The Crime of Passion

Question:

You are required to research a Criminal Case that Included a Substantial Crime Scene Examination Component.

Death and the Dentist

Tom Kolmann and Gil Nunez were best friends. In this very intriguing crime of passion that led to the death of Tom was Linda, Tom’s wife and Gil Nunez girlfriend. Yes, Linda had a love triangle with best friends and by the look of it, all parties were comfortable. The dentist had an affair with toms wife, Linda and although they kept it under wraps for quite some time, guilt trips led to them revealing of the affair. It must have been devastating for Tom who was also a patient of the dentist. However, surprisingly enough, Tom, was okay with the love triangle. What surprised many including his parents was the fact that Tom never told anybody about the love triangle.  On November 29 , year 2011, 44-year old Tom was found dead in his car in the Kingston Planet Fitness parking lot in New York(Fisher and Fisher, 2012).

Background

Detective Michael Thomas was the first in the crime scene and realized how unusual Tom was positioned in the car. Additionally, where and how the car was positioned was also very unusual. In an interview with 48 Hours correspondent, Richard Schlesinger, the detective said that he found Tom Laying almost flat as if he was sleeping yet he was in the driver’s seat.

In the crime scene, nothing in the car would suggest an attack or physical harm or trauma. There was absolutely nothing suspicious about that could warrant that it was a murder but the detective who was later joined by detective Kyle Berardi and Detective Brian Reavy also caught the attention of how far the car was parked from the gym. It is unusual that a car can be parked that far by someone who is going to the gym. It was not parked near the building and that to them was very strange.  Tom’s parents, Marie and Tom snr were also shocked about his death. His ex-wife whom they had divorced for twelve years was also in utter shock(Grant, Rodriguez and Perkins, 2008).

Linda was the first at the crime scene after Tom failed to report to work. It was then that she made a distressing call to 911 and the detectives responded. However, it was the over dramatization of the whole incident by Gil Nunez that raised eyebrows. Nunez even dropped on his knees saying that Tom was his best friend and that he did not see any CPR being done. He knew that Tom was dead. Tom had a medical condition called sleep apnea. Gilberto Nunez was a well-known dentist in Kingston area and also a fire fighter volunteer with a big general practitioner dental hospital.

Unusual Circumstances of Tom Kolmann’s Death

Crime scene examination

This was not necessarily a crime of passion but all pointers led to that. While there were no clear leads, the detectives were waiting for the full report of the autopsy report. They knew that Gil came with a white SUV , a Nissan pathfinder and remembered clearly that the surveillance footage showed a white SUV although very blurry.

In the report, it was noted that tom had an enlarged heart. This could easily be the lead of his death in case he suffered from a cardiac arrest or a heart attack. He also suffered from mild obesity and the symptoms of a cardiac arrest(Collins, 2003). Gil was the first to disclose to the detectives that Tom had sleep apnea because he was his doctor. Sleep apnea is a condition where a person suffering from it may die in his sleep due to suffocated breath. Two weeks after his death, the autopsy noted that there was midazolam in his body from the toxicology report.  Nunez told Schlesinger of CBN 48 Hours that general practitioners don’t use midazolam and only dental surgeons are allowed its access.  In crime investigations, elimination method is what’s used to get to the bottom of the crime. This was a medical substance and only a health practitioner could have access to it. Linda worked in a hospital as an administrative assistant but when a search was conducted, nothing was missing. His death was classified as acute midazolam poisoning but the levels found in his body would not kill somebody. However, there was no explanation as to why the drug would be found in his body(Newton, 2008). 

Midazolam has different effects on different people. According to Murray Weiss who is an editor for DNA info and has worked in crime scenes for over twenty years said that the midazolam in toms body changed everything. The real question in this crime was whether the drug in his body was enough to kill a guy. The detectives believe that Gil met Tom at the gym before giving him a cup of coffee laced with midazolam. It was enough to shut down his respiratory system. They have eliminated everyone and only Dr. Nunez was in a position to have Midazolam with him. The people of interest and the obvious people here with its access was either Linda or Gil. Linda had been eliminated and Gil was the main suspect now. The only problem was to connect midazolam with him and his contact with Tom at the crime scene(Newton, 2008).

The Love Triangle Between Best Friends and a Dentist’s Wife

Sole suspect

After eliminating Linda as a suspect, the police were left with only Nunez as the main suspect. Police could not prove who killed Tom. But they had lead with the surveillance footage and the midazolam which only led to one suspect, Gil Nunez. The questions that needed to be asked were, how did midazolam get into Toms body? Was that the Nissan Pathfinder that Nunez uses that was in the footage really his? If Tom was laced with midazolam, where was the cup of coffee and why toms body was found in the position it was found at? His pants were undone and Gil had sent tom a link of a porn website.  It was expected to be believed that Tom’s death was as a result of a sexual encounter with a call girl who laced him with the drug. The detectives had to rely on Grant Fredericks an expert on forensic video solutions who has extensive knowledge on car lighting systems and the shape. According to Grant, the SUV in the surveillance footage match that of Nunez. It is a Nissan pathfinder and has the physical characteristics that are comparable to Nunez SUV.  It was a Nissan Pathfinder SUV but Grant could not point out if it was Nunez. There is no enough resolution in the lights which shows that the car might not belong to Nunez.  It also did not have the decals which are emergency lighting that his car has as he is a volunteer fire fighter(Newton, 2008). Grant however, noted that the beam of light in one of the headlights matched that of Nunez car. This was not enough evidence as in most of the cases the headlight beam does match in both of the headlights.  After videotaping Nunez car in the same place, Fredericks felt that he could make a conclusion. The car projected the same kind of light as the car in the video. It was indistinguishable from Nunez.

