DECATUR, Ga. – After 11 days of testimony from 81 witnesses ranging from forensic metallurgists to bank robbing jailhouse snitches to weekend softball enthusiasts, prosecutors rested their case against Colvin “Butch” Hinton Thursday.
Hinton, a 40-year-old convicted sexual predator, is charged with the abduction and murder of Emory University student Shannon Melendi.
Melendi, 19, was last seen on March 26, 1994, after working at a softball tournament where Hinton was an umpire. The college sophomore and aspiring lawyer was reported missing the next day, when worried friends found her car abandoned, unlocked and with the keys still in the ignition at a gas station near the softball complex.
During tear-filled testimony in the beginning of the trial, Melendi’s friends and her mother Yvonne Melendi told jurors about the search effort for the young woman they described as ambitious, loving, and dedicated to her schoolwork, and who was not bashful about hitting the nearby Atlanta nightclubs for dancing, flirting and drinking.
Because Melendi’s body was never recovered, prosecutors have focused on reconstructing what they portrayed as Hinton’s highly suspicious actions after her disappearance.
Also, prosecutors have tried to prove that Melendi is not alive. Before resting on Thursday, the state submitted Melendi’s social security records to show the lack of activity in the years since she went missing.
The state also relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, including testimony from Hinton’s co-workers about his odd behavior and statements Hinton allegedly made to cellmates while he was in prison on unrelated arson charges.
Hinton also has a previous sexual assault conviction, and jurors heard testimony from his victim.
Perhaps the strongest piece of physical evidence came from chemist Mary Miller’s analyses of specks of rare metals found on masking tape wrapped around Melendi’s ring – which was discovered at a phone booth where an anonymous male caller claimed he abducted her.
Miller testified that the same rare metal particles such as tungsten and molybdenum were also found on a roll of masking tape confiscated from Hinton’s car by police, as well as rolls of tape taken from his workplace.
Miller also said the small cloth bag the ring was wrapped in was physically and chemically identical to cloth bags that were used almost solely by airplane mechanics who worked at the Delta technical operations center where Hinton was employed.
On cross-examination, however, Miller admitted to defense attorney B.J. Bernstein that when she received the rolls of tape, nearly 10 years after they were obtained by investigators, the evidence came packed together in unsealed accordion folders.
Forensic metallurgist Raymond Hart, the state’s final witness, told jurors Thursday how, when he inspected Hinton’s workplace, he found several canisters containing the same rare metals in powdered form as those found on the three samples of tape.
Hart also said it was “improbable” that the separate tape samples could have been contaminated by an FBI agent who stuck them in his coat pocket while collecting them.
On cross-examination, Hart conceded that some of the rarer metals found on the tape samples could also be found in such common items as smoke detectors and light bulb filaments.
After the state rested, the defense asked Judge Workman to declare a mistrial, citing what she said was a lack of evidence on the states behalf to prove that any crime, murder nor kidnapping was committed. Workman said she would consider the defense’s motion and make a ruling before the trial resumes Monday.
Bernstein has indicated that she intends to present a brief defense case beginning with an expert witness. If convicted, Hinton faces life in prison.