‘No major mistakes’ in autopsy report

An American forensics expert told a Tokyo court yesterday that she found “no major mistakes” in the autopsy report of Irishwoman Nicola Furlong. She agreed that the exchange student had been strangled in a Tokyo hotel last May but disputed certain statements made by the author of the report.

“I do agree that she died from strangulation,” said Dr Marianne Hamel, a US forensics pathologist, who also acknowledged that strong pressure had probably been applied to Ms Furlong’s neck.

Photos taken during the autopsy, however, were not conclusive enough to “definitively” come to some of the conclusions made by Dr Kenichi Yoshida, an expert in forensic medicine at the University of Tokyo, who appeared as a witness on Tuesday.

Dr Yoshida had asserted that the photographs revealed that 5cm-wide marks around the victim’s neck almost certainly were caused by a band-like object, such as a towel.

He also suggested that other marks and bruises on the neck could have been made by Ms Furlong as she struggled to release the object that was allegedly used to strangle her.

Dr Hamel, a witness for the defence, said that it was not possible to ascertain from the photos that a towel-like object or fingers had caused the marks.

“I cannot tell if it was done manually or by ligature,” Dr Hamel said.

“The marks form no consistent pattern... to definitively say it was one or the other.”

Normally a struggle to prize away such an object during strangulation would leave more marks around the neck where the fingernails had caught, added Dr Hamel.

Additionally there would be evidence of blood and skin tissue under the victim’s nails, she added, evidence of which had not been presented in the report.

What’s more, marks on the neck caused by the fingernails would take on the form of multiple white half-moon-shaped indentations, or if the fingernails were short there would be signs of bruising around the area where pressure from the band-like object had been applied. The marks shown in the photos could have been made by other things than fingernails, she said.

Dr Hamel also stated that the effect of mixing alcohol with Alprazolam, the active ingredient in the stress-reducing drug Xanax, which had been prescribed for Ms Furlong by an Irish doctor, was “like being very very drunk”.

Over a period of 14 hours Alprazolam taken on its own would mostly leave the bloodstream — while mixing the prescription drug with alcohol considerably heightened the effects of both, she said.

Another point of Dr Yoshida’s report that was questioned by Dr Hamel was the degree of suffering experienced by Ms Furlong during strangulation. While the Japanese doctor had concluded that the Irishwoman likely would have suffered greatly during a strangulation lasting several minutes, Dr Hamel argued that Ms Furlong’s high levels of intoxication would have actually “lessened the suffering” compared with someone who was sober.

The questioning about how Ms Furlong was strangled will play an important part during sentencing of Hinds — scheduled for Mar 19 — who has admitted “lightly pressing” the DCU student’s neck, though without intent to kill.

According to a legal expert, who asked not to be named, strangulation through the use of a weapon — in this case a towel or other such object — would carry a heavier sentence than manual strangulation as it would indicate greater intent.

While the defence team’s strategy would appear to have been to discredit Dr Yoshida’s findings, they left one gaping question.

Dr Hamel had argued that levels of Alprazolam found in Ms Furlong’s blood were high enough to suggest that, if she also had consumed alcohol, she would have become highly incapacitated. Yet, the defendant, Mr Hinds, insisted on Monday that Ms Furlong had demanded sex from him when they went back to his hotel room last May.

CCTV footage from the hotel where the men were staying clearly shows that both Ms Furlong and her friend were unable to walk.

Earlier in yesterday’s proceedings, a statement was read by the defence from a co-member of Hinds’ tour group who had stayed at the same hotel on May 24.

In the statement, American musician Daryll “D-Mac” Sandoz described how Mr Hinds had rung him in his hotel room at the Keio Plaza Hotel some time after 3am on May 24. He told him that a woman he had taken to his nearby room following a Nicki Minaj concert had blacked out following sex.

Mr Sandoz, who was the most senior member of the group that was touring Japan, had earlier called Mr Hinds’ room to make sure he had arrived back safely from the concert, which he had gone to with another tour member, James “King Tight” Blackston.

Mr Sandoz was surprised when a “very drunk” sounding female answered the phone. Mr Hinds eventually answered a different phone and told Mr Sandoz his female companion was “just drunk and tripping”, the statement said.

About 30 minutes later, Mr Hinds had returned the call to say that the woman friend was unconscious. Mr Sandoz rushed to the room and thinking Ms Furlong, who was lying on the ground, had merely blacked out, had tried to wake her up using a towel wetted with cold water from the bathroom. It was only then, he said, that he realised something was wrong.

He then requested help from the hotel’s duty manager who had been waiting outside the door following a complaint from another guest about loud noises coming from Mr Hinds’s room — the complainant was Mr Hinds’s brother, who was also in Japan.

American pathologist Dr Hamel indicated that such “tripping” could have been triggered by the high levels of Alprazolam in Ms Furlong’s blood.

“She clearly had Xanax in her system at the time she was drinking as both [Alprazolam and alcohol] were in her blood,” she said.

Mr Hinds’s mother, Vivian, and brother, Claude, were in court for the second day running. Both were sporting white bead bracelets on which were written “In Rich We trust.”

The trial continues.