Body was moved, blood spatter expert says

COEUR d’ALENE — Kendy Howard’s body was “significantly moved” after her death, a blood spatter expert said in court.

Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday in the first-degree murder trial of Daniel Howard, a former Idaho State Police trooper accused of killing his wife, Kendy Howard, in February 2021, then staging the scene to look like she died by suicide. Daniel Howard has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and felony domestic battery.

Randolph Beasley, a forensic consultant who specializes in bloodstain analysis, was among the final witnesses for the prosecution.

Beasley told jurors that three different blood stains on Kendy Howard’s chest, nose and mouth appeared to change direction after blood began to flow.

“One particular stain made a right hand turn, showing her body was moved,” he said.

Daniel Howard told police he found his wife dead in the bathtub after she shot herself in the mouth.

Lynn Acebedo, chief deputy coroner for Kooteani County, previously testified that she noticed the blood around Kendy Howard’s mouth and cheek appeared to have flowed upward, against gravity, in “the wrong way for someone who has a head down in a bathtub from a gunshot wound to the mouth.”

Beasley made the same observation. Using a Styrofoam head and fake blood, he demonstrated for jurors how Kendy Howard’s head would have to move in order for blood to flow the way it did.

“Her head had to flip way back for that stain to make that little turn to the right,” he said.

The change in blood flow pattern was consistent with Kendy Howard’s body moving after she began bleeding, Beasley said. Trauma surgeon Dr. Ryan Rambaran previously testified that she could not have moved on her own after she was shot because the bullet severed her spinal cord.

Beasley said he believed the best explanation for the change in blood flow pattern was that someone picked Kendy Howard up by the arms and maneuvered her body while she was in the bathtub, causing her head to flop backward.

Jurors also heard testimony from Philip Hanger, a clinical psychologist. Hanger works for the state of Idaho, performing independent evaluations for people under court-ordered, involuntary mental health holds.

Hanger said he reviewed Kendy Howard’s medical records, as well as police reports and other documents related to her death. He also reviewed her Facebook messages and interviews with relatives and friends.

Kendy Howard faced “significant stressors” before her death, he said, including an imminent divorce, a planned move to Kamiah and a possible job change. But stressors don’t necessarily lead to suicide, Hanger said. More important than stressors are a person’s ability to cope.

Hanger said Kendy Howard appeared to be coping with the stressors in her life. She was in close contact with family and friends. She had plans in the near and far future and expressed excitement about her goals. She got her nails done hours before she died, which Hanger could indicate she was taking care of herself.

“It’s improbable that this person would be at risk of self harm,” Hanger said. “This is not somebody who, in my impression, would be at imminent risk of suicide.”

Hanger noted that people close to Kendy Howard did not indicate concern about her mental health, except for her husband. He pointed to a conversation with police where Daniel Howard said his wife had once put a gun to her head but shot the floor instead. There were no other witnesses to the event.

“(Facebook messages) indicated Ms. Howard was aware that he had suggested she get mental health treatment because of her emotional responses, that she had bipolar,” Hanger said. “He had indicated in his Facebook response that he knew as much as a shrink does.”

Cari Maitland, who lived near the Howards for 20 years, said she felt concerned for Kendy Howard’s mental health in the fall of 2020, about six months months before Kendy Howard’s death.

On the stand Wednesday, she described an emotional conversation where the two women discussed Kendy Howard’s extramarital affair.

“She became inconsolable,” Maitland said. “She got angry and she was mad and she was sad. She was spiraling.”

After Kendy Howard’s death, Maitland said Daniel Howard became solemn and withdrawn. She said she helped him organize his late wife’s possessions to be sold to consignment shops.