Idaho man convicted in gruesome murder of friend

MOSCOW, Idaho – An Idaho man was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his friend.

A Moscow jury deliberated for about four hours Wednesday before returning a verdict of guilty for Patrick Nuxoll in the 2015 killing of David Cramer, the Lewiston Tribune reported .

Cramer was found drenched in blood in a chair in Nuxoll’s Lewiston home, court records show. No one witnessed the attack, and Nuxoll said he was innocent and was sleeping while his friend was stabbed, slashed and bludgeoned more than 200 times.

Nuxoll’s 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.

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 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.

Despite overwhelming evidence, with Cramer’s blood all over Nuxoll, Nuxoll’s attorney, Rick Cuddihy, said that none of his client’s fingerprints or DNA were found on any of the murder weapons. Nuxoll had no injuries to his hands or anywhere else. Officers clipped his finger nails and found no blood underneath them.

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.

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.

The trial was held in Moscow after an unbiased jury could not be assembled in Lewiston. A scheduling conference to determine a sentencing hearing was set for Nov. 7.