CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Testimony continued Thursday and Monday as forensic experts, digital analysts and investigators walked jurors through DNA results, gunshot residue findings, and hotel surveillance footage in the 2021 Eagle View Drive murder trial.

John Edward Bean IV, 44, has pleaded not guilty to all charges in the killing of 40-year-old Trasbin Campbell.

DNA and gunshot residue analysis

TBI Special Agent Forensic Scientist Charly Castelbuono testified as an expert in forensic and DNA analysis. “No two people will have the same DNA profile, except for identical twins,” she said.

Castelbuono tested the key that Jonae Bean – the defendant’s daughter – previously testified was her key to the Eagle View Drive residence. Castelbuono told the jury that the blood on the key belonged to Campbell. No other blood was found in the hotel room or among Bean’s belongings.

She said some items contained too many DNA contributors for TBI to interpret, including the knife blade recovered along Interstate 24 and the ski mask found in Bean’s car. Those items were sent to a specialized lab for further testing.

William Allan, a supervisor at Cyber Genetics, testified that he received electronic DNA profiles for Bean and Campbell from TBI. Using TrueAllele DNA analysis software, he said the program identified statistical matches on several items. Lee’s cellphone showed a 184 billion match for Campbell and a 25 trillion match for Bean.

“For this match strength of 25 trillion, the chance of a false positive is 1 in 725 trillion people,” Allan said. “We would have to go through the entire population of planet Earth multiple times to find somebody who would have a match statistic like this that did leave their DNA on the cellphone.”

Bean had a 9.8 quadrillion match for the ski mask. The knife blade showed a 1.05 septillion match for Campbell, while the handle was a 1.48 thousand match for Bean. Allan said lower match statistics carry higher false-positive rates. The error rate for Bean’s match on the knife handle is 1 in every 27.1 thousand people.

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“If you contribute more of your DNA to something, your match statistic is going to be higher,” he said. 

TBI Forensic Scientist Lindsey Anderson, an expert in microanalysis, testified that particles consistent with gunshot residue were found on Bean’s ski mask, a black Levi hoodie and a loose black latex glove recovered from his car.

“That item was either near a firearm when it was discharged or in contact with GSR in some other way,” she said, adding that gunshot residue can transfer.

Hotel surveillance and alarm timeline

Lead Detective Andrea Martin previously testified about surveillance video from the Sonesta Nashville Airport Hotel, where Bean was staying the night of the killing.

Bean left the hotel lobby around 2:32 a.m., and a white sedan – which Martin identified as Bean’s Chevy Malibu – was seen leaving the parking lot at 2:36 a.m. The same sedan returned to the hotel at about 4:28 a.m.

Google Maps confirmed the hotel is 55.8 miles from the Eagle View Drive residence. Martin said the gun used in the killing was never recovered.

Gary Osburn, a technical manager with Brinks Home Security, testified about alarm events recorded the morning of March 27, 2021. Jurors viewed a printed timeline showing:

  • A burglary event in the back-door zone at 3:39 a.m. after a 60-second delay.
  • The back door closing for the last time at 3:46 a.m.
  • Erica Lee triggering the police panic alarm at 3:55 a.m.

Cellphone data, deleted searches

Former CPD Detective Kolofsky testified as an expert in cell phone forensics. Using forensic software, she accessed data from the black iPhone recovered from Bean’s hotel room and said Bean was the likely primary user.

Jurors saw deleted searches in Bean’s search history for different variations of “Trasbin Campbell” from Jan. 15, 2021, around 1:46 a.m.

She also showed jurors emails and messages from the phone. All but one of the 109 emails were sent between December 2020 and early March 2021. Messages shown included Bean telling Lee he missed her, wanted to take her out on Valentine’s Day and that he was concerned about their daughter’s school progress.

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Jurors also saw messages between Bean and Jonae in late January 2021, many about Lee’s whereabouts. One message read: “I want my family back. I’ll do anything.”

She also analyzed the black ZTE phone recovered from Bean’s car. She testified that four variants of user accounts in Campbell’s name had been deleted, calling it “odd in that time period.” The phone was only active from January to March 2021.

“There was autofill information that was associated with John Bean,” she said, including his date of birth, home address and additional searches for Campbell.

Kolofsky said she did not recall seeing any messages containing threats against Lee or Campbell. She also noted that Bean was messaging other women, including one around 4:32 a.m. on March 27.

Phone location data and activity gaps

Charles Arms, a criminal investigator with the 19th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, testified as an expert in cellphone forensics and data analysis. He walked jurors through activity from Bean’s black iPhone, noting that between 2:28 a.m. and 4:32 a.m., there was no physical user activity.

Arms also testified about the tower data showing the general location of Campbell’s phone, which was never recovered. At about 4:02 a.m., Campbell’s device was traveling east on Interstate 24 toward Springfield. It remained in the Pleasant View area until it was shut off and never recovered.

Bean’s phone could not be tracked between 10 p.m. and 5:14 a.m. “If it’s on Wi-Fi, it doesn’t communicate with the tower,” Arms said.

Court recessed Monday afternoon, and closing arguments will be heard Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. at the Montgomery County Courts Center.

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