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Last updated on Monday, August 8, 2016
(NASHVILLE) - The jury trial of Daniel Messel continues today in Brown County Circuit Court.
Judge Judith Stewart is presiding over the trial.
The jury saw pictures of IU student Hannah Wilson taken after her death.
Forensic evidence took center stage in the third day of Messel's murder trial, including some difficult images of the 22-year-old Wilson's heavily damaged skull and bloody face.
An autopsy determined that Wilson had died from blunt force injuries to the back of her head.
Before the jurors entered the courtroom Friday morning defense attorney Dorie Maryan asked for a mistrial.
Thursday during proceedings Dr. George Weir testified as a forensic pathologist and was questioned by the state on three photos that Weir identified as true and accurate to Hannah Wilson's knee abrasions.
However, when presented to the defense, Maryan objected and the photos were discovered to not be of Wilson or pertinent to the case at all. Because of the discussion of the photos in the courtroom, she argued there was no way to recover from this mistake and that a mistrial was needed.
There was also concern that even though the photos weren't presented to the jury that some might have seen them as they were passed to Weir to observe.
After listening to the recording, Judge Judith Stewart ruled that a mistrial was not needed but did say she would admonish the jury if the defense so wished. She also offered Maryan an opportunity to re-interview Weir if she wanted to. Maryan told the judge she would consider that option.
Messell, 50, a print shop worker from Bloomington, is accused of killing 22-year-old Hannah Wilson two weeks before she was to graduate from Indiana University. A passerby found Wilson's body on April 24, 2015 in a parking lot laying face down at State Road 45 and Plum Creek Road near Helmsburg. Wilson had been reported missing the day before the discovery of her body.
Prosecutors say while Wilson's wounds don't tie her to the 50-year-old Bloomington man, but they say they found her blood inside his car and his cell phone was next to her body.
On Friday, jury members heard testimony and saw blood stains, or "spatters," on the inside and outside of Daniel Messel's car.
Judge Judith Stewart allowed the jury to visit the Brown County Law Enforcement Office where Messel's 2012 Kia Sportage is being kept.
According to a testimony by Indiana State Police Sgt. Dean Marks, who is an expert in blood splatter, there were more than 200 blood spatters on the interior drivers side door. Inside Messel's car, Marks located blood on the steering wheel, center console, dashboard and radio, among other areas.
Maryan says her client is the innocent victim of an incomplete police investigation and that investigators quickly arrested their first suspect and ignored other possible suspects.
Brown County Prosecutor Ted Adams say evidence pointed toward Messel's guilt.
Messel was arrested at his home on Ison Road, where police say they found him carrying a clear trash bag containing jeans, shoes and a t-shirt stained with Wilson's blood.
The jury is made up of eight women and four men is expected to render a verdict later this week. Testimony resumes at 9 a.m. today.
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