The police summoned Nunez again for questioning. This time they had obtained a search warrant to search his work place and his house. Upon being summoned some went to do the search and it is there in his office that they found a full pack of midazolam drug. He was the only one with the information on how midazolam work(Orr, n.d.). There was also other incriminating evidence to show that Nunez was obsessed with Linda and wanted to eliminate Tom to have her all by him. He had hired a person who was supposedly supposed to pose as a CIA officer and had evidence that Tom was cheating on his wife.  He had sent email to Linda and wanted Linda to leave Tom for him.  He was also texting Tom and Linda like teenagers.

Detective Work and Crime Scene Analysis

Crime scene investigation

There are very many thing that detectives look in a crime scene; marks on the floor, blood drops, something like a nail or hair etc. Every detail in an investigation is fundamental and detectives know that the slightest mistake can jeopardize the rest of the investigation. Thus, crime scene analysis must meet several requirements , which also involve input of different specialists(Baum, n.d.).

An crime scene analysis is carried out in the following way. Step 1 involves cordoning and preservation of the scene or place of crime. When the establishment of the perimeter is done, an optical inspection is carried out. After inspection is done, detectives nominate different parts of the crime scene to begin lifting of clues. All these elements may become useful evidence in the framework of the investigation.  Therefore, it is important that the conditions and steps in which the survey is carried out and also there should be integrity in the way the subsequent chain of custody is carried out.

In addition to the team of experts, a witness (a person over 18 who does not have a direct relationship with the victims or the case) and a representative of the prosecutor’s office must participate in this process.

The experts

In any analysis of a crime scene there should be: a planimetric expert, a photographer, a trail specialist, a ballistic expert, a medical and a chemical expert. Some specialists may or may not participate according to the nature of the crime.Each of the experts must keep a record of the work done in a spreadsheet. There will be indicated a chronological order of the work, the description of environmental and climatic phenomena, the topographic characteristics(Kellerman and Kellerman, n.d.).

 This work presents in the first instance a historical approach to Criminology and Criminalistics, secondly, the management of the scene of crime, then, the procedure of the National Police in the Scene of Crime and legal support thereof; in the same way, the procedure of the Judicial Technical Police and its legal basis is presented. Then, it is exposed on the legal foundations of the Right to Due Process, to later, enter the analysis of a jurisprudence (Kellerman and Kellerman, n.d.) .

Instruct participants about the importance and value of the preliminary investigation at the crime scene and its subjection to the right to due process.

Identify and demonstrate this subject according to the principles and norms established in the course of Applied Criminology.

Midazolam Poisoning: The Key to the Mystery

Know all the parameters used by institutions that in one way or another have to relate to the Crime Scene as they are: the National Police, the Judicial Technical Police and some judicial dependencies.

Criminology

It is an empirical and interdisciplinary science, which deals with the study of crime, the person of the offender, the victim and the social control of criminal behavior and tries to provide valid, contrasted information about the genesis, dynamics and main variables of the crime(Kellerman and Kellerman, n.d.).

Conclusion

The way the investigators handled the case was not professional.  First, it shows that they did not handle the evidence very well, when Tom’s phone was found with no messages. This shows that someone had deleted the text messages that were from Nunez to Tom showing that they were only discussing about football.  The detectives tried too hard to implicate Nunez as the murderer and forgot to evaluate other possible options that could have led to Toms death.  According to Gils lawyer, the fact that Tom had visited GetNaughty.com site could have explained the presence of the white SUV and why Tom’s fly was partially undone and the position that he was in when they found his lifeless body.

However, there were all indications that the car (white SUV) in the crime scene belonged to Nunez because it had matching headlight patterns.  It is clear that the jury did not consider this evidence provided by police when giving their verdict. All the evidence points out at Nunez who would have wanted to get Tom out of the picture so that he could remain with Linda (Fish, 2015).

while all the evidence show that Nunez was the main suspect, for example the presence of Midazolam  in Toms body , the percentage could not have had any fatal effect on him. The theory that  any Midazolam in a body of a person with Sleep Apnea condition led to his death does not hold any water because it is not proven. It is obvious that detectives tried too hard to implicate Nunez as the murderer while forgetting to follow other leads.

According to the jury, Gil was not guilty of second degree murder. The evidence did not point directly to him who was heartbreaking to both Tom’s family and detectives. Tom was killed by Midazolam laced in his body according to toxicology and autopsy report. Dr. Nunez car A Nissan Pathfinder was seen by the surveillance footage in the crime scene and after a search at the Doctors office and home, they found Midazolam which is not used by general practitioners and also Gil had denied to ever using this drug. Gil was psychotic, manipulative and obsessive and perhaps wanted to get Tom out of the picture. This was a crime of passion.(Fish, 2015)

References

Baum, D. (n.d.). Crime scene investigations.

Careers in forensic science. (2010). Chicago, IL: Institute for Career Research.

Collins, M. (2003). CSI, crime scene investigation. New York: Pocket Star Books.

Fish, J. (2015). Crime scene investigation. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Fisher, B. and Fisher, D. (2012). Techniques of crime scene investigation. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press.

Grant, S., Rodriguez, G. and Perkins, S. (2008). CSI. San Diego, Calif.: IDW.

Kellerman, J. and Kellerman, J. (n.d.). Crime scene.

Newton, M. (2008). The encyclopedia of crime scene investigation. New York: Infobase Pub.

Orr, T. (n.d.). Crime scene investigator.