Blood on sock matches Nicole's, chemist says

  Jonathan T. Lovitt

  05/03/1995

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 04A

  (Copyright 1995)

 

  LOS ANGELES - More than three months into the O.J. Simpson murder trial,

  jurors finally heard testimony of scientific evidence linking him to the grisly

  murders of his ex-wife and her friend.

 

  Chemist Gregory Matheson testified that a sock found in Simpson's bedroom had

  a bloodstain matching Nicole Brown Simpson's type.

 

  He said the stain "is inconsistent with or definitely could not have come from . . .

  Mr. Simpson or . . . Mr. Goldman."

 

  Meanwhile Tuesday, the latest juror dismissed from the trial was rushed to the

  hospital by ambulance. A paramedic told reporters that Tracy Hampton's illness

  appeared to be psychological.

 

  "One of the reasons she may be sick is all the attention here," said County Fire

  Inspector Brian Jordan.

 

  Hampton, a 25-year-old flight attendant, was dropped two weeks after telling

  Judge Lance Ito that she "couldn't take it anymore."

 

  Her father, Sterling Hampton, told reporters Monday: "She's a young girl and she

  doesn't feel good right now. She doesn't feel good at all."

 

  In the courtroom, chemist Matheson took jurors step-by-step through

  conventional tests that reveal blood type.

 

  Matheson said he made the discovery on the sock more than three months after

  Simpson was charged with killing Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman on June

  12.

 

  When he looked at the sock on June 29, Matheson said, he didn't notice any

  blood. But on Sept. 18, he saw a dark stain on the sock. The stain, he said,

  turned out to be consistent with Nicole Simpson's blood type.

 

  Matheson also said:

 

  -- A glove found at the murder scene contained blood consistent with Goldman's

  type.

 

  -- Blood under Nicole Simpson's fingernails has a "high likelihood" of being her

  own.

 

  -- Blood drops leading away from the murder scene are consistent with

  Simpson's type.

 

  Legal analysts said prosecutors are finally to the meat of their evidence.

 

  Without a murder weapon or an eyewitness, prosecutors are relying on DNA

  "genetic fingerprinting" tests to link Simpson to the slayings.

 

  "The quicker (prosecutors) bring on the results, the better it will be for them,"

  says Southwestern University law professor Robert Pugsley. "When they get to

  the bottom line, the jury will pick up."

 

  Jurors, who looked bored Monday, were sitting up on Tuesday and taking

  copious notes. Ito ordered charts and lawyers repositioned when one juror raised

  her hand and told him, "I can't see."

 

  Simpson, though, didn't appear to want to see when prosecutors showed graphic

  photos of the murder scene. He stared at the opposite wall and some said his eyes

  welled up with tears. Goldman's sister, Kim, also fought back tears.

  PHOTO,b/w,Sam Mircovich