Shortly after 7 a.m. yesterday, local authorities discovered several spray-painted messages on the Brimfield home of James E. Trimble. His mother, Elizabeth Trimble-Bresley, and step-father, Lloyd Bresley, use gasoline and other cleaning products to erase

Credit: Jason Hall

RAVENNA – The first photographs of a Kent State student murdered were displayed for jurors on a widescreen television yesterday – but first Judge John A. Enlow warned courtroom spectators that photographs may be too graphic for viewing.

On Jan. 22, Sarah Positano was found lying in the hallway of her duplex dead from a bullet wound to the neck.

Dry wall plaster dust rested on her clothes from multiple bullet holes penetrating the wall near where her head lay even with the door frame. Her cell phone lay underneath her hand. A set of dog tags stamped with Trimble’s name rested by her feet.

“Do they (photographs) truly and accurately depict the scene at 3729B Ranfield Road?” Portage County Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci asked Special Agent John Saraya of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, who provided the photographs and took the stand for the second time.

“Yes, sir,” Saraya said.

Friends and family of Positano comforted each other; one teary family member could not bear to look up at the screen in the Portage County Court of Common Pleas courtroom, where James E. Trimble is being tried for the aggravated murders of Positano, his girlfriend Renee Bauer and her 7-year-old son Dakota.

Trimble’s family members were also upset because spray paint was found today on his Sandy Lake Road home, spelling out “murder” and “house of horror.”

Trimble sat next to Portage County Public Offender Dennis Lager, Trimble lower lip quivering as he stared at the photographs. His face flushed red as though he was ready to cry or be sick.

Saraya displayed floor plans of Positano’s residence and marked each evidential area with a yellow tag to clarify the image.

Blown-out glass from patio doors littered the interior and exterior, and blood splattered the banister going upstairs. Photographs showed a knocked-over vacuum cleaner and mattress off the bed.

“As we started picking things up and moving them out of the way we began finding more evidence,” Saraya said.

Officials collected an Olympic Arm AR15 rifle that had a round remaining from the north bedroom, along with three 9 mm spent casings. The rifle appeared malfunctioned, Saraya said, because the bolt was jammed in the center of the weapon.

Trimble’s empty prescription bottle of hydrocodone was found behind the bedroom door, along with another prescription bottle.

Trimble’s wallet and an empty Sig Sauer P239 9 mm pistol, still locked in the slide back position, were discovered between the toilet and bathtub in the upstairs bathroom.

Prior to the displays of Positano’s house, the prosecution showed more photographs of the crime scene at 880 Sandy Lake Road, showing the bodies of Renee and Dakota Bauer.

Bone fragments and clumps of skin and tissue were found near a dresser in the bedroom.

Photographs of Renee’s body, with major head trauma and blackened eye, were shown before Enlow called for a recess.

Trimble appeared shaken during the recess, swallowing Tylenol and accepting tissues from his defense council.

Saraya might take the stand again tomorrow. Trimble was shaking when he left the courtroom.

Contact public affairs reporter Katie Phillips at [email protected].