ROSEVILLE, Mich. (FOX 2) - The man accused of murdering Ashley Elkins, a Warren mother who was reported missing in January, is scheduled to return to court Friday for a continued preliminary examination.
De'Andre Booker, 33, is charged with first-degree murder and lying to a peace officer. Friday's court hearing is the third day of his preliminary examination.
Despite extensive questioning, the preliminary hearing was continued another day, to Friday, Aug. 22.
The backstory:
Elkins, 30, was reported missing Jan. 2.
Her ex-boyfriend was arrested Jan. 8 and charged with lying to police. Though Elkins' body was never found, a murder charge was later added against him.
According to authorities, Elkins' vehicle was found a few miles away from Booker's apartment. He allegedly lied about his whereabouts.
The prosecutor who appeared in court for Booker's arraignment said Booker's internet searches after Elkins disappeared suggest that he was planning to flee Michigan.
While in Flint, Booker is accused of planning to leave Michigan by looking up routes out of state.
His research also included what to do while on the run, as well as how to beat a polygraph test, and if blood is traceable, the prosecution said.
Additionally, he allegedly looked up how to delete his Google search history.
Witnesses detail evidence:
On Friday the officer in charge of the investigation, Sgt. Matthew Lesperance of Roseville police
DoorDash records from Booker were found to have ordered Hefty 30 gallon garbage bags, 43 ounces of bleach and latex gloves, delivered at 11:46 p.m. on the last day she was seen, Jan. 2.
The records came from a search warrant of a phone that Booker owned.
He testified that a 9MM handgun was found under a loveseat cushion at Booker's apartment during a search warrant.
He said video footage showed Ashley Elkins arriving at Booker's apartment just before 8 a.m. Jan. 2.
The prosecutor asked Lesperance if by going through footage spanning three days until January 5th, if he saw Elkins leaving.
"No ma'am, Ashley never left that apartment," Lesperance said.
A search warrant was acquired after police did a welfare check on Elkins January 4th, by going to Booker's Pinehurst apartment. The door was found ajar with remnants of blood inside.
Police returned to perform the search warrant shortly after the same day, he said.
A forensic scientist from Michigan State Police took the stand Friday who tested Booker's Roseville apartment, specifically the bathroom.
Toni Grusser reviewed bathroom photos where red-brown spots marked for possible blood was found. Spots were found on the cabinet for the vanity of the bathroom, the toilet, on the wall and door.
In the dumpster outside the apartment Grusser took photos and collected Styrofoam and tinfoil that had red-brown staining that tested positive for blood.
Photos were then shown of Leucocrystal Violet testing results which detect latent blood that can't be seen with the naked eye.
Purple discoloration streaks on inside of shower. on bathroom floor, toilet bottom of shower. There also appeared to be purple staining on the carpet outside the bathroom,
Evidence photo shows the blue-purple staining of the LCV test detecting suspected blood in De'Andre Booker's bathroom.
"It could be that we over sprayed, but in my opinion, looking at this, (these are) LCV positive areas," Grusser said. "The purple color change would have happened because it came in contact with the latent blood. So some of this might be (spray) flow from down the wall, but the majority of this is LCV positive reaction."
The defense attorney said that the blood can't be dated or measured - the latter meaning in terms of volume.
"If I cut myself in the bathroom and I … try to clean it and I wipe it off and think I got the whole thing, but you put that LCV on the floor, it might very well show some purple spots," he said.
Grusser agreed but brought up the amount of purple staining.
"Yes it could show some purple spots," she said. "I wouldn't think a shaving cut would cause that much blood in like, this image, but it would turn purple, yeah."
Lesperance testified that the it was approximately. "37 septillion times" more likely to have originated from Elkins than someone else.
MSP Forensic Scientist Toni Grusser. Inset: Purple streaks representing latent blood from the suspect's bathroom.
Also on Friday, Booker's adopted niece Payne Barksdale was on the witness stand for questioning. She met Booker on Jan. 2 to move a silver Chevrolet Malibu that he said his friend owned.
During her time with Booker at his apartment, she mentioned he acted nervous.
"He couldn't sit down," she said, adding it was making her nervous. "I asked him to sit down because he just kept pacing back and forth. He didn't."
At Booker's apartment she said she let sick but obligated to help. She said he sprayed the bathroom with something that smelled like Pine-Sol before she went in to use it.
Booker did not have a driver's license and rode with her, to her friend's apartment complex nearby. She said he asked her to leave the keys on the seat.
He then threw something away in the dumpster that she says made no noise when it was discarded.
On Jan. 3 she spoke with Booker and brought up the car's color.
"He said it was baby blue," Barksdale said, adding she asked about it again. "He said no, that it was baby blue and that I'm overthinking it and thinking too much into it."
The silver Chevrolet Malibu that Ashley Elkins owned.
When Booker was last in court, witnesses took the stand to detail evidence in the case.
One was Officer Salvatore Munafo, who works for Roseville Police as an evidence technician. The second was Chris Moran, who performs follow-up investigations of criminal complaints.
Munafo visited Booker's residence because plumbers were removing drains from the apartment. He testified to discovering a clump of hair in the drain taken from the bathtub. A bullet fragment and a silver hoop-style earring were also found.
Moran testified to some of the digital evidence found during the investigation.
They included internet searches that Booker had made prior to Elkins going missing, including firearm queries, questions about firing a weapon with a pillow, and "can you track location when phone is off."
Family, police testify:
The preliminary hearing started Wednesday with two witnesses testifying before the court: the mother of the victim and the first responding officer. Monika Elkins, who was Ashley Elkin's mom, spoke first about her last interactions with her daughter.
The second witness was a Warren police officer. Michael Quaranta visited a Warren residence after receiving a report of a missing person. His involvement was the first time law enforcement started searching for Ashley Elkins.
The third witness - who the judge has ordered not be identified - called to the stand was an individual who knew Booker. They testified about seeing police cars at Booker's residence days after Elkins was reported missing.
They later called Booker, who asked what the police were doing.
Shane Nabozny was the fourth individual called to the stand. He's a Roseville police officer and was working as a road patrol unit when he was called to an apartment complex that had possibly been broken into on Jan. 4.
The request had been made by Booker.
After canvassing inside the apartment, Nabozny found multiple bottles of bleach, which he described as "suspicious", before finding two drops of blood in the bathtub.
More drops of blood were found throughout the bathroom, including on the vanity next to the tub and an adjacent hallway.
Other objects the Roseville officer spotted included pink garbage bags that had been used around the apartment. There were also black-colored trash bags.
Underneath a couch, police found a handgun. It was collected for evidence, along with documents that were found showing Booker as the primary resident of the complex in Roseville.
The Source: Previous FOX 2 reporting was used in this story.
Watch FOX 2 News Live
This browser does not support the Video element.