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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019 ❚ BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS ❚ PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
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Dooley retrial unfolds Prosecutors focus on the crime scene Chris Mayhew Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
BURLINGTON – Prosecutors spent the morning of Day 3 of testimony in the retrial of David Dooley focusing on the thoroughness of how police preserved and sought out evidence in the days after Michelle Mockbee was killed. Prosecutors kept police on the stand Feb. 22 showing bagged evidence and discussing methods in the third day of testimony of the retrial of David Dooley in the killing of Michelle Mockbee. Eight deputies have testifi ed for the prosecution so far. Jurors took notes. Some leaned forward in their seats. Boone County Sheriff 's Offi ce Deputy Joe Gregory recounted how he was the fi rst offi cer to arrive at the scene. Gregory described how he and investigators secured the crime scene where Mockbee's body was found, at her workplace in 2012 on the second-fl oor mezzanine level of Thermo Fischer Scientific in Florence where Dooley worked as a janitor Dooley, who was found guilty of the 2012 murder of Michelle Mockbee, was granted a retrial after a judge determined that some evidence was withheld from Dooley's fi rst defense attorneys Multiple Boone County Sheriff deputies have testifi ed including retired investigations unit Major Jim Wagner. Wagner described how searches were conducted of crates of products stacked several tiers high inside the Thermo Fischer warehouse. The outside of the warehouse was searched. Trucks at the warehouse were searched. The trash compactor was searched. The janitor's offi ce through a door and down a hallway from the mezzanine where Mockbee's body was found was searched. Wagner said the smell of bleach in the sink in the janitor's closet the morning Mockbee's body was found grew See SCENE, Page 2A
Prosecutor Jon Heck shares photos of the crime scene during opening statements for the retrial of David Dooley on Wednesday. Dooley, who was convicted for the murder of Michelle Mockbee in a previous trial, was granted a retrial when a judge determined evidence was withheld. PHOTOS BY PHIL DIDION/THE ENQUIRER
She ‘didn’t die instantly’ examiner testifi es Sarah Brookbank Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
David Dooley’s attorney speaks with him Wednesday before opening statements.
Michelle Mockbee didn’t die instantly when she was bludgeoned to death inside Thermo Fischer Scientifi c on the morning of May 29, 2012. Doctor Gregory Wanger, a medical examiner who did Mockbee’s autopsy, said head injuries are what killed her, Wanger testifi ed. “If the brain stem is damaged you’re dead. You’re dead now. Not later,” Wanger said. “She didn’t die instantly, because the brain stem is intact.” Wanger said there were four distinct impacts but they may have overlapped. The impact of the blows fractured
“She didn’t die instantly, because the brain stem is intact.” Dr. Gregory Wanger Medical Examiner
Mockbee’s skull and left her with serious brain bruising. While doing the autopsy, Wanger found damage to the brain so signifi cant that it was torn. “It’s torn. It’s not supposed to be torn. It’s torn and it’s bleeding,” Wanger said. See VICTIM, Page 2A
The ‘SXSW of Bourbon’ is coming here this fall Sarah Brookbank Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
The secret is out – Northern Kentucky is getting its own bourbon festival this fall. Kentucky’s Edge Bourbon Conference and Festival is branded as the “South By Southwest of Bourbon” and hopes to draw people from all over the country to Northern Kentucky. The event isn’t your typical festival or conference. It will sprawl across Covington and Newport on Oct. 4 and 5, 2019. Organizers said the event combines music, cigars and bourbon and hope to have an international draw. “Everybody associates Kentucky with bourbon and Northern Kentucky
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has a long history of bourbon,” Brent Cooper said. “It has always been a part of our history.” Cooper highlighted Northern Kentucky’s distilleries – New Riff , Old Pogue, Second Sight and Boone County – and the B- Line, which Cooper described as a “bourbon adventure.” This event won’t take customers away from those places, in fact, it will encourage them to visit them. Kentucky’s Edge is the brainchild of Bill Donabedian – the man behind MidPoint Music Festival, Brandemonium and Bunbury Music Festival – and Kevin Canafax, VP Regional Public Aff airs at Fidelity Investments and co-Founder of Brandemonium and Suits That Rock. Donabedian said he and Canafax
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“started conspiring” about a bourbon event in Kentucky about a year ago. He said they wanted an event that drives visitors to venues around town, like local distilleries and the B-line. Kentucky’s Edge will have an artisan market in Mainstrasse, a music festival in Newport, bourbon tastings and pairings, workshops and a conference at the convention center. Canafax, a Kentuckian born in Newport, said the event will help change the idea that Northern Kentucky isn’t really Kentucky, just an extension of Ohio. “We are somehow disconnected from Frankfort and the rest of the Commonwealth,” Canafax said. “This event, we See BOURBON, Page 2A
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Shot glasses are fi lled before the toast during an attempt at the world's biggest bourbon toast hosted by New Riff Distillery on the Kentucky side of the Purple People Bridge in Newport in July 2018. SAM GREENE/THE ENQUIRER
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