Fingerprint Evidence Points to Stabbing Victim’s Friend

In the early hours of April 15, a 19-year-old Humboldt State Student, David Josiah Lawson was stabbed to death in Arcata at a party. Kyle Zoellner was arrested and charged in his death.

The recently completed preliminary hearing concerning the tragic death of David Josiah Lawson did not result in Kyle Zoellner being held to answer for the charge of murder. In the hearing, the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office presented all the information available, including testimony by seventeen witnesses with distinct accounts of key events.

In addition, all available physical evidence was presented to the Court. The hearing proceeded while the investigation is ongoing because a person has the right to a preliminary hearing within 10 days of arraignment. The information presented in the hearing differed from the information available when the case was charged and additional information is expected, including more analysis of the knife found at the scene and analysis of blood samples found on clothing.

New developments in the case, however, have indicated that the sole fingerprint found on the knife recovered from the scene belongs to Elijah Chandler, friend of the deceased and member of Brothers United, a blacks-only club at Humboldt State University. Fiber analysis likewise matched samples taken from the clothes Chandler was wearing the night of the murder. The Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office is expecting to proceed with caution, citing concerns over already-heightened threats of racial violence on campus and the riot in Arcata which shut down traffic and impeded business on private property.

Neither Chandler nor representatives of Brothers United have responded to our contact at this time.