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Images show accused killer’s appearance after gruesome quadruple murder

Posted at 9:07 PM, Mar 18, 2014
and last updated 2014-03-18 21:07:09-04

He had cuts and stitches on his right hand, scratch marks on his neck, a cut on his right knee, several drops of suspected blood on his shoes and inside his car.

Those were the images introduced as evidence Tuesday in the John Ragin capital murder trial.

The Newport News crime scene investigator who took those pictures of Ragin`s body took the stand this afternoon.

She took those pictures in Ragin`s hometown of Manning, South Carolina.  Police say he took the young son he and his wife shared there after killing her and his three step children.

Their bodies were found with dozens of stab wounds and they were covered in gasoline.

A deputy fire marshal said 15-year-old Sierra Ragin - one of the victims - was directly set on fire.  He said someone also set at least two other areas of the home on fire, too.

A fingerprint analyst testified that the heavy presence of soot inside the apartment made finding viable fingerprints difficult.

But he was able to analyze seven samples none of which matched John Ragin or anyone else who lived in the apartment.

There was also a detergent bottle with gasoline inside of it found next to Crystal Ragin`s body.  A test for fingerprints turned up nothing.

Ragin`s lawyers grilled the crime scene tech about the nearly 200 evidence items she and her team collected from the home. Not all of them were sent to the state lab for testing.

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