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Author Topic: Missing teen Briana Denison from Reno NV (Body Found)  (Read 125767 times)
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« Reply #100 on: December 09, 2008, 07:35:37 AM »

http://www.keyt.com/news/local/35665284.html

New Charges Filed in Denison Case
 Video High
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Prosecutors in Nevada have filed three new rape charges against a former Marine accused of killing a college student.

According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, James Michael Biela has been charged with the rapes of Briana Denison and another woman. He was also charged with attempted sexual assault of a student in November 2007.

The 27-year-old was arrested Nov. 25 and charged with strangling Denison and sexually assaulting another woman in December 2007.

Washoe County prosecutors were reviewing whether to seek the death penalty.

Denison, a Santa Barbara City College sophomore, was abducted
from a friend's house, and her body was found in a Reno field.

Denison's family declined to comment. Calls to the county public
defender's office were not answered Saturday.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Story Created: Dec 6, 2008 at 8:18 PM PST

Story Updated: Dec 8, 2008 at 11:09 AM PST

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« Reply #101 on: May 02, 2009, 09:43:59 AM »

(05-01) 17:02 PDT Reno, Nev. (AP) --
Judge to rule on motions in Reno murder case
The Reno man accused of raping and killing a young woman and sexually assaulting two other college coeds told his boss he wanted to leave for a new job in Washington state the same day the murder victim's body was found last year, a prosecutor said Friday.

Washoe County Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler made the disclosure during a hearing on defense motions to separate James Michael Biela's murder trial from the two sexual assault cases.

Biela, 27, is charged with murder, kidnapping and three counts of sexual assault. The former pipefitter faces a possible death penalty if convicted of sexually assaulting and killing Brianna Denison, 19, who disappeared in January 2008 while sleeping on a friend's couch. Her body was found about three weeks later.

Biela also is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a parking garage in October 2007 and kidnapping and raping another woman two months later.

Based partly on DNA evidence, he was arrested in November 2008. Trial is set for Feb. 22, 2010.

The prosecution wants all three cases tied together, saying each attack by what police have described as a "serial rapist" occurred within a 400-yard radius north of the downtown casino district near the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno.

"What we have here is a man who basically is a predator," Sattler said. "A man who conducted sexually-motivated, sneak attacks on small, unsuspecting women at UNR who are unable to defend themselves."

Public defenders representing Biela argue that tying all three cases together could prejudice jurors against Biela by allowing them to consider unrelated evidence from the other attacks.

Judge Robert Perry said he intends to rule early next week.

Wearing handcuffs, leg shackles and a bulletproof vest, Biela briefly smiled at a newspaper photographer when he entered court Friday.

In an effort to prove Biela had a guilty conscience about the attacks, Sattler disclosed the prosecution has two witnesses prepared to testify that Biela fled the area after Denison's body was found in a vacant field near a business park.

The day Denison's body was found, he went to his employer and said he wanted to leave, Sattler said.

"If that is not consciousness of guilt, I don't know what is," he said.

Public defender Jay Slocum said that under Nevada law Biela is entitled to three separate trials unless the prosecution can prove the set of facts in each case is closely connected and part of a common scheme or plan. He said that while the attacks were only blocks a part they were in "discrete and separate places."

One of the sexual assault victims was taken from the parking lot to another location miles away before she and the assailant performed oral sex on each other and he brought her back to the original location, Slocum said. In that case, no weapon was used.

In the other case, the assailant raped the victim at gunpoint in the parking garage, he said.

"The difference is pretty marked," Slocum said. "Evidence in one case may be stronger than in another, but the jury may accumulate all evidence in all the cases and attempt to piggyback the evidence to convict him in all the cases."

Sattler said two of the attacks were "literally across the street from each other."

"You could throw a rock from one to the other," he said. "It's like arguing the Columbine killings took place in discrete locations because they did not all happen in the same classroom. ... It is absurd."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/01/state/n170257D33.DTL
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« Reply #102 on: October 06, 2009, 08:51:16 PM »

Lawyers for James Biela say crime lab destroyed vital evidence

BY MARTHA BELLISLE • mbellisle@rgj.com • October 6, 2009

Lawyers for James Biela, charged with killing Brianna Denison and sexually assaulting two others, have filed a motion saying the county’s crime lab destroyed DNA evidence that could have been used in his defense.

