Lewiston man convicted of gruesome murder of friend
MOSCOW – Patrick J. Nuxoll stood silently Wednesday afternoon and turned to face his family, seated behind him, after hearing the jury say he was guilty of first-degree murder.
David Cramer was found drenched in blood in a chair in Nuxoll’s Lewiston home in May 2015. The evidence against Nuxoll was circumstantial – no one witnessed the homicide, and Nuxoll claimed to be sleeping while his friend was stabbed, slashed and bludgeoned more than 200 times.
More than three years after his arrest, Nuxoll, 56, could spend life behind bars. A scheduling conference to determine a sentencing hearing was set for Nov. 7.
A Moscow jury of six men and six women deliberated for about four hours Wednesday before returning a verdict. The trial was held in Moscow after an unbiased jury could not be assembled in Lewiston.
Nuxoll was collected and quiet throughout proceedings, and the only hint of anxiety as he waited to hear a verdict was his rapid breathing. During the trial, when he wasn’t listening intently to testimony, he toyed with his glasses or stared fixed at the screen of gory crime scene photos displayed for the jury.
Nuxoll rarely looked away from the grisly visage of his friend, carved into slack flesh, unrecognizable as a human. Cramer, 63, was a large man, portly and tall with a boisterous voice verging on obnoxious as his volume control was maintained at an oxygen-sucking level of “projectile voice,” as Nuxoll described it. The two met at Alcoholics Anonymous, and Nuxoll hinted at his disappointment in Cramer reverting to his old ways of consuming nearly three pints of vodka per day — despite Nuxoll admitting to drinking with his friend after graduating a sober society that prides itself on finding the steps to addiction-free life.
Nez Perce County prosecutors focused on Nuxoll’s complaints of his friend’s loud voice grating on him, suggesting it drove him to murder his friend. Though Nuxoll told detectives he enjoyed his friend’s company and liked that Cramer was honest, the prosecution argued the murder was premeditated and the forethought to brutally kill Cramer came after Nuxoll had enough of his friend’s yelling.
“This anger, frustration, and embarrassment built up through the night until Patrick Nuxoll sat up from the couch, got off the couch and silenced Dave forever,” Chief Deputy Prosecutor April Smith said.
The state’s case had much to point toward Nuxoll’s guilt:
Nuxoll’s own knives were found with Cramer’s blood on them. One was plastered to the floor in dried blood near Cramer.
The other murder weapons in the home, a kitchen chair with Cramer’s blood on it was in the living room, and a ceramic yard ornament was found behind Cramer’s body.
Metal fragments collected from Cramer’s body matched one of the knives. Five pieces that did not fit either knife were consistent with the color of the two knives.
A paper towel tossed into a fireplace with red stains on it contained both Nuxoll’s and Cramer’s DNA.
Video surveillance at Walmart showed Cramer and Nuxoll stumbling around as they purchased vodka, leaving the store by 9:20 p.m. on May 20, 2015.
Nuxoll’s phone history showed he used it multiple times between 10 and 11 p.m. that night. He also wrote a draft text at 2:13 a.m., unsent, with the “&” symbol destined for a “Leslie from court.” Nuxoll called 911 at 2:34 a.m.
Blood was flecked in Nuxoll’s hair, on his face, behind his ears, on his hands and under and on his clothes.
The watch Nuxoll was wearing had dried blood in the clasp and a pink stain under the watchband appeared to be blood mixed with water.
An Idaho State Police lab analyst claimed Nuxoll’s finger was imprinted in a bloody smear on a wall near the kitchen. But that evidence was contested by a defense expert.
Nuxoll spoke calmly to dispatchers and officers, often joking about the macabre circumstances. Cramer was soaked in blood, and blood seeped through the chair where he died. In taped audio from an officer watching him, Nuxoll said he wanted to see his friend’s face one last time but wasn’t permitted.
“I’m gonna meet (Cramer) in hell and make him reupholster that chair,” he said, laughing. Nuxoll was heard hiccuping and said, “Looks like I’m gonna get that new easy chair.”
Nuxoll wasn’t slick with blood, but his knife was. Obviously, Cramer had been dead for some time before Nuxoll called 911. Blood needs time to dry, like the flakes of red police found in the watch clasp Nuxoll was wearing. On his wrist, pink smears of what was likely blood mixed with water was found during his interview with police, giving gravitas to investigators’ inclination that Nuxoll washed himself off before or after calling 911. A responding paramedic testified Cramer had rigor mortis, much of the blood on him was drying and his body was cold to the touch.
Nuxoll posted a bail bond not long after he was arrested. He was free for two years until he was again arrested, this time for threatening a witness in his pending trial. That witness, who was not identified in court documents, held back from informing police about the threat for some time out of fear of Nuxoll.
Nuxoll was jailed and remained there until his trial. That information was not presented to the jury since that charge has not been adjudicated. Also withheld from the jury was Cramer’s brother filing of a wrongful death lawsuit seeking monetary damage, which was suspended, along with the other criminal charge, until the trial was finished.
Despite overwhelming evidence, with Cramer’s blood all over Nuxoll, his attorney, Rick Cuddihy, presented much doubt for the jury to consider.
Cuddihy repeatedly tried to point the jury’s suspicion to Cramer’s brother, Ronald, claiming he broke into Nuxoll’s home and killed David Cramer. Here’s some of the evidence that Cuddihy highlighted:
None of Nuxoll’s fingerprints or DNA were found on any of the murder weapons.
The ceramic object was the only weapon that wasn’t testified as being owned by Nuxoll. And it’s unknown how it got to Nuxoll’s home. Though fragments were found on David Cramer’s body, no DNA samples were conclusive on it.
