Swaim murder trial: Week one, no verdict

WENATCHEE -- The long awaited first-degree murder trial here of Bernard "Bernie" Swaim of Sultan came to a week one conclusion: No verdict.
At the end of Friday, Sept. 1 proceedings, the prosecution's star  witness Dawn Soles was still testifying on cross examination from defense attorney Nick Yedinak.
Soles was questioned by prosecuting attorney Doug Shae before being turned over to Yedinak for cross.
She admitted to changing her story to investigators several times during questioning since last February and March, both on and off tape recorded statements.
Soles recounted how she met Swaim while he was a bartender at a bar she frequented and they married after dating for four months in Seattle.
She said she didn't have a car at the time and didn't have a job and that Swaim was the sole bread earner.She admits to having extra-marital affairs with her former husband, the victim Stephen Smith, while being married to another former husband, alleged killer Swaim.
Soles also admits to smoking hashish and having sex with other men, including another prosecution witness, Steve Noyes, who said he saw Soles, Swaim and daughter Crystal together in a car and spoke to Soles at that time, after the alleged killing of Smith  in a house in Cashmere.
While on the stand, Soles admitted she didn't like the fact that she was ordered to pay child support to Stephen Smith and that she had only supervised visitations with 2-year-old daughter Crystal and she didn't like that either.
Soles admitted she was "in no shape to be a mother" at the time she divorced Smith.
When asked by Yedinak what motive Swaim had to kill Smith she said it was "jealousy."
Though she was not an eye witness to the alleged killing of Smith, she said she held her daughter Crystal in a back bedroom and rocked her to sleep while being nervous and afraid of what she said was taking place in the living room - "scuffling and hitting," which she said lasted "30-40 seconds."
Soles claims she was sent to the bedroom with Crystal by Swaim after hours of drinking and smoking drugs with he and Smith and remained in that room for "45 minutes to an hour."
When Swaim came to get her Smith was gone. Swaim allegedly told her Smith was "out back."
Soles said Swaim packed some clothes for Crystal and placed them in the trunk of his car and the couple left Smith's house on Douglas Street to return to the Village Inn motel in Cashmere before eventually driving to Shasta to visit her mother and then leaving there for Seattle.
Soles was asked by Yedinak if she saw any blood in the trunk of Swaim's car when he placed Crystal's clothes inside and she said "no." She did say Swaim had "blood" on his arm and the front of his shirt, but that Swaim told her it was "barbecue sauce."
She told the court she doesn't remember if Smith's car was in the driveway of Smith's house when they left. She also said she didn't call the police with her suspicions concerning Swaim.
Soles told the jury that when she inquired as to Smith's whereabouts Swaim said, Steve was "out of the way."
Before the Soles testimony, Chelan County Sheriff Deputy Sgt. Jeff Middleton, a 33-year-veteran of that department, took the stand and admitted that if her were the original crime scene investigator in 1982 he would have taken fingerprints at the alleged murder scene and also would have impounded the Smith car once found. Both of these things were not done by the CCSO at the time.
Middleton said Swaim was cooperative when he went to Sultan to question him about the case and that Swaim also gave a DNA sample and answered questions. He said Swaim was concerned about his reputation and his real estate job and did not want anyone else to know he was under investigation in this case.
Middleton also said the "bloody towel" and a tool handle, described as an ax handle by others, were also missing from the evidence locker at the CCSO. Middleton also said the photographs taken at the scene and brown human hair fragments found in the towel were also missing from the evidence room. He told the court there was no good reason why all these items were unaccounted for.
He also said he would have taken a piece of the couch, allegedly stained with blood, from the scene if he were the responding officer. Middleton joined the CCSO two years after the disappearance of Smith.
The prosecution also had two Washington State Patrol forensic evidence technicians testify about blood supposedly found in the wall of the Cashmere home 35 years after the alleged killing of Smith.
WSP field technician Kristin Storment and crime lab tech Brittany Noll explained how they gathered the evidence and then the results of DNA testing.
Storment said they found no alleged blood spatter in the ceiling of the home's living room, even though one witness said there was blood there. She also said there was no blood evidence found in the yard on any of the rocks. Several stories circulated that Swaim had killed Smith "with a rock."
Noll said she found no DNA match to Swaim or Smith and isn't even sure the collected specimens were blood. She said there was also evidence of another unknown male in the DNA sample. 
Noll testified the sample "could have been skin cells or something else."
Soles admitted to the jury she was given a plea bargain agreement by Shae which would have called for a greatly reduced sentence of five years.
Yedinak asked her if she had first implicated a man nicknamed "Pork Chop" as the possible killer first and then changed her statement to implicate Swaim after six hours of interrogation without a lawyer by Middleton and CCSO Det. Josh Mathena.
"I don't believe so," she answered.
Yedinak asked her if she said to detectives during the March questioning, "what would it take me to go home?"
James "Pork Chop" last name unknown, was a "witness at our wedding," said Soles, meaning the wedding between she and Swaim in Seattle.
It has been stated by more than one witness that Smith owed "Pork Chop" money for four ounces of marijuana, thus introducing a possible motive for Smith's death at the hands of the mysterious "Pork Chop."
While in the witness box, Middleton had admitted to talking to Soles both on and off the record, i.e., when the tape recorder was on and also while it was turned off during breaks.
A prosecution witness flown in from Oswego, New York, "Arab" aka Derek Weldin, gave testimony that conflicted with that of the forensic experts and Soles regarding the timeline of events and physical aspects of the case.
Weldin was an occasional roommate of Smith's. He said he worked in various orchards and farms in the state and said he was not in the Smith home at the time of the alleged killing, but he did visit the home briefly after the incident and saw blood "everywhere."
Soles' testimony will resume Tuesday, Sept. 5  at 9:30 a.m. in Superior Court room 2, fifth floor, in front of Judge Lesley Allan. The courthouse is located at 316 Washington St.
The trial is open to the public.
Gary Bégin can be reached at gary@ncwmedia.net.