The lab violated its own policies by destroying semen samples after using what they had for DNA testing, Chief Deputy Public Defender Maizie Pusich said in the motion.

“The destruction raises the inference that arresting and prosecuting someone, anyone, in this high profile murder case may have been more important to state agents than following the procedures designed to prevent false tests,” Pusich said.

The motion asks the judge to order that “evidence of any DNA tests in which the entire suspect sample has been consumed, and cannot be retested, be suppressed and not be presented to the jury during the trial in this case.”

Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler did not return phone messages seeking comment.

A hearing on the case is scheduled for Wednesday. The defense team plans to ask the court to move the trial date from Feb. 22 to a later date. One reason is Biela’s lead attorney recently left the public defender’s office to work for a private firm and Pusich needs more time. They also said they have not received all of the evidence requested.

Denison was a 19-year-old sophomore at a Santa Barbara, Calif., college when she was abducted Jan. 20, 2008 from a house near the University of Nevada, Reno campus. Her body was found in a south Reno field on Feb. 15, 2008. She had been raped, and was strangled.

After his arrest in November 2008, Biela also was charged with raping a UNR student on Oct. 22, 2007 as she headed toward her car in a university parking garage, and charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting another UNR student on Dec. 17, 2007.

He has pleaded not guilty. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

While no DNA evidence was collected in the parking garage rape, evidence was collected in the Denison case, and in the December 2007 sexual assault, according to court documents and testimony. This evidence linked Biela to these two crimes, prosecutors have said.

(2 of 2)

In May, Biela’s defense lawyers asked prosecutors for access to these biological samples so they could be independently tested, the motion said. They were told the samples were “consumed during testing.” But a previous Washoe County Crime Lab report had said some material was still available, the motion said.

At that point, the lab gave defense lawyers a copy of their protocols for testing, which said they were to use the smallest amount possible.


The amount of evidence collected from the crime scene was “70 to 100 times the amount necessary for a lab to develop a genetic profile of a suspect,” the motion said. “So what happened to all of this unused evidence?”

Without the ability to conduct its own testing, the defense is unable to challenge the state’s test results, the motion said.

“Allowing the state’s DNA tests into evidence would force the defendant into the position of proving a negative,” the motion said. “Like requiring Mr. Biela to prove he is not a warlock, the state here seeks to use secret evidence, shielded from the inquiries of science to prove Mr. Biela’s guilt.”

“The state is asking Mr. Biela to disprove their own test results, while they simultaneously have destroyed the evidence in the case, which he needs to present his defense.”

http://www.rgj.com/article/20091006/NEWS01/91006058/1321/news
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« Reply #103 on: November 30, 2009, 12:39:41 PM »

DNA Evidence Allowed in Brianna Denison Case

11/30/09
DNA evidence collected in the case of a Reno man accused of the rape and murder of one woman and the rape of two other women can be used at his trial, a judge has ruled. James Biela faces murder charges in the death of Brianna Denison in January 2008.
Earlier, Judge Robert Perry also denied Biela's request to be tried separately in the three cases.

Attorneys for Biela argued that there was no way for them to verify the DNA evidence findings because the lab used all of it in developing their profile. Therefore, they said, it should be excluded from the trial.

Judge Perry ruled that crime lab technicians did not act in bad faith when they exhausted samples collected from a crime scene while trying to develop a DNA profile of James Biela.

Disappeared from Friend's Couch

Denison, 19, was visiting friends in January 2008 and sleeping on their couch after a night out near the University of Nevada, Reno campus when she disappeared. Her body was found two weeks later in a south Reno field.

Biela was arrested after a lengthy investigation and search for his pickup truck. He was charged in November 2008 with Denison's murder, the rape of a university student at gunpoint in a university parking garage on Oct. 22, 2007, and with kidnapping and sexually assault of a another woman on Dec. 17, 2007.

http://crime.about.com/b/2009/11/30/dna-evidence-allowed-in-brianna-denison-case.htm
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« Reply #104 on: December 01, 2009, 02:01:26 AM »

 
We here in Reno all know he is guilty.  I'm so glad the judge is allowing this evidence.  We've been waiting a long time to see this a-hole brought to justice.  Hope he gets the needle.
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« Reply #105 on: March 11, 2010, 09:54:13 PM »

Murder suspect accused of following case online
The Associated Press

Thursday, March 11, 2010 | 6:07 p.m.

