Pathologist: 37 stab wounds occurred after death

By Pete Bosak

BELLEFONTE — The pathologist who performed the autopsy on Langston Carraway’s body testified in county court today that 37 of the 93 stab wounds found on Carraway’s body were inflicted after he was dead.

Dr. Gordon Handte was testifying at the trial of former Nittany Lion LaVon Chisley, who is charged with first- and third-degree in Carraway’s death in June 2006.

Handte said the autopsy showed 41 of stab and slash wounds on Carraway were “defense-type wounds, meaning he was trying to defend himself.”

The deadly wounds were three long slash wounds to the right side of Carraway’s neck, measuring 2, 3 and 4 inches in length.

While these wounds didn’t sever the carotid or jugular arteries, Handte said, they would have caused him to bleed profusely.

“I believe these three wounds would have been efficient enough to have killed this individual,” Handte said. “After a few tens of seconds, there would have been enough blood loss for him to become incapacitated.”

The nature of these wounds — at least one of them was likely inflicted early in the attack, Handte said — indicate Carraway was attacked from behind and from his right side.

Carraway’s body was found in his Patton Township apartment on June 5, 2006. Handte estimated that he died late the night of June 3 or early the morning of June 4. Rigor mortis, he said, ususally sets in within a few hours of death, lasts one to two days, then fades. Rigor was gone from Carraway’s body when it was found, Handte said.

Handte said he was able to identify 37 wounds that occurred after Carraway was dead due to the lack of bleeding around the wounds — including one in which a knife blade had snapped off inside Carraway’s chest after piercing his lung.

On cross-examination, Chisley’s attorney, Karen Muir, asked Handte why he had made note of the fact that Carraway’s girlfriend was white. Carraway was black.

“Any time you have a body stabbed or slashed 93 times, this is obviously quite extraordinary,” Handte said. “One concern I had when I learned he had a white girlfriend was could this have been racially motivated. This could have been a crime of passion or anger.”

On a wall near Carraway’s body a racial slur was written in blood, followed by the word “die.”

But District Attorney Michael Madeira asked Handte whether the the stab wounds — 37 of them made after death — could be an attempt to make the killing look like a hate crime.

“This could have been a crime of passion or anger, or it could have been to make it appear as that,” Handte replied.

Handte also made note of a check he found in Carraway’s pocket. It was a payroll check, for $375.65, that was made out to an employee of Quaker Steak and Lube and had been signed over to Carraway.

Muir also asked Handte about a lighter-colored hair, an inch or two long, that was found in one of Carraway’s neck wounds. The hair, Handte said, could have come from anywhere in the apartment.

Muir gestured to Chisley and asked “Would you agree with me he does not have light-colored hair?”

“I would,” Handte replied.

For more updates, check back at CentreDaily.com later today, or see tomorrow’s Centre Daily Times.