Blood stain with hammer imprint shown in ex-FBI agent’s murder trial

By Dave Toplikar

Monday, Dec. 13, 2010 | 4:02 p.m.

Photos showed the body of Kimberly Long laying in a pool of blood. Two bloody hammers also were pictured on the floor, with one of them only a few inches from her hand.

However, prosecutors were trying to show a Clark County jury Monday afternoon that the claw hammer next to Long's hand had been moved there before police arrived by Edward Preciado-Nuno, 63, a retired FBI special agent who is charged with murder in Long's death two years ago in a Las Vegas home.

Preciado has pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder with a deadly weapon.

He has claimed he picked up a hammer and used it against Long, who he said first attacked him for trying to take legal means to get her to leave the home she shared with his son, Jeffrey Preciado-Nuno.

The 63-year-old Preciado-Nuno has said that Long, 31, started hitting him with a hammer in the head, knocking him to the floor of the garage during the morning of Nov. 13, 2008, at the home at 8790 Ashley Park Ave.

Preciado-Nuno has said after she knocked him down, he picked up another hammer and started hitting her in self defense.

On Monday, jurors heard from Daniel Holstein, a senior crime scene analyst with Metro Police who is certified as an expert in blood stain pattern examination.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Giancarlo Pesci guided Holstein through photos of the crime scene, which showed the hammers and a large pool of blood around Long's body.

A photo also showed three "swipes" of blood on the wall near the garage door opener, which Holstein said were made by three fingers.

Then Holstein was asked to describe an oval blood stain on the floor a few feet from both hammers and Long's body.

In a close-up of the stain, Holstein showed the jury that in the center of that stain was an outline that looks like it could have been made by the head of the wooden hammer. It was 1.5 inches in height, which was the same size as the wooden hammer that was found next to Long's hand. The other hammer head was larger.

Holstein said the outline would have been created by blood that was on the wooden hammer.

The analyst also said as the hammer laid on its side on the floor, blood had welled up and dried around the head of the hammer. He showed the jury a line of blood where that had taken place on the hammer.

Holstein was being cross-examined Monday afternoon by defense attorney Thomas Pitaro.

Pitaro pointed out the theory about the hammer imprint in the blood stain wasn't contained in any written police reports and was made many months later.

The trial will continue on Tuesday. Mosley has told the attorneys he hoped that the testimony could be wrapped up this week.

According to a police report, Long and Jeffrey Preciado-Nuno had been a couple for about five years and had an infant son together. But they had had a somewhat turbulent relationship that that in the past resulted in arrests for both of them, police said.

Jeffrey Preciado-Nuno had called his father, a retired FBI agent and longtime law enforcement officer, asking for help and advice on how to break off the relationship and evict Long from the home.

The fight broke out when the father had sent his son away from the home, so the father could explain to Long that they were gathering documentation about a recent violent episode where she had punched him in the face and broken his nose.

A document containing a written voluntary police statement that the son planned to file with police about that incident was found on the floor of the garage next to Long's body and the pool of blood, police said.