Lawyers for a man charged with killing a young Reno woman and raping two others have asked a judge to block evidence that was netted from searches of his home computers.

At a court hearing today, prosecutors alleged James Biela's computers showed thousands of Internet search hits for key words such as "Brianna Denison," "abduction" and "strangle."

Washoe County District Judge Robert Perry says he would issue a ruling on the motion to block the evidence by Monday.

Biela is charged with the murder of the 19-year-old Denison, who vanished while sleeping on a friend's couch in January 2008. Her body was found about three weeks later.

He also is charged with raping two other women.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/mar/11/murder-suspect-accused-of-following-case-online/
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« Reply #106 on: March 16, 2010, 04:27:27 PM »

Why can't they use HIS DNA?? Did I miss something along the way? Why do they need to use his son's? Why am I lost?

NV judge says son's DNA can be used in Reno case

Associated Press - March 16, 2010 3:45 PM ET

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A Reno judge has ruled that DNA taken from the son of a man arrested for killing a college student can be used as evidence in his upcoming trial.

Washoe District Judge Robert Perry on Monday denied a motion by defense lawyers for James Biela to suppress the evidence.

Biela is charged with the murder of 19-year-old Brianna Denison, who vanished while sleeping on a friend's couch in January 2008 near the University of Nevada, Reno campus. Her body was found about three weeks later.

He's also charged with raping two other women near the university. Biela has pleaded not guilty. He could face the death penalty if convicted. His trial is scheduled to begin in May.
http://www.ktvn.com/Global/story.asp?S=12150765
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« Reply #107 on: April 22, 2010, 07:12:41 PM »

James Biela's ex-girlfriend testifies about his alleged interest in thong underwear,
porn

BY MARTHA BELLISLE • mbellisle@rgj.com
April 22, 2010

The former girlfriend of James Biela, charged with
kidnapping, raping and strangling a college co-ed
and sexually assaulting two others, told a judge
today that Biela often visited porn Web sites at the
home they shared, and allegedly had a fetish for
women’s thong underwear.

Carleen Harmon said she found two pairs of thong
underwear in Biela’s truck when she went to visit
him in Washington during September 2008. She
said she suspected he was cheating on her, so she
searched his truck.

“They were small. They were cotton. They were
thongs,” Harmon testified. “They were pastel in
color. They had a little flower design.”

When Harmon confronted Biela with the underwear,
he threw them out the window, and said he had
picked them up at a laundry mat.

Harmon also said she often searched computers in
their home after Biela had used them, and found that
he allegedly spent time at porn sites. She often
changed the passwords on the computers, she said,
to keep him from visiting those sites.

Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler had called
Harmon to testify in a hearing to determine what
evidence can be presented to the jury when Biela’s
trial begins May 10.

His lawyers had filed a motion seeking to limit
information shown to the jury about Biela’s alleged
interest in thong underwear and pornography,
arguing that nothing he had done was illegal and it
would taint their opinion of him.

Sattler told Judge Robert Perry that the evidence
should be included in the trial because it was
similar to evidence connected with the murder and
sexual assault cases.

The hearing continued into the afternoon. Perry is
expected to rule on the motion at a later date.

Biela is charged with kidnapping Brianna Denison,
19, from a home near the University of Nevada, Reno
on Jan. 20, 2008. Her body was found Feb. 15,
2008 in a field in southeast Reno.

Biela also is charged with sexually assaulting two
other college students at sites near campus. He
could face the death penalty if convicted.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20100422/NEWS01/100422038/1321/news/James-Biela-s-ex-girlfriend-testifies-about-his-alleged-interest-in-thong-underwear--pornograph
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« Reply #108 on: April 22, 2010, 09:03:38 PM »

snip:
Updated: Feb 20, 2008 08:43 AM PST   
   
Reno Police say they found a pair of women's underwear at the scene where they found the body of 19-year Brianna Denison. 

