Page 6 - Darrell North News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> darrell's secretary told police that everyone left the construction site early on the day of the murder because of the severe rainstorm. she said darrell stayed behind to meet with a contractor named curtis pope. >> curtis pope was a pool contractor. darrell was basically mentoring curtis into the construction business. and he stayed approximately 20, 25 minutes. he left darrell. darrell said he was going to wait out the rain and let the traffic die down before he headed home. >> darrell's wife told police curtis pope could not be the killer. >> curtis pope had done some repair work on our ...

Visited a website on how to beat a polygraph and had, in fact, paid money to download a book on how to beat it. >> as testing continued on the blood stains on the floor of the crime scene, investigators noticed one blood drop on darrell north's pants that they had previously overlooked. >> there was a vertical drop on the back left pant leg of darrell north, while he's laying on the floor. >> the shape of the drop was perfectly round, meaning that the origin of the blood was stationary, and hit the fabric at a 90-degree angle. >> the significance of such a drop falling and hitting the pants pe...

>> there was blood in two of the three rooms. it was obvious a life and death struggle had taken place. >> there was also a hole punch that was discovered in close proximity to mr. north's body that was bent. that would lead me or any other investigator to believe that either mr. north may have been struck with that hole punch or mr. north may have struck his assailant with that hole punch. >> there was a trail of blood from the filing cabinet to darrell's body. then, to a desk. on top, police found a machete, the type used to clear brush from construction sites. it was perfectly clean. >> it ...

>> he was upset that he wasn't going to continue to work there because, according to him, darrell had promised him continued work. >> darrell's family never met johnson, but they'd heard of him. >> darrell had mentioned that he had had some problems with him. he usually didn't bring his problems home, and so since it was something that he had shared with me, i thought it was probably serious. >> incredibly, just two days after darrell's murder, johnson called asking to get his job back. >> the superintendent felt like it was odd that bob johnson was calling there, when can i come to work, afte...

But prosecutors believe curtis pope snapped and attacked darrell with a knife. darrell was caught off guard, and struck pope in the face with a paper punch, causing the nosebleed. pope stabbed darrell over 40 times. as he lay dying on the floor, a drop of blood from pope's nose fell on to darrell's pants. >> there's no way he could have explained away how his blood was dripped on to darrell north's pants. >> we knew we had eliminated any possible innocent explanation for his blood being at the scene, and we felt like we had him. >> curtis pope was arrested and charged with first-degree murder....