Pathologist in LAFD Captain's Trial for Murder Says Victim was Strangled, Her Body Dragged

A forensic pathologist from the L.A. County coroner’s office told a jury today that an acquaintance of former LAFD Captain David Del Toro was strangled to death in 2006 and that “blunt force” wounds to her head were a contributing factor in her murder.

During an often-tense two-hour testimony, Louis Pena, a deputy medical examiner at the Department of the Coroner, told the court of Judge Lance Ito during cross examination that “scrape abrasions” on a large region of the upper back as well as the left arm of the murder victim, Jennifer Flores, suggested she was dragged against a hard surface after being murdered and that the surface was likely a “cement object or gravel.”

Del Toro, 54, is charged with the first-degree murder of Flores, 42, whose mangled body was found about a quarter mile from his home in Eagle Rock on Aug. 16, 2006. Since opening statements in the case began on Jan. 20, several LAPD detectives and criminalists told the jury that they documented tire marks from Del Toro’s truck that left a trail of Flores’s blood and DNA leading all the way back to his house.

Inside the home, investigators found a blood-soaked carpet and several bloodstained garments that Del Toro was allegedly trying to clean or dispose of. Investigators also found a rope inside the house—and strands from the same rope were found on Flores’ ankle, suggesting her foot had been tied with rope, possibly to haul her body somewhere. Del Toro has been charged with strangulating her to death and faces 25 years to life in state prison if found guilty.

Testimony in the long-drawn out case of the “People vs. David Del Toro” resumed today afternoon, Feb. 15, after a four-and-a-half-day interval. Proceedings are likely to continue into next week. Judge Ito had initially said that a verdict in the case must be reached by Feb. 18, but difficulties in selecting a jury and other unanticipated delays probably won’t make a verdict possible until Feb. 22.

Pointing to a string of graphic photographs of Flores’ dead body that Deputy District Attorney Robert Grace presented in court, Pena told that jury that Flores had suffered a black eye, a chin injury and a completely fractured jaw in addition to bruises to the neck caused by strangulation. One of her ears was split open, possibly by an object that struck it, Pena said, and the autopsy revealed that Flores’ ear was wounded while she was still alive.

Pena said that a deep, three-and-a-half-inch gash on Flores’ head was likely the result of a direct blow from a fist, a pipe or some blunt object but that the wound would not have been lethal in and of itself.

Asked by defense attorney Joseph Gutierrez if Flores’ strangulation could have occurred by a blunt object, Pena said that was highly unlikely because strangulation is nearly always caused by hands or an object such a rope.

Asked if Flores, who was all of five-foot-six and weighed 137 pounds, could have died of alcohol poisoning, Pena said that’s certainly possible but he didn’t think so, given that the blood alcohol levels in her body were between 0.29 percent and 0.37 percent and that levels below 0.04 percent are usually not lethal. But most significantly, Flores’ “injuries were overwhelming,” said Pena. “The bleeding on her back, neck and jaw area overrides any possibility that she died of alcohol poisoning.”

Asked by the defense if he had examined her liver, Pena said he had indeed and that he found nothing of concern. “Her liver was grossly normal,” he said, adding that there were no alcohol-related fatty deposits on the organ that might have indicated Flores had a history of alcoholism.

Pena did admit, however, that he determined the cause of Flores’s death on Aug. 19, 2006—the same day that he conducted an autopsy on her body and that he wrote his report before receiving the toxicologist’s report, which was not available until Sept. 8, 2006. Asked by Gutierrez if he recalled telling the Grand Jury in November 2009 whether he believed that toxicology information is significant in determining the cause of death, Pena said he could not recall having said anything to that effect.

The pathologist also said that Flores’ body had been washed before he conducted his autopsy and that it would have been preferable to examine the victim’s unwashed body. Furthermore, the area of the head where Flores had a deep gash was shaved, Pena said, adding that for the purposes of an autopsy he would have preferred that weren’t so.

The pathologist’s testimony will continue tomorrow, Wednesday, starting at 9:30 a.m., and is expected to conclude within about half an hour. Thereafter, prosecutor Grace has said he will rest his case, and the defense will begin examining expert witnesses it has summoned, including a couple of pathologists.