Denison was kidnapped from a home near the University of Nevada on Jan. 20 and found dead in a field South Reno on Feb. 15.

Police say the underwear they found at the scene did not belong to Brianna.  It contains the DNA of an unknown woman along with the DNA of the man who kidnapped and strangled Brianna. 

end


If they have the other womans ID from her DNA AND his DNA ID ..
Then it should be a cut and dry case. 

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« Reply #109 on: May 08, 2010, 01:51:34 PM »

Reno murder trial for suspected serial rapist
The Associated Press

Saturday, May 8, 2010 | 9:41 a.m.

Blue ribbons sprang up all over town as investigators frantically searched for a missing college coed who disappeared from a friend's couch in the middle of the night near the University of Nevada, Reno campus.

The tiny pieces of fabric fluttered from street lights and fence posts as the community waited for word on 19-year-old Brianna Denison, fearing the worst.

When the popular Reno High grad's body was found a month later under a discarded Christmas tree in a snowy field, the ribbons in her favorite color remained on icy tree limbs and casino marquees, a stubborn symbol of her hometown's determination to find her killer.

More than two years later, the ribbons are gone.

James Biela, a 29-year-old Sparks pipe fitter, goes on trial next week for rape, kidnapping and murder in the Denison case. He is also charged with sexually assaulting two other young women.
Biela has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Even jury selection is expected to be contentious after sensational media coverage about the string of attacks that gripped the city for months.

District Court Judge Robert Perry that most people in the Washoe County jury pool have some awareness of the case.

"It's going to be difficult to do," Perry said of seating an unbiased panel. He acknowledged that some of the evidence will be "graphic, gruesome, inflammatory."

Perry said he won't consider moving the trial to another jurisdiction without first attempting to seat a jury in Reno.

"If this case is tried just about any place on the planet, there is going to be pretrial publicity and potential jurors are going to be talking about it," Perry said.

The judge has taken several steps to try to ensure the verdict won't be vulnerable to appeal, holding numerous hearings about the admissibility of evidence and ordering the names of jurors kept secret until after their work is done. His first move was banning ribbons.

"We don't want blue ribbons in the courthouse. No signs, buttons, pins _ 'Justice for Brianna,' things like that," Perry said.

"I want to be sure we have a trial as fair as possible so we don't have reversible error, so we don't have to come back five years from now and have another multi-hundred thousand dollar trial," he said. "That doesn't help anybody _ the state, the taxpayers, anybody."

Perry hosted a special briefing with media representatives last month to outline how he intends to conduct the trial so it won't turn into a "circus" each day Biela is led into the courtroom in a bulletproof vest with a half dozen police and SWAT team members.

He's allowing cameras but with some restrictions.

He put a gag order on juror names based on concerns that if made public they might feel pressure to return a guilty verdict.

He's also prohibiting lawyers and witnesses from using the word "porn" when describing Websites prosecutors say Biela frequently visited _ something they intend to use to try to help prove his motive.

Biela's lawyers know what they are up against.

"It is an emotional case, a sensitive case," said Jim Leslie, one of the public defender's representing the muscular construction worker who trained in martial arts and served briefly in the U.S. Marines.

Police revealed the discovery of Denison's body during a live televised news conference and for the first time said they believed it was the work of a "serial rapist."

"I'm worried this guy is still out there, and I'm worried somebody else is going to get hurt," Reno Deputy Police Chief Jim Johns said into the cameras on Feb. 16, 2008.

Three days later detectives disclosed the killer had left two pairs of women's thong underwear with Denison's body that did not belong to her.

Within weeks, two more women came forward to say they, too, had been assaulted in the same neighborhood just a few blocks north of the downtown casino district with its famous rainbow arch, "The Biggest Little City in the World." One of the women said she was attacked in a UNR parking garage less than 50 yards from campus police headquarters. Both said the attacker took their underwear after they were assaulted.

Authorities responded with safety workshops, and many women reported changing their daily routines to avoid walking in dark areas or alone.

