Blood evidence debated

Kim Smith

Friday, March 30, 2001 | 10:36 a.m.

A forensics expert with Metro Police retook the stand this morning as prosecutors continued their quest to prove Margaret Rudin shot her husband to death six years ago.

Up until Wednesday prosecutors Chris Owens and Gary Guymon had focused on why Rudin, 56, would kill her husband, Ronald, and how she acted in the days between his death on Dec. 18, 1994, and the discovery of his remains on Jan. 21, 1995.

Their last few witnesses, however, have told jurors about the physical evidence they have found that supports the theory that Ronald Rudin, 64, was shot in the head four times as he slept in his bed.

Michael Amador, Rudin's defense attorney, told jurors during opening arguments that the blood evidence in the bedroom can be explained away. Most of the blood is that of Ronald Rudin's third wife, who died of a gunshot blast to the head in an alleged suicide, he said.

Amador, who alleges other people are responsible for Ronald Rudin's death, also said a .22-caliber weapon could not have caused the high-velocity blood spray the state's experts claim.

"Ronald Rudin, they say, was shot to death in his bedroom the evening of Dec. 18, 1994. If not, if it was not in that room, not on that date, nothing else they have fits," Amador told the jurors.

Ronald Rudin's skull even disproves the state's theory, Amador told jurors.

The bullet holes are all wrong "unless he was cooperative and turned over in the middle of it," Amador said.

Linda Errichetto, the director of Metro's forensic laboratory, told jurors Thursday that she conducted some preliminary tests on a variety of items that indicate stains found on them might be blood.

Among the items she tested were Ronald Rudin's box springs, a remote control for his bed, a junction box from the ceiling over his bed and a handkerchief found in the master bathroom.

Those items were later sent to an outside lab that conducts DNA testing. Experts from that lab are expected to take the stand next week.

Mike Perkins, another forensics expert, followed Errichetto on the stand and retook the stand this morning.

Perkins helped collect the items that appeared to have blood on them and conducted a Luminol test in the bedroom. Luminol is a substance that glows in the dark when sprayed upon items that have blood on them.

Owens told jurors during opening statements that when Perkins sprayed the Luminol in Ronald Rudin's bedroom it glowed around the perimeter of where his bed had once stood.

The prosecutors also told jurors that DNA tests indicate that most of the blood found in the bedroom matches that of the blood on the handkerchief.

In fact, Owens said, the tests showed that only one in 600 million people have DNA consistent with that on the handkerchief, which the state intends to prove Ronald Rudin used while shaving.

Owens and Guymon say Rudin shot her husband to death in order to get her share of his estate, estimated to be worth between $8 million and $11 million.

After he was shot to death, they allege that she and at least one accomplice decapitated him, stuffed him in a trunk and set the trunk on fire near Lake Mohave 45 minutes southeast of Las Vegas.

Ronald Rudin's skull and charred remains were found a month later by fishermen.

Witnesses have testified that even before anyone knew Ronald Rudin was dead Margaret Rudin had his bed hauled off to an alley and the bedroom converted into an office.

No DNA samples were taken from Ronald Rudin's skull so the forensics experts resorted to obtaining his DNA from the handkerchief.

Guymon said Thursday the state has 12 to 15 witnesses remaining. They are expected to testify about the blood evidence, Margaret Rudin's two years as a fugitive and the discovery of the murder weapon in Lake Mead more than a year after the murder.

One of the final witnesses to be called will be Sharron Cooper, one of Ronald Rudin's trustees and beneficiaries.

She is also one of the people Amador alleges was behind Ronald Rudin's death.

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