Commonwealth v. Read — Trial ArchiveAshley Vallier
Ashley Vallier is a forensic scientist with the MSP Crime Lab who conducted physical match analysis of plastic and glass fragments recovered from 34 Fairview Road, the scene where John O'Keefe's body was found. Using a stereo zoom microscope, she assembled dozens of individual debris fragments into five composite groupings and determined that one of those groupings mechanically fit the tail light housing from Read's Lexus LX 570. She testified in both trials, presenting the same core forensic conclusion while facing cross-examination focused on the chain of custody timeline for the evidence Trooper Proctor delivered to the lab.
Trial 1 vs Trial 2
Vallier's testimony was substantively consistent across both trials, covering the same physical match methodology and the same central conclusion. The Trial 2 examination was more compressed, consolidating into a single day what had taken parts of two days in Trial 1. Yannetti's cross-examination in Trial 2 maintained the same chain-of-custody focus — the six-week delay and the pattern of Proctor's successive collections — without introducing new lines of attack, reflecting the defense's continued reliance on the evidentiary timeline as their primary challenge to this testimony.