A blood trail and tattered clothing marked the 1.5-mile path along which a tow-truck driver was dragged to his death in Colorado Springs last year, police testified Monday as Detra Farries’ trial continues.

Detra Dione Farries

Joseph Thornberg, a Colorado Springs police evidence technician,  spent much of the morning walking jurors through a series of police photographs taken within hours of Allen Lew Rose’s death on Feb. 23.

Beginning at the Hill Park Apartments, where Rose was snagged by a tow cable as Farries allegedly fled a towing, Thornberg described the dragging marks police used to determine Farries’ route.

A blood trail on the asphalt jumped over a curb, crossed a manhole cover and arced around street corners, Thornberg said.

In a gutter, police found a military ID card belonging to the Iraq War veteran.

Further down the path were a wallet containing business cards from J & J Towing, the company he co-owned, a pair of work boots, and a balled-up jacket with his cell phone inside.

Opening statements began Monday, and the trial is expected to last at least three weeks. Farries, 33, faces up to 24 years on the most serious count against her, leaving the scene of a deadly accident. She faces up a 12-year maximum on two other felonies against her, manslaughter and vehicular homicide.

After Thornberg’s testimony, the jury was dismissed for lunch and Judge Jann P. DuBois ruled there will be no additional sanctions imposed on the District Attorney’s Office related to two missing DVDs the defense has called the “crux” of its case.

The judge has already given the defense “wide latitude” to question the integrity of the police investigation, and she said today will be the last time she addresses the topic in court.

Farries’ lead attorney, Eydie Elkins, said the error “destroyed” the defense’s ability to show how the men changed their stories afterward.

The DVDs depicted police interviews with a mechanic and his nephew who were standing with Farries in the apartment parking lot when Rose pulled up.  Both told police that Rose “threw” tow hooks on Farries’ sport-utility vehicle, and at least one of them told police it appeared that Rose was snagged by the cable while he “stomped” or stepped on it after getting hooks onto Farries’ rear-axle.

Police say the discs were misplaced and that efforts to track them down have been unsuccessful.

Elkins had asked the judge to bar prosecutors from attempting to discredit testimony by Donald Hearn by raising his criminal history, saying in court Monday that his arrest and prosecution came after the dragging-death.

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