about Smith's liquefied remains, the efforts it took to perform an autopsy and the effects of rigor mortis.

The doctor admitted that although he found it highly suspicious that Smith's nose and mouth were tightly covered by a plastic bag, he could not determine a cause or manner of death.

Under cross-examination, Telgenhoff said statistically speaking, natural deaths and accidents occur more frequently than suicides and homicides.

He also testified that no drugs were found in Smith's remains and there were no signs of broken bones, knife wounds, bullet holes or blunt force trauma.

Because Smith suffered from osteoporosis, which results in a loss of bone mass, Telgenhoff said she likely would have suffered fractures had she been involved in a struggle.

Telgenhoff agreed with Coumou's suggestion, however, that someone who dies in a prone position could be placed in a trash can only with great difficulty because of rigor mortis.