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Testimony: Witnesses saw Saint Simon wash blood off hands after teen's disappearance

By Field Sutton and Kelly Healey
By Field Sutton and Kelly Healey
The trial of a man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend’s 16-year-old daughter continued Wednesday in Orange County.
Sanel Saint Simon is accused of killing Alexandria Chery. Her body was discovered in July 2014 on a road near the Osceola-Polk county line.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Read: Day 1 of Saint Simon trial | Day 2

Channel 9 reporter Field Sutton was in the courtroom Wednesday. Sutton said crime scene analyst, Alison Smolarek, testified that she examined Chery's mattress and discovered what she suspected to be a semen stain. However, DNA testing results released later Wednesday showed the semen on Chery's mattress was not Saint Simon's.
Smolarek also said she lifted blood and fingerprints from the outside of a bottle of bleach found in Chery’s home.
Pictures of a large teddy bear that was on Chery's bed were also shown in court. Smolarek testified that the teddy bear had a large blood stain on one of its legs.
Smolarek also showed photos of small drops of blood in the apartment's master bathroom, and she took samples of those as well.
She said she cut an area of the carpet that was soaked in bleach under Chery's bed.
Smolarek said the underside of the carpet pad and the concrete underneath were heavily stained with what appeared to be blood.
 
Another CSI analyst, Ashley Church, testified Wednesday as well, and showed the jury various areas on Saint Simon's pants that she believes were bloody, based on field testing.
Church pulled the pants from a washing machine in Chery’s apartment, which are believed to have been the same pair Saint Simon wore the day Chery disappeared.
DNA and CSI analysts concluded that the blood found on Saint Simon's pants, bathroom and carpet is that of a female. However, the defense argued the blood could have been there for years.
"You don't know when any of these items you collected at the scene were left there? Correct?” asked a defense attorney.
“Correct,” Smolarek replied.
Analysts have not concluded that the blood belongs to Chery.
The jury watched a 2014 interview video of Saint Simon talking to investigators. The video showed that when Saint Simon was alone, he made a phone call.
Prosecutors said he called a family member, asking them not to tell anyone he had borrowed a black Pontiac sedan the day Chery disappeared.
Later, the defense talked about the injuries on Saint Simon’s hands and claimed he cut them while opening boxes at his job.
Chery’s cousin, Dana St. Fleur, took the stand Tuesday and talked about trying to reach Chery, hours after she disappeared.
"Did the response you got from her phone change over the course of that afternoon?” asked an attorney.
“It changed. It would go straight to voicemail instead of ringing," Saint Fleur said.
Defense attorneys have not presented an alternate theory to the jury about who killed the victim, but they did try to show that Chery was running away from a bad relationship with a secret boyfriend.
Read: Mother of slain daughter upset with slow pace of trial
Chery's cousin and friend testified that Chery had a fight with her boyfriend two days before she disappeared.
Detectives said they interviewed Chery’s best friend and boyfriend and learned that she told them Saint Simon had done something to her that made her feel uncomfortable, the details of which haven't been released.
If convicted, Saint Simon could face the death penalty.

Cox Media Group

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