Jurors see fingerprints on Widmer’s bathtub

LEBANON, Ohio - Police investigators say if Sarah Widmer died in the bathtub like her husband said, water would have splattered during his efforts to save her life.

Prosecutors honed in on that lack of water during testimony in Ryan Widmer's retrial Monday.

Police officers showed the jurors evidence bags of items they say were dry when they picked them up off the Widmer’s bathroom floor and from the edge of the bathtub.

First responders testified earlier in the trial that they expected to find more water around the drowning scene.

Defense attorneys questioned how dry everything was, commenting on how wrinkled one magazine was.

A fingerprint expert also testified.

The two sides have different interpretations of what the fingerprints on the bathtub mean.

Fingerprint expert and criminalist William Hilliard analyzed the fingerprints on the bathtub after Widmer died.

Hilliard pointed out a spot where you can see two hands had run down the inside of the tub. The prosecution wants jurors to take this as a sign of a struggle.

When the defense attorney stepped in to question Hilliard, he told the jury the fingerprints can't prove anything – he doesn't know whose they are or when they got there.

"You can't tell me that there's anything sinister by the fact that these finger prints are where they are, can you?," asked defense attorney Hal Arenstein.

"No sir," replied Hilliard.

"You can't tell me the force they were presented on there?," asked Arenstein.

"No sir," said Hilliard.

Hilliard also testified that the bathtub could have been contaminated before it was analyzed because
the scene wasn't sealed for two days before police got a search warrant for the bathtub.

The prosecution also pointed out inconsistencies in Ryan's story. He'd told a 911 dispatcher he found Sarah face down in the bathtub.

A nurse at Bethesda Arrow Springs Hospital testified he told her he found Sarah "face up."

Then for the third day, the defense showed more mistakes in paperwork. This time they show the nurse who treated Sarah wrote down the wrong day on documents and the doctor wrote down the wrong time.

According to paperwork, Sarah's body was released to Bryan Widmer, not Ryan.

Prosecutors need to convince the jury that despite these mistakes, the people who were suspicious of Ryan and the investigators are credible.

The jury in the first trial found Widmer guilty of murdering his wife.

The judge threw out the case because of juror misconduct.