The Commonwealth and defense each rested their case Thursday morning in the murder trial for Larayna Manning, the woman charged in the October 2020 shooting death of Calvin “Cue” Taylor during a robbery at his home on North Kentucky Avenue.
Dr. Christopher Kiefer is a medical examiner for the Commonwealth of Kentucky testified about the autopsy he performed on Taylor, saying he was shot three times with a handgun.
Tyiesha Moore is a DNA analyst for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and testified for about an hour on analysis conducted on several items found at the crime scene, including a cigarette butt and duct tape.
At least one piece of duct tape contained the DNA of Taylor and Manning, according to Moore’s testing.
Beginning the defense case, attorney Jason Pfeil called independent forensic specialist Samantha Spencer, who believes there was contamination and other issues in the testing that would make the results untrustworthy.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling during cross-examination had her acknowledge again that she never conducted any hands-on testing of the evidence.
Moore was called back to the stand and again testified that all measures were taken to ensure the evidence testing results are reliable and not contaminated.
Both sides are set to give closing arguments when trial resumes in the afternoon.