Biela was arrested in November 2008 after his ex-girlfriend had become suspicious when she found two pair of thong underwear in his truck. She eventually gave detectives permission to take blood from their son so authorities could match Biela's DNA to that found on Denison and at least one of the thongs left with her body.

Biela could face a death sentence if convicted of murder, but that would follow in a separate penalty phase after what is expected to be a three-week trial.

Court officials, anticipating many challenges, have reserved a pool of 225 potential jurors.

"I think if anybody was honest if they were polled for the jury they'd have to say they were inundated with the publicity of her disappearance," said David Houston, a Reno defense lawyer, who has been involved in high profile cases. "But you don't necessarily know if a juror is going to be honest."

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/may/08/reno-murder-trial-for-suspected-serial-rapist/
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« Reply #110 on: May 12, 2010, 01:25:49 PM »

Testimony Underway in James Biela Trial in Downtown Reno
Posted: May 12, 2010 12:55 PM EDT

Trial is underway in Reno for a man accused of kidnapping and killing one college coed and sexually assaulting two other women more than two years ago.

A jury of seven men, five women and two alternates listened to opening arguments Wednesday in the trial of accused serial rapist James Biela in Washoe County District Court.

The 29-year-old Biela could face the death penalty if he is convicted of murdering 19-year-old Brianna Denison.

She was abducted in January 2008 from a house near the University of Nevada, Reno.

Her body was found more than three weeks later in a field beneath a discarded Christmas tree.

Prosecutors allege Biela was responsible for a series of sex attacks that had Reno on edge for nearly a year.

http://www.ktvn.com/Global/story.asp?S=12469628
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« Reply #111 on: May 13, 2010, 06:18:56 PM »

May 13, 2010 5:01 PM
Brianna Denison Trial: Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty

RENO, Nev. (CBS/AP) Prosecutors say that a man obsessed with women's thong underwear started out raping women, and ended up killing one. Now, Prosecutors are trying to convict James Biela, and are seeking the death penalty for his heinous alleged crime.

Deputy District Attorney Chris Hicks said, in his opening statement to a seven-man, five-woman jury, that Biela "graduated from serial rapist to murderer," and that after DNA and other forensic evidence is presented, jurors will inevitably see the truth of Biela's guilt.

The trial before Washoe District Judge Robert Perry is expected to last about three weeks.

snipped from
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20004949-504083.html
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« Reply #112 on: May 16, 2010, 01:53:15 PM »

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/may/14/testimony-to-continue-in-biela-trial-in-reno/
Testimony to continue in Biela trial in Reno
May 14, 2010

Crime scene and DNA experts could be next to testify in the trial of the man charged with abducting and killing a 19-year-old college coed and sexually assaulting two other women near the University of Nevada, Reno.

Trial resumes Friday in the James Biela (BEE'-lah) murder and sexual assault trial in Washoe County District Court.

A Washoe County crime lab investigator testified Thursday about evidence collected from a December 2007 sexual assault victim.

A Reno police detective also testified investigators believed the same man who attacked that woman abducted Brianna Denison.

Denison was 19 when she disappeared in January 2008. Her body was found 26 days later. Authorities say she had been raped and strangled.

The 28-year-old Biela could face the death penalty if convicted.

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« Reply #113 on: May 16, 2010, 01:57:11 PM »

http://www.rgj.com/article/20100515/NEWS01/5150346/1321/news
Private labs help county test DNA
May 15, 2010

The Washoe County Crime Laboratory has begun a pilot program in which DNA samples of convicted offenders are tested monthly at a private lab, an effort to curb large DNA backlogs and solve crimes quicker.
Crime Lab director Renee Romero said the program began last month and will run through December, using about $100,000 in local convicted offender court fines.

Romero said the lab has been dependent on yearly grant funding from the National Institute of Justice to lower growing backlogs. In October, grant administrators said it would pay for the processing of the lab's 4,000 backlogged samples through March 31.

Romero said when the samples return, her staff has to conduct a technical review of the analysis to make sure it was up to the lab's standards. The DNA profiles are then uploaded into the state and national DNA database, called CODIS.

Monthly testing would shorten the length of time samples have to sit on shelves. Under the National Institute of Justice grant, the samples are sent out once a year, usually in a batch of thousands.

