Victim of alleged box-cutter killer fought back but died from severe cut to the neck
DELAND - Defensive wounds on a woman attacked and killed with a box cutter along with scratches she inflicted on her attacker show how hard she fought before a severe cut to her neck took her life, according to testimony and evidence presented in court Wednesday.
Before resting her case Wednesday afternoon, Assistant State Attorney Heatha Trigones presented testimony from a DNA analyst connecting the murder weapon - a box cutter - to the death of Amy Humphries, 28, of Orange City.
Blood on the box cutter's blade belonged to Humphries, the DNA analyst from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said. McLean was found with the weapon by police.
Jurors in the murder trial also heard how Volusia County sheriff's detectives, assisted by the FBI, used cell phone records to trace accused killer Brandon McLean's movements leading them to the scene where Humphries' body was found discarded on a bike trail in Osteen on April 20, 2021.
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McLean, 34, is charged with first-degree murder and is representing himself in court. Prosecutors said McLean killed Humphries shortly after she refused to buy him a 9-millimeter Taurus handgun at Steel Fox Firearms in DeLand.
Severed windpipe killed victim
Gruesome photos of stab wounds and cuts were introduced as evidence and Trigones topped her presentation for a guilty plea with key testimony from Volusia County's Associate Medical Examiner, Mary Ripple.
Ripple, who conducted the autopsy on Humphries' body on April 23, 2021, gave gripping testimony of how brutal the attack on Humphries was, as jurors listened intently, some taking notes.
Ripple described how she found numerous cuts and stab wounds on Humphries' body.
Humphries had defensive wounds on her arms including eight cuts on her right palm and five on her left.
Multiple cuts and stab wounds were found on her body, near her shoulder, and bruises and bleeding around her eyes. A 7-1/2 inch cut was inflicted on her inner-right thigh.
Ripple said Humphries' body was struck 77 times but it's possible that there were more injuries since smaller incisions may have been lost in more severe and larger cuts, like the ones in her neck and thigh.
"So, 77 are the wounds I could actually measure and can note that the blade actually did inflict," Ripple said.
But of all the injuries, Ripple said that the large, deep cut that severed Humphries' windpipe, neck muscle, and veins, killed her.
"She basically bled to death," Ripple told jurors. "All I can say is the one that went through that windpipe was probably one of the last."
DNA found in victim's fingernail scrapings
In his defense, McLean questioned a Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab analyst asking her to say how his DNA got on Humphries body.
The FLDE lab analyst testified that fingernail scrapings, which investigators said came from a scratch found on McLean's right side of the neck just below the jaw, had his DNA.
In cross-examining Volusia County Det. Eric Cheek, McLean asked if it was possible that the scratch on his neck may have been a bullet graze that occurred after he got into a gun battle with Seminole County sheriff's deputies on April 21, 2021.
"Absolutely not," Cheek answered, who visited McLean in the hospital. "It would not have scabbed up at that point."
When the state rested its case Wednesday, McLean handed the judge a written motion asking that he be acquitted. It was denied.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Medical Examiner says victim of box-cutter attack died from neck wound
