{"id":45845,"date":"2021-07-08T09:27:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T15:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-much-weight-will-jurors-give-molly-in-redwine-case\/"},"modified":"2021-07-08T15:27:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T15:27:00","slug":"how-much-weight-will-jurors-give-molly-in-redwine-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-much-weight-will-jurors-give-molly-in-redwine-case\/","title":{"rendered":"How much weight will jurors give Molly in Redwine case?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A photo displayed this week in the Mark Redwine trial shows Molly, a K-9 trained in human remains detection. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The third week of Mark Redwine\u2019s murder trial opened with hours of testimony about a specific investigative tool used to help find 13-year-old Dylan Redwine\u2019s remains: the cadaver dog.<\/p>\n

One of the most controversial \u201cwitnesses\u201d to date after 12 days of trial is now deceased. Molly, a German shepherd trained in human remains detection, died in January 2018 at age 11, four years after she investigated the case. Molly, whose nickname was \u201cBitty\u201d because she was small, was first brought to Redwine\u2019s home in August of 2013, nine months after the boy disappeared.<\/p>\n

Redwine, 59, is standing trial for second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in Dylan\u2019s death. Dylan went missing in November 2012, during a court-ordered visit.<\/p>\n

Molly\u2019s work was the subject of hours of legal argument before trial, as public defenders John Moran and Justin Bogan fought to keep dog cadaver scent evidence out, even hiring the Innocence Project to argue the scientific reliability of the animals as a forensic tool. Judge Jeffrey Wilson ultimately decided to allow the dog scent evidence in July 2019 when he wrote, \u201cAll or nearly all of the evidence against the defendant in this case is circumstantial, and if the jury believes that the defendant intentionally misled the scent tracking dog handlers, such evidence will be very probative as to whether the defendant committed the crimes charged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carren Gummin, a dog handler and the founder of Verona, Wisconsin\u2019s Canine Search Solutions, told the jury she worked with Molly for eight to nine years in the assistance of locating 14 bodies before the animal died, including spending time investigating Dylan Redwine\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n

Gummin testified that during the investigation, Molly alerted on human remains on the first floor of Redwine\u2019s home, \u201cI would say there was a large source of human remains odor in my experience.\u201d Gummin also verified that Molly alerted near Redwine\u2019s garage, front door and on the shed behind the house.<\/p>\n

Gummin added that Molly alerted on the back seat and driver\u2019s side of Mark Redwine\u2019s pickup and that the dog also signaled 12 times on Middle Mountain Road. Gummin testified that Molly had eight responses on the first day of work in that rugged terrain and four responses on the next.<\/p>\n

Gummin said that when she first brought Molly to La Plata County, the animal was shown three evidence bags which contained various items. She said Molly signaled on two items: a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of blue jeans. Detectives then had Gummin take Molly to a vehicle impound lot for an experiment to see how she did there. At the lot, she signaled on two vehicles which Gummin said had the scent of human remains.<\/p>\n

Gummin\u2019s testimony was fraught with many objections from Moran, who questioned Molly\u2019s certifications, experience in other cases and her history of false alerts. He questioned Gummin on whether the scent of human remains would be present almost a year after Dylan went missing and brought up the fact that Molly failed a certification test in 2008.<\/p>\n

When questioned about whether cadaver dogs are reliable when it comes to blood evidence, she replied, \u201cBlood is a sticky subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

Criminal defense attorney David Kaplan says dog evidence is inconsistent and unreliable despite the fact that dogs are a popular animal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe handlers love their dogs, but I have never seen testimony that did not suggest the dogs were responding to the desires of law enforcement rather than the scent they are told to detect,\u201d Kaplan told The Durango Herald<\/em>. \u201cIt is an inappropriate justification to conduct a search.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaplan had recent experience attacking the credibility of dog scent evidence while defending Devon Erickson during Douglas County\u2019s STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting trial last month. A Douglas County jury convicted Erickson of murder in the first degree in the 2019 shooting.<\/p>\n

Gummin testified from Tuesday morning until Wednesday when she was excused at the mid-morning break.<\/p>\n

When the dog handler was finally released after hours of grilling by both sides, Judge Wilson remarked, \u201cWe will take our recess. I\u2019m sure Erin\u2019s (Erin Grigsby, the official court reporter) fingers are having problems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

K-9 handler says dog had nose for death, but defense team says cadaver science stinks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1078,519,28,131,4531,525,1500],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-6th-judicial-district","tag-dylan-redwine","tag-headlines","tag-homicide","tag-mark-redwine","tag-trials","tag-vallecito"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45845"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}