The issue of DNA backlogs attracted wide attention during the 2008 hunt for a Reno serial rapist who was linked by DNA to the rape and strangulation death of 19-year-old Brianna Denison. After a brain storming session with crime lab scientists, Reno police detective Adam Wygnanski developed an idea of a community fundraiser where proceeds would go toward eliminating the then DNA backlog of 3,000 samples.

The idea was that the genetic identity of suspect could have been one of the offender samples waiting to be tested.

Almost $300,000 was raised toward the backlog effort. Among the 30 crimes solved during that backlog clearing was a violent rape of a mother that was witnessed by her young son in a Reno park.

Romero said the pilot program will give them a true cost and time impact analysis of sending out samples every month. For example, the goal is to send all of the samples from the month of April to an outside lab by the end of May so they could be returned by June. Her staff would then have to review the tests and upload the samples to the database by the end of June.
A quicker turnaround is the goal," Romero said of the pilot program. "We have to figure out the process of turning around the backlog quicker, other than using year-to-year grants. This will tell us what it takes in current conditions to get (the results)."
But Romero knows that the offender fine money will ultimately run out, and the lab will again have to rely on grant funding. Caseloads have been steady, she said, and although the country is facing a recession, grant money for DNA work seems to be a funding priority for the government.

Romero explained that testing of DNA samples are based on priorities, such as threats to the community and pending court dates. Violent crimes, including serial crimes, are given the highest priority. Backlogs at the crime lab comprise convicted offender samples that need to be tested and then uploaded into the state and national database and DNA samples collected from evidence at or related to crime scenes. For example, police asked scientists to test more than 1,000 samples related to the Denison case.

Helping out the scientists is new equipment, purchased through grants, that allows easier DNA extraction from evidence, and the ability to test batches of samples at once.

Denison's family and friends created a foundation in her name. One of its goals is to get "Brianna's Law" passed, which would require that all persons arrested for felonies have their DNA submitted into a national database, Nevada law limits the collection to convicted felons. The proposed law would also attempt to find funding to eliminate backlogs.

In 2007, the Legislature required DNA be taken from all convicted felons, but lawmakers did not earmark money for the testing. The law says offenders are supposed to pay a $150 fee for the testing, but officials say they rarely do, and it's too expensive and time consuming to go to court to get the payments.
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« Reply #114 on: May 16, 2010, 01:58:45 PM »

http://www.rgj.com/article/20100516/NEWS/5160339/1321/news
Week in Review
May 17, 2010
More than two years after Brianna Denison's disappearance and a year and a half after an arrest, the trial began Monday for a man charged with killing the college student and sexually assaulting two other women.

James Biela is charged with raping and killing Denison and sexually assaulting the two others.

The trial is expected to last three weeks(snip)
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  " Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."  - Daniel Moynihan
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« Reply #115 on: May 21, 2010, 03:26:18 PM »

All links clickable at the website

Photo Galleries
Biela Trial Continues Thursday
Third Day of Testimony in Biela Trial
Biela Trial Continues Monday
Biela Trial Enters Sixth Day
Biela Trial Now in Sixth Day
Biela Trial Continues Thursday

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Testimony details discovery of body, Denison death
Biela trial: Man who discovered Brianna Denison's body in South Reno field takes the stand
Biela trial: Denison’s boyfriend in tears as he recalls final text exchange
Biela trial: Courtroom watches last known video of Brianna
Biela trial wraps up first week; alleged Biela rape victim testifies and DNA challenged
Crime lab forced to shut down its DNA testing in '09


http://www.rgj.com/article/20100521/NEWS01/100521003/1321/NEWS/%3Cb%3EBiela-update--%3C/b%3EBiela-asked-for-layoff-from-job-the-day-Denison-was-found
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« Reply #116 on: May 21, 2010, 03:32:50 PM »

Thank-you, I'm also following this live blog from the courtroom  http://www.kolotv.com/biela  waiting for the lunch recess to end.
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« Reply #117 on: May 25, 2010, 05:25:18 PM »

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/24/grace.coldcase.denison/index.html?hpt=C2
Cold case: Suspect on trial in student's slaying
By Rupa Mikkilineni, Nancy Grace Producer
May 24, 2010 8:03 a.m. EDT

Brianna Denison was sleeping on a friend's sofa when she was abducted and killed in January 2008.
New York (CNN) -- The slaying of Brianna Denison was one of our first cold cases -- one that has resulted in an arrest.

