CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Evidence surrounding the gunshots allegedly fired by a Kanawha County man charged with fatally shooting his girlfriend’s mother and brother in February of last year is being presented on the stand for thorough examination.

Experts from the state Medical Examiners Office and the West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory were among the witnesses to take the stand Wednesday during the third day of trial for Markus Guy, 32, of Charleston.

The experts analyzed anything from the used bullets collected at the scene to the wound tracks the bullets made when victims Alisha Carnefix, 39, and Koda Jarett, 14 were fatally shot in their home at 35 Sapphire Drive in St. Albans on February 6, 2024. Other evidence such as items containing gunshot residue and biological matter were also collected at the crime scene and were being analyzed during Wednesday’s trial.

Guy is charged with two counts of first degree murder for the deaths of Carnefix and Jarrett as well as two counts of the use of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

In Tuesday’s trial, Guy’s defense attorney, Ed Bullman said that while there’s clear evidence to show Guy shot and killed Carnefix and Jarrett, it was self-defense, claiming that Carnefix had attacked Guy by jumping on his back and trying to strangle him.

“He’s not some cold blooded killer that drove a half an hour to shoot some people for no reason,” Bullman said during Tuesday’s trial.

Guy had reportedly driven from the Hampton Inn in Southridge where he had gotten a hotel room for him and his girlfriend, Shelby Frazier, but claims he got upset with Frazier when she left the room to go get drinks with a friend, and so he left to drive to the St. Albans home to collect his stuff.

From there, an incident occurred at the home and Guy claims Carnefix attacked him.

State Prosecuting Attorney Kenneth Bannon showed the medical examiner photographs of the crime scene and the wound tracks of the bullets from the fatal shots fired at Carnefix and Jarrett.

The medical examiner confirmed that the range of the gunshots were indeterminate, and that Carnfix had a blood alcohol content of approximately .196, showing significant intoxication.

Guy had claimed that Carnfix had a history of getting intoxicated to the point of blacking out and that is what allegedly had happened on this particular occasion.

Forensic Science Supervisor of the trace evidence section of the West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory Jared Vititoe was among the witnesses to take the stand during Wednesday’s trial.

Vititoe examines gunshot residue off of evidence submitted to the lab.

He said when a firearm is discharged, the primer that is used to ignite the gun powder inside a cartridge casing contains various elements that he then analyzes.

“When the firearm is discharged, all of those vaporize, they turn into a gas, and then they recondense as a single particle that contains elements characteristic of primer gunshot residue, that would be lead, barium and antimony,” he said.

He said testing is done using Scanning Electron Microscopy, a procedure that uses a beam of electrons to scan a sample’s surface and create high-resolution images.

Vititoe said in this case, there were three items submitted to the lab for processing, all of which were found to contain gunshot residue collected off of Guy.

“Two samples, labeled as having been collected from the shirt of Markus Guy, and one gunshot residue kit containing samples labeled as “right hand,” “left hand,” and “face” of Markus Guy,” said Vititoe.

Next, the court brought in a Biology Unit Processor at the State Police lab, Aaron Dean.

Dean said he examines items submitted to the lab that specifically contain biological evidence, such as blood and saliva, that later get used in DNA analysis.

He said in June of 2024 they received a number of swabs taken off of Guy’s clothing and shoes. 

Along with Guy, Dean said he also received swabs containing biological evidence from the victims in the case.

“Right nail scrapings from Alisha Carnefix, six swabs of known saliva from Markus Guy, and then known dried blood specimens from Alisha Carnefix and Koda Jarrett,” he said.

He said the swabs had a reddish-brown stain on them and he took small cuttings of the swabs, and using what is called an LMG test, was able to detect that it was indeed blood.

Dean said blood was indicated on all of the swabs he received.

“For the swabs labeled as “right exterior front, waistband,” positive LMG results were observed on those swabs, blood was indicated, and a sample of those swabs were also selected for DNA testing,” Dean said.

Guy’s trial was to continue before Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers Thursday.