Combination of Strangulation, Incised Wounds Killed Astley, Medical Examiner Says

The courtroom Wednesday responded with silent tension as the state's chief medical examiner described the myriad of wounds he found on the battered body of Lauren Astley.

At the defendant's table, Nathaniel Fujita, now 20, sat hunched almost to the point of laying his upper body on the table in front of him while Chief Medical Examiner Henry Nields testified about the results of his July 5, 2011, autopsy of Astley.

Fujita is accused of luring his ex-girlfriend to his Wayland home where prosecutors say he killed her before dumping her body in a Wayland marsh. He's facing a first-degree murder charge, which carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole. His defense team is claiming insanity.

Wednesday, Neils told jurors that Astley died from a combination of her injuries, which included strangulation with a ligature consistent with a bungee cord and several incised wounds.

As the details of the autopsy emerged, the people gathered in the courtroom gallery sat in silence. Several in the crowd wore rubber bracelets in a bright coral hue -- popularly believed to be Astley's favorite color. The bracelets read, "Lauren, you left us breathless," a reference to the song, "Breathless," that Astley sang with her Wayland High School a cappella group.

Astley's parents listened from the front row behind the proscution's table, sometimes growing emotional or looking away as autopsy photos were shown to jurors, but remaining composed throughout the medical examiner's testimony.

"I believe that she died as a result of the strangulation and the incised wounds to her neck," Nields said. "It was both together. I believe that she was alive after the ligature had been removed."

In addition to the major wounds, Nields testified that Astley sustained blunt force injuries resulting in bruises and small abrasions on her head, face, arms and legs. She also had multiple superficial incised wounds to her neck and upper body, some of which, Nields said, appeared to have been created by a serrated edge.

"I guess the answer would be any one of them singularly could be fatal and any one of them singularly could have been survivable," Nields said, when Prosecutor Lisa McGovern asked him which wounds would have been fatal.

The major wound to Astley's neck, Nields said, sliced through muscle and cartilage, but did not cut her jugular or carotid artery.

Earlier in Wednesday's testimony, chemist Jennifer Montgomery told jurors that she was able to create a DNA profile matching Astley from samples taken from the sneakers found in the crawlspace accessible via Fujita's bedroom ceiling, several areas of Fujita's gold Honda CRV, a car floor mat, the sneakers found in the Fujita's basement, the bloody towel found on Water Row, the stain on the floor of the Fujita's garage as well as some items recovered from the Fujita's garage.

Montgomery said she found Fujita's DNA in a stain on the map pocket on the back of the seat in Astley's Jeep.

The chemist said she could not create positive DNA profiles from the sweatshirts and T-shirt found in the plastic bag in the attic crawlspace. Montgomery said that the wet, hot conditions, along with mud and soil, could inhibit DNA testing.

"It's not unusual to not get a DNA profile from clothing or items that are kept this way," Montgomery said.

Under cross-examination, Montgomery testified that she did not find blood at all on a pair of cleaning gloves seen lying on the Fujita's kitchen sink in an evidence photo.

Additional witnesses Wednesday included another chemist, Erik Koester, and Astley's best friend Ariel Chates. For a full recap of the day's testimony, see the Wayland Murder Trial Live Blog from Feb. 27.

The cross-examination of the medical examiner will take place Thursday.

Editor's Note: The name of the medical examiner was misspelled. We apologize. It has been corrected above.