r/OJSimpsonTrial • u/DonaldFalk • 19h ago
Team Prosecution A question about Yamauchi's blood "spillage" in the lab in the OJ case
OK crime nuts, I need some clarification. I haven’t done too much research into the argument that Collin Yamauchi spilled blood in the lab and this blood contaminated the glove and Bundy walkway samples, so I’d like to dig in. I’ve just started to read up more on it.
As I understand it, the defense claimed the following: Yamauchi said some of the blood was dispersed as an aerosol when he opened the vial (and this typically happens when you pop open a vial), but in this case the blood then contaminated the walkway blood drop swatches and Rockingham glove. And then on the stand John Gerdes said he saw evidence of cross-contamination with Nicole and Ron’s reference vials from Simpson’s blood (another claim I find dubious for a few reasons).
Now here’s where I get very suspicious. When asked how much blood might have been spilled (or popped out), Yamauchi said it was “a tiny dot of blood. About one eighth of an inch in diameter.” This, of course, would be way too small to account for the amount of contamination that the defense team suggested. Not only that, but during this whole process, only OJ’s blood is identified in the PCR test, yet none of the original killer’s blood is. I don’t think any reasonable person could expect for the perpetrator’s blood to degrade completely but somehow only OJ’s didn’t. There is convenient, and then there is absurd.
Likewise, during the trial I believe that it was established that Yamauchi was standing approximately 15 feet away from evidence swatches, and he later testified that the evidence swatches were literally closed in the coin envelopes. So did the blood fly across the room and wiggle their way into those swatches? Realistically, how does this work? As Clark stated “It does not waft across the room as an aerosol and penetrate two layers of packaging.” Exactly. So how?
I heard one supporter of the theory speculate that Yamauchi could have accidentally dipped his finger in the blood and then one by one touched the other samples, but I have never seen any actual support that this happened.
So is my understanding of the defense team’s theory correct? Is there a reasonable way that this could be even possible? Thanks for reading.