THE DNA of a man allegedly involved in a violent drug-related beating was found on a zap strap and a piece of electrical tape used to bind the victim, an expert testified at trial Monday in North Vancouver.
The victim's blood was also found on a picture frame inside another accused man's home, the expert said.
The DNA is among the physical evidence linking Robin Landrew Pryce, 42, of Surrey and Paul Joseph Defaveri, 50, of Squamish to a violent beating of Ronald Perry, 68, in a North Vancouver home almost three years ago.
Pryce and Defaveri are on trial for the attempted murder and aggravated assault of Perry before provincial court Judge Steven Merrick.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Earlier in the trial, Perry - who was involved in the criminal underworld - described how he was attacked with hammer and had his eyes gouged after he tried to blackmail people who ran a North Vancouver marijuana grow op. Perry described in horrific detail how he was violently beaten inside the bungalow in the 1600block of Phillip Avenue by two men on Sept. 2, 2009.
A passerby found him early the next morning, with a bag over his head, bound with zap straps, wire and tape, inside his car, parked on Vancouver's Oxford Street.
In court, Perry identified Defaveri as one of the people he'd gone to speak to in the house on Sept. 2, 2009. Pryce, Defaveri, and Defaveri's wife Marney King were living in the rented house at the time.
One of Defaveri's fingerprints was found in blood on an interior door of the house, a police investigator testified.
On Monday, DNA expert May Clark from the RCMP's forensic lab in Edmonton identified that blood - and samples taken from several other places in the Phillip Avenue house - as matching Perry's.
Clark said blood matching Perry's was also found on a hammer entered as evidence in the case, which was found in a shed on the Phillip Avenue property. Another person's blood was found on the hammer as well, but Clark said that person hasn't been identified. It did not match DNA for Perry, Pryce or Defaveri.
Both Perry's blood and Pryce's DNA were found on one of several zap straps used to bind Perry. Pryce's DNA was also found on electrical tape used to tie Perry up.
In cross-examination, Pryce's lawyer David Forsyth asked if it would be possible to transfer DNA from one item to another after someone had touched one of the items "even months before."
Clark said that was possible, but unlikely.
Forsyth also pointed out DNA on the hammer didn't match anyone known to be connected with the case and that in some other samples, traces of DNA either couldn't be identified and/or were ruled out as belonging to Pryce.
Perry's DNA was also found on a swab taken from a picture frame in the home of Defaveri and King, which was examined under a search warrant. The couple was living in Maple Ridge at the time.
Earlier in the trial, a blood spatter expert testified about finding blood on the walls inside the Phillip Avenue home, with "holes" in some areas that may have been covered by pictures..