Free Murder in Brentwood by Mark Fuhrman Page B

progress, what a suspect might touch, how a crime scene might develop, or what might have taken place.
    During Lange’s criminal trial testimony, he stated that he showed Fung the gate and ordered him to take blood samples from it. Lange further testified that he never checked the evidence report to make sure that this was done, and only became aware on July 3 that it hadn’t been done. At that time he observed the same blood he had asked Fung to recover.
    Later in court the defense attorneys disclosed that a photograph with Fung pointing to blood on the rear gate was not taken until July 3, when he returned to get the blood he had missed. If the blood was still on the gate two weeks after the murder, the fingerprint might also have still been intact. But someone who was not specifically looking for the fingerprint probably would not have found it. At some point, the fingerprint was destroyed.
    The coins found in the rear alley might also have put a bleeding O.J. Simpson at the murder scene on the night of June 12. I have been unable to find out whether those coins were ever fingerprinted, but during Lange’s testimony, his orders as to which items should be dusted for prints did not specifically include the coins.
    Sometimes, important evidence can look mundane or even insignificant. Around the first of August, Ron Phillips got a call from Captain Gartland of Robbery/Homicide. Gartland explained that because it was late on a Friday afternoon, he had no one to go investigate the discovery of yet another piece of blood evidence at the Bundy scene. Nicole’s friend Ron Fischman had been over at the townhome doing some chores when he saw another blood drop which hadn’t been noticed before. Gartland asked us to see if the blood was indeed there, and to recover it if possible. Of course, we agreed and went over to Bundy. There it was, a drop of blood on the step of the north walkway, leading toward the alley gate. Ron got on the cell phone and called a criminalist and a photographer to recover the blood drop.
    While we were waiting, I looked around. The planter to the side of the walkway was covered with leaves, yet I saw a flash of color among the fallen foliage. I began poking through the leaves with a pen and saw a very large piece of bubble gum with visible teeth impressions of adult molars.
    “Look what I found,” I said.
    “Oh, no,” Ron groaned. “Don’t do this any more. Why do you have to keep finding stuff?”
    So it wasn’t exactly a bloody glove, but this piece of gum could tell us something.
    “What do you expect RHD to do with it?” he asked.
    “They can get a search warrant or court order, take dental impressions of O.J. Simpson, and see if they match this gum. Check it for DNA.”
    The piece of gum was covered with leaves, which meant it had been there a while, anywhere between the last time the gardener visited and the night of the murders, after which the gardener had obviously not returned. If the gardener came toward the end of the week, that would close the time frame even more tightly.
    Maybe it was the killer’s gum. Or maybe there was a harmless explanation for that piece of gum being there. Wouldn’t it have been nice to know either way?
    The implications for the prosecution were obvious. If the gum was Simpson’s, it places him at Bundy within a week of the murders, contradicting his statement to Vannatter and Lange that he hadn’t been there for a week. For the defense, the implications were even more apparent. Could this be a different suspect? Why wasn’t the gum found during the initial investigation? Why would Fuhrman, who’s supposed to be trying to frame O.J., come up with a piece of evidence that might point to someone else?
    The gum was booked as evidence, but was never used in court. The defense never mentioned the gum, maybe because they suspected whose it was.
    Focusing on detail is what being a detective is all about. All evidence is important, and you shouldn’t judge