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Homicide

Blood spatter expert takes stand in trial of Utah doctor accused of killing ex-wife

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    John Brickman Wall, 51, right, enters the 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015. Wall is accused of killing his former wife, university biologist Uta Von Schwelder. Wall pleaded not guilty to first-degree felony counts of murder and aggravated burglary in connection to Schwedler’s death at her Sugar House home in 2011. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Al Hartmann, Pool) (The Associated Press)

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    John Brickman Wall, 51, left, stands at the defense table during a recess in 3rd District Court, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015, in Salt Lake City. Opening arguments started in the trial of Wall, a Salt Lake City pediatrician charged with murder in the 2011 death of his ex-wife, a university biologist and mother of their four children. Wall has maintained his innocence since his arrest in April 2013 amid accusations from prosecutors and his oldest son that he killed Uta Von Schwedler. (AP Photo/Salt Lake Tribune, Al Hartmann, Pool) (The Associated Press)

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    Prosecutor Matthew Janzen, left, speaks to Judge James Blanch at the opening of John Brickman Wall's four-week murder trial in 3rd District Court, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015 in Salt Lake City. Wall has maintained his innocence since his arrest in April 2013 despite being accused by prosecutors and his oldest son of killing Von Schwedler. (AP Photo/Salt Lake Tribune, Al Hartmann, Pool) (The Associated Press)

SALT LAKE CITY – The murder trial of a Utah doctor accused of killing his ex-wife in 2011 amid a bitter custody dispute is entering its second day with testimony from a blood spatter expert.

Prosecutors say blood found throughout the Salt Lake City home of 49-year-old Uta von Schwedler shows she was murdered. They say her ex-husband, John Brickman Wall, was the only one who could have killed her.

But lawyers for the 51-year-old pediatrician say his ex-wife could have cut herself and stumbled around the house before she died in her bathtub.

A medical examiner found von Schwedler died from drowning and a fatal amount of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, but stopped short of ruling her death a homicide or suicide.

The cancer researcher also had cuts on her wrist and leg.