Now the murder trial of the suspect, 28-year-old James Michael Biela, a former Marine with a young son, is entering its third week in a courtroom in Reno, Nevada.

The trial began with dramatic testimony by Denison's mother, her boyfriend, and a video showing her with friends at Mel's Diner just a few hours before she was abducted during the early morning of January 20, 2008.

Denison, 19, was attending community college in Santa Barbara, California, but was visiting friends at the University of Nevada, Reno. After they attended a concert, she slept on the living room couch in a friend's off-campus apartment.

While she slept, someone crept into the apartment and snatched her, police and prosecutors say. She was sexually assaulted and strangled, and her body was found weeks later in a snow-covered field a few miles away.

Her story was featured as a cold case in September 2008, triggering a flurry of local stories. A tip emerged and two months after our story, police in Reno, Nevada, made an arrest.
story, police in Reno, Nevada, made an arrest.

"Media coverage is absolutely essential for us," Detective Adam Wygnanski, one of the lead investigators, said at the time. "We finally got the break in the case we were looking for."
Police had released a photo of a woman's panties found near Denison's body and the description of a pickup truck. The panties were not Denison's, but investigators said they believed they were looking for a serial rapist who left women's panties as his "calling card."

The tip that broke the case came from a secret witness, who pointed police toward Biela.
According to police, the tipster saw the photo of the panties, and thought she recognized the truck police had described. She came forward, telling investigators a friend's boyfriend had a truck similar to the description, and that her friend had seen women's panties inside it.

Biela, who was working construction at the time of his arrest, is charged with kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering Denison. He could face the death penalty if convicted of her murder.

He also stands accused of raping another University of Nevada, Reno, student at a campus parking lot on October 22, 2007. And he's charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a third student on December 17.

Biela has pleaded not guilty to charges in all three attacks.

At the trial, Denison's boyfriend, Cameron Wilson Done, told the jury he and Brianna had been fighting on the day she was last seen alive. He recalled how his last text message to his girlfriend, at 4:23 a.m., was full of angry words. "She was my first girlfriend," Done told the court, as he broke down and cried on the witness stand.
Bridgette Denison, the victim's mother, testified that she last saw her daughter packing an overnight bag and heading to a friend's apartment to get ready for the concert. The next morning, she received a call that Brianna had vanished. She described seeing the blood stain on the couch where her daughter had been sleeping.

The Denison murder case has been combined at the trial with the cases of two other women who claim Biela sexually assaulted them. Both testified during the first week of the trial.

One of the women recounted how she was attacked on campus. She said her assailant threatened her with a gun, raped her and took her panties as a souvenir, although she never reported it to police. Asked if her attacker was in the court room, she pointed to Biela.

The defense challenged the identification because she earlier told a friend she could not describe her attacker to police.

The second woman, a student at the university, testified she'd been abducted outside her apartment and driven to a dark area and assaulted in the attacker's vehicle. She described the vehicle as an extended cab pickup truck with a dome light and a toddler's shoe on the floor of the truck. She was also able to describe the body of her attacker, but could not describe his face.
The woman testified that her assailant asked for her panties and took them with him.

DNA obtained from the victim's rape kit matched Biela's, according to testimony. Biela's defense attorneys are challenging the DNA testing method, saying it is not accurate.

The trial is expected to last two more weeks. Still, Denison's family members feel a sense of relief that the trial is underway.

"It's been a difficult time for us, but we are hopeful that justice will be served," said Brianna's aunt, Lauren Denison.
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« Reply #118 on: May 26, 2010, 10:46:15 AM »

Closing arguments, jury instructions, and then the jury goes to deliberate today. Justice for Brianna and the two girls he sexually assaulted an angelic monkey
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« Reply #119 on: May 26, 2010, 11:44:05 AM »

I watched some of this trial.  Biela's attys were up a creek with this case. 
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