Many items of evidence were not collected or tested by police: A scrap of black fabric found in the backyard of Nuxoll’s home; shoeprints found in morning dew were photographed by police but not analyzed; an open gate leaving Nuxoll’s property was documented but not further investigated; a drinking glass tested by defense but not collected by police had Nuxoll’s fingerprint and three other unidentified prints; hair fibers in David Cramer’s hand were untested, one detective thinking it was David Cramer’s hair.
Nuxoll had no injuries to his hands or anywhere else. Officers clipped his finger nails and found no blood underneath them.
Nuxoll adamantly and repeatedly professed his innocence, claiming to sleep through the ordeal.
Nuxoll had trazodone in his system, an antidepressant with the side effect of drowsiness. And he claimed to black out occasionally while drinking.
A defense analyst could not confirm Nuxoll’s prints in a bloody handprint, but he also could not exclude Nuxoll as creating the print due to the many discrepancies.
Nuxoll claimed to have pounded on Cramer’s chest in an attempt to perform CPR and put both ears to Cramer, allegedly accounting for the blood on him.
With the blood flecked across Nuxoll’s body and the homicide occurring in his home, officers neglected to probe deeply into other possible suspects. Ronald Cramer stood to gain in his brother’s death — not much, but the deed to the home they shared and property in Pierce went to him. However, most of the funds Ronald Cramer gained from ownership of the Lewiston home went to paying back taxes and bringing the faltering property up to code through a reverse mortgage. Enmity toward his brother appeared momentary. Ronald Cramer testified multiple times to loving his brother and was close to tears several times when Cuddihy aggressively questioned him, hardly disguising suspicion of his alleged implication in the murder.
Concerning a black piece of fabric found in the backyard, Ronald Cramer testified he told several people someone could enter Nuxoll’s home wearing black garbage bags on their feet and not track blood out — but Cramer qualified that “somebody could” perpetrate the act, not him. David Cramer had also used a firearm in the residence after a fight with his brother several months prior to the incident.
“It happened at least months before my brother ‘died,’ since I’m not allowed to say murder, Your Honor,” Ronald Cramer said. “He shot at me in the living room, not in the bedroom. There was no bullet hole. I checked; had to be just powder. He must have been playing a prank or something. He never pointed it at me.”
Early in the morning the day after the slaying, as police were investigating Nuxoll’s home, Ronald Cramer drove to the residence without being contacted by police or anyone else. He testified that he was worried after David Cramer never came home or went to work.
Police did not search Ronald Cramer’s vehicles or residence, nor did they test or compare his DNA to any found at the scene. Two witnesses reported Ronald Cramer was at his home the entire night his brother died.
Nuxoll could recall specific details about the crime scene, such as the kitchen chair with bent legs that was used to strike Cramer, or the blood smears and blood sprayed in the kitchen. But he couldn’t remember anything from the attack other than waking up and finding Cramer dead and slumped in a seat nearby. Lewiston police Sgt. Jason Leavitt, in an interview, accused Nuxoll of cleaning himself prior to calling 911.
“I don’t believe a phantom walking in and doing this with you right next to it,” Leavitt said.
“I’d gladly tell you the truth if I knew it,” Nuxoll said. “I’m really scared that I’m going down for murder now and I don’t remember it.”
Much of the forensics focused on items that clearly contained David Cramer’s DNA. The knives, the blood on Nuxoll’s body, swabs from the chair and the paper towel all contained David Cramer’s DNA. The bloody handprint near the kitchen was contested, with both defense and prosecution analysts claiming different conclusions. Fingerprinting is mostly done by eye and relies on little of the scientific rigor of other forensic practices, though each expert on the opposing sides had a separate analyst verify their work.
Attorneys argued pointedly about their cases — Nez Perce County Prosecutor Justin Coleman advising the jury to not be “distracted by phantoms” as the defense suggested Ronald Cramer as a suspect.
Cuddihy said the caricature the prosecution painted of his client was incorrect, and they did not establish a believable motive for Nuxoll to murder his friend.
“What the government would have you believe is Patrick went from this to a raving maniac who stabbed and slashed his best friend over 100 times,” Cuddihy said during his opening argument. “There’s no evidence of why he would do something so awful.”
But some of the oddest testimony came from audio of Nuxoll making voluntary statements. He did not take the stand at his trial, but several videos of his discussions with police were played.
“It’s almost like he sliced his face up,” Nuxoll says in the tape. “There’s so much blood you can’t really tell. I hope they get my knife back. That’s my favorite knife.”
He also expressed anger over David Cramer graduating Alcoholics Anonymous and relapsing.
“That made me so (expletive) mad. Two years getting himself clean and sober and meeting people, clean and sober people, and to just turn around and throw that in the trash – I don’t get it,” he said.
He expressed disbelief when Leavitt confronted him with the grisly state of David Cramer’s body.
“This will potentially be in front of a jury or a judge, and what you’re telling us, you know no one’s going to believe you were asleep 2 feet away from a guy who was hacked to pieces,” Leavitt said.
“He wasn’t hacked to pieces,” Nuxoll said.
“Oh yeah. His left arm is severed,” Leavitt said.
Nuxoll claimed he was groggy and confused when he awoke to find Cramer. Officers saw a remorseless killer in the interview room with them.
“I’m sad for Dave. I would not have done this to Dave for all the money in China,” Nuxoll said.
As throughout the trial, and according to many witnesses reporting Nuxoll being passive at the scene, Nuxoll was not expressive when he heard the verdict. He simply stood, listened to 12 people determine his guilt, turned and made a kissing gesture to his family seated behind him.
“I love you guys,” Nuxoll told them.
He then walked quietly with an officer to be taken out of his gray suit and dressed in jail-issued clothes to await his sentencing.