Prosecutor's star witness to testify today in King trial

A critical witness testifies today in the trial of a man accused of a fatal attack in Yellowknife three and a half years ago.

Denecho King, 25, is on trial for murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault.

• Follow CBC's coverage of the Denecho King trial here

A scientist who examined DNA collected from the crime scene is scheduled to testify all day. Kenneth Hunter is what's known as the "reporting scientist" assigned to examine forensic evidence collected from the apartment.

At the start of the trial, the prosecutor told the judge an expert would testify that King's DNA was found on the murder weapons. If Hunter testifies to that effect, it would be the only evidence so far that places King in the Sunridge Apartment unit of Colin Digness — where Digness and his best friend, John Wifladt, were attacked.

The judge-only trial has heard Digness and Wifladt were found in the blood-smeared unit, severely wounded and barely conscious in the early morning hours of Dec. 14, 2014. The injuries were inflicted with decorative swords Digness kept in his apartment. Wifladt later died of his injuries.

• Paramedic testifies about trying to save John Wifladt's life at Denecho King trial

• Survivor says he has no memory of alleged attack as Denecho King trial continues

None of King's fingerprints or blood were found in the apartment. Earlier, witnesses who lived in the unit below testified King came to their door that morning, then left. They said that was shortly before they heard banging noises from the apartment above. One of them went up to find out what was going on — that was the person who found the bloody scene.

Yesterday, three people who dealt with the evidence collected from the scene testified. All were employees of the RCMP's Forensic Science and Identification Services lab in Edmonton. They talked about the handling of swords sent there for examination. Defence questioning focused on measures taken to protect the evidence from contamination.