A panel of experts’ report, rebutting the earlier findings of a court expert, was met with relief by a Russian woman currently facing proceedings over the alleged murder of her daughter in a Xemxija apartment back in 2011.
The case concerning Tamara Gennadievan Boubekova was featured prominently in the media with reports saying the woman had allegedly murdered her 28-year old daughter Kalinina, with the cause of death being certified as asphyxia.
However, expert reports on the incident shed new light upon the relationship between the accused and her daughter, with findings originally pointing in the direction of a sexual relationship between the two.
A court-appointed dental expert had concluded that several bite marks discovered on both women had been of a consensual nature and appeared to have been mutually inflicted, with teeth-marks corresponding to mother and daughter.
However, defence lawyer Joe Giglio had contested these findings, leading to the appointment of three dental experts to review and investigate the earlier conclusions.
Recently, a joint report based on strict guidelines laid down by the American Board of Forensic Odontology unanimously pointed out several inaccuracies and errors in the earlier expert conclusions.
Among these, the manner of timing of bites was not explained and no swabs were taken for saliva and DNA analysis, the report read.
The experts also expressed their concern over the scarcity of scientific details in the handling of data which could not be reproduced.
Conclusions that the accused had bitten her victim on the forehead were dubious since the reported findings were physically impossible, the experts argued, further noting that the pictures submitted in the earlier report did not show any definitive bite-mark produced by anterior teeth.
The outcome of this challenge to the first court expert’s findings, vindicating the defence lawyer’s claims, appears to have lifted a burden off the accused who, in her lawyer’s words, “has lived with the trauma of this report” for the past six years.
The case continues.
Lawyer Joe Giglio is defence counsel.