Biddinger's DNA Found on Knife Blade

Kevin Mbayo’s DNA was found on the knife blade that allegedly “stuck” James Biddinger’s finger during a fatal fight between the men, a forensic scientist testified Thursday in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Biddinger, 27, is on trial for murdering Mbayo, 22, who died of a single stab wound to his back.  The men fought in the living room of a Germantown townhouse on May 3, 2011.

The question of DNA arises from Biddinger’s testimony to police: He claimed that Mbayo went after a pocketknife clipped outside his jeans and that Biddinger injured his own finger in his attempt to regain control of the knife. Mbayo, Biddinger claimed, was fatally stabbed somewhere in the process.

But on the night of the stabbing, Biddinger initially told police and a 9-1-1 dispatcher that Mbayo attacked him with a kitchen knife. But he later backpedaled during his interrogation with police and said that it was his own knife that was involved. Biddinger eventually took police to where he tossed the knife, which was recovered the next morning — after a night of rain — near Locbury Circle and Rexmore Drive.

Montgomery County forensic scientist, Naomi Lobosco — who was introduced Thursday by Assistant State’s Attorney Vlatka Tomazic as a DNA expert — said that Mbayo’s DNA was found Biddinger’s knife. Lobosco said some other DNA was found on the knife, but it was not enough of to determine who it came from.

There was also testing done on a bloody kitchen knife a townhouse tenant discovered between the kitchen wall and a box of cereal, several days after Mbayo was stabbed. Biddinger was the sole source of DNA found on the kitchen knife’s blade, according to Lobosco testimony Thursday.

The testing couldn’t say for sure whether or not it could have been Mbayo’s DNA, Lobosco said.

Physical evidence and the extent of Mbayo’s prior criminal record — an issue broached by the defense — were the final impressions left with jurors, as both the defense and the prosecution rested their cases Thursday afternoon.

Biddinger’s attorney Melanie Creedon, who is with the public defender’s office, claimed the state failed to prove its case and that the facts prosecutors presented over the course of the week did not meet the standard of first-degree murder.

“There was no evidence that Mr. Biddinger was enraged,” Creedon said.

Court is scheduled to reconvene Friday at 10 a.m., starting with more than two hours of closing arguments. The jury is expected to deliberate Biddinger’s fate Friday afternoon.