The Crime Scene Unit: McElroy and Johnson

Who they are

Investigator Jerry McElroy, #634, and Investigator Johnson, Chattanooga Police Crime Scene Unit. Both worked Teakwood on June 8 and Stockton on June 9, 2020.

What they did and did not do

• At Teakwood the chemical blood test (Bluestar) was used only inside the camper. The driveway and the corner where the shot and scream were reported were never sampled.
• At Stockton the instruction was to collect “cellphones, weapons, ammunition and anything that violated TCA,” though the warrant listed DNA and trace evidence. The driveway the State says the body was brought to was never collected.
• McElroy at trial: “I was given item specifically to look for.”
• The State’s video 00007 records Johnson and Sgt. Emery talking about what was in a bag before lawful entry, and the camera walks through staining on the Stockton driveway.
• A Ring camera was removed from Teakwood. No Ring device is on the inventory. Four other cameras were seized and no footage was produced.
• The SCCY pistol had “no fingerprints.”

The evidence report

• Every page is stamped “6-17-20 @ 1113,” yet the pages carry entries dated August 3 and October 1, 2020.
• The report ended at Item 176, “END OF REPORT.” Item 177 was added later. One report calls Item 177 a “belt,” another a “plastic bag.”
• The camper is logged as “found” in the Teakwood yard three days after it was towed away.
• Items 31 to 34, the ballistics-database casings, carry no date and no collector.
• Johnson’s code is on the bullet from Randall’s body, collected August 3, 2020. Johnson was not called at trial, and McElroy told the jury, “I don’t think I can testify items that I didn’t collect.”

See also Teakwood: Safes and Cameras and How the Evidence Moved.