The state's case against Mr. Windsor was almost entirely circumstantial. The only physical evidence that purportedly directly linked Mr. Windsor to the killing of Mr. Howard were fingerprints found on a cigarette butt recovered from the Mustang automobile supposedly used by Mr. Windsor and his co-defendant, Colon Lavon Guthrie, in the commission of the crime. The fingerprints were identified as those of Mr. Windsor by the state's expert witness (R 934-935). Having thus purportedly placed Mr. Windsor in the Mustang, the state also introduced two casings; one found at Mr. Howard's store and the other in the Mustang.
Given that these two items of physical evidence represented a crucial part of the state's otherwise overwhelmingly circumstantial case, trial counsel was constitutionally required to make an effort to challenge the state's interpretation of this evidence. Indeed, counsel recognized their responsibility to do so shortly before trial, by requesting funds to retain a fingerprint expert, which request was granted by the trial court. Nevertheless, halfway through the trial, counsel still had not retained an expert, and, in fact, never did so (R 881), leaving the state's interpretation of this evidence unchallenged. The importance of having an expert is highlighted by a review of the testimony and cross-examination of the state's fingerprint expert, Carol Curlee. Ms. Curlee made only one fingerprint identification of Mr. Windsor, that on the cigarette butt. On cross-examination Ms. Curlee admitted that this was only a partial print, and that she could not recall how many ‘points' of similarity there were between that print and Mr. Windsor's file prints (R 936-937). A defense expert could, in all likelihood, have explained to the jury the weaknesses in Ms. Curlee's identification, given these admissions on her part.
The state also introduced fingerprint evidence linking Mr. Guthrie to the killing of Mr. Howard (R 918-920, 924-926). This evidence was part of the state's strategy of trying Mr. Guthrie, against whom there was more physical evidence instead of Mr. Windsor and then using circumstantial evidence to purportedly show that Mr. Windsor was with Guthrie on the day of the crime. Again, as defense counsel understood, expert assistance should have been obtained to challenge this fingerprint evidence as well...(.WE have been asking for the court to release this print for testing to a print expert here in the U.K....as for the shell casings they did take photos off them and prints but for some unknown reason kept that information..those shells were not from the murder weapon which i have proof of....as for the Mustang that wasn't even at the Howard place and i have proof of that....all they wanted to do was tie the two crimes together and put Harvey Windsor with Guthrie...No one identified Harvey Windsor at the Howard place..in fact people said it was not him.
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