Defense Calls Experts To Bolster Dibartolo Scientist, Trackers Question Prosecution Conclusions

Defense witnesses Friday tried punching holes in the web of evidence prosecutors have assembled against accused wife-killer Tom DiBartolo.

Two expert dog handlers told the jury a bloodhound tracked a scent in the direction DiBartolo says two men ran after they murdered his wife and wounded him last Nov. 2.

And a forensic scientist said a speck of gunpowder found inside the defendant’s jacket pocket may not have come from the gun that killed Patty DiBartolo.

Prosecutors say the powder came from the barrel of the .38-caliber handgun DiBartolo fired the night he killed his wife.

They say DiBartolo, then a Spokane County sheriff’s deputy, shot her in the head at Lincoln Park on the South Hill. He then wounded himself in the abdomen to make it look like they had been attacked.

DiBartolo insists that struggle occurred after would-be robbers approached him and his wife as they returned to their minivan after taking a walk.

But Gaylan Warren, a forensic scientist from Newport, Wash., challenged the prosecution’s theory on the gunpowder found in the pocket.

“It can come from any source that has (gunpowder) primer,” said Warren, the 108th witness to testify in the trial.

Questioned by defense attorney Maryann Moreno, Warren agreed the speck could have even come from discarded shells DiBartolo picked up after target practice dating back to 1995. Until then, the police firing range on the West Plains used similar gunpowder.

DiBartolo is charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors say the adulterous deputy planned the killing to collect insurance money and make it easier to see other women.

Warren also tried to counter conclusions drawn by prosecutors based on gunpowder patterns found on DiBartolo’s shirt and abdomen caused when he was wounded.

The pattern shows the gun’s barrel was pointed toward his side, with the grip pointed down, in normal firing position.

But DiBartolo told investigators that he wrestled with the gunman and the weapon was upside-down when it fired.

Warren said the gunpowder pattern only contradicts DiBartolo’s story if he was standing upright when the shot was fired.

“All it shows is the relationship of the gun to the shirt,” he testified.

Also Friday, jurors heard Spokane dog handler Sid Harty reprise his prior testimony about how his bloodhound spent more than a hour tracking a scent taken from inside DiBartolo’s van.

Judge followed the scent through the park to an apartment building on East 27th, less than a mile from Lincoln Park.

A Seattle-area dog handler testified he watched a video of Judge’s Nov. 6, 1996, tracking and said it seemed authentic.

Andy Rebmann, a retired Connecticut state trooper, said he frequently works as a consultant to help dog handlers train bloodhounds.

Rebmann said he had read about Judge’s tracking prowess more than once in a newsletter sent to Northwest handlers. The dog, he noted, is known to be a good “scent discriminator.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S NEXT The defense will call its final witnesses Monday. A doctor will challenge testimony about how long Patty DiBartolo was dead before being taken to the hospital.