Litchfield murder trial headed into second week

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

 

The trial for murder of Raymond “Red” Litchfield continued Thursday and Friday last week, with testimony from forensic, medical and law enforcement witnesses, focusing on the timeline of the murder and the estimated time of death as well as other possible suspects, at the 52nd district courthouse in Gatesville.

 

The first witness on Thursday was Carla (Armstrong) Polidoro, the EMT paramedic who responded to the 9-1-1 call on January 29, 1999. She told the jury how she arrived at the scene and found Litchfield lying on the floor of the kitchen. Polidoro explained EMS protocol when arriving on the scene: check for signs of life; if there are none, check for signs of death; and look for cause of death.

 

Litchfield was blue, a sign of asphyxiation, with signs of lividity, or liver mortis, on his back, Polidoro said. There were also signs of rigor mortis. Litchfield was “stiff as a rock,” Polidoro said. She identified those signs in crime scene photos. Polidoro, a paramedic for 22 years, said given the lividity and rigor mortis, she would estimate the time of death to be five to six hours prior to when his body was found at 2 p.m., placing the time of death around 8 a.m.