Daniel Kucharski

Calumet County deputy Daniel Kucharski testified about searches of Steven Avery’s property and his work photographing and collecting evidence. In Avery’s trial, he said Lieutenant James Lenk noticed a key on the bedroom floor while Kucharski was photographing and packaging items; Kucharski then photographed and collected it. He had not noticed the key beforehand, thought movement of a bookcase could explain its location, and acknowledged that someone could have placed it outside his view. He described collecting garage swabs but could not link individual swabs to photographed spots or confirm that the stains were blood. He also acknowledged counting ten .22 casings when a photograph showed eleven and said his report and inventory had not been amended. In Dassey’s trial, he described a garage search that left items along the walls unmoved. He had not watched every casing being collected; photographs, but no measurements, recorded their locations. His team had not swabbed the casings for DNA or preserved them for fingerprint lifting, and he did not know whether anyone else later swabbed them. He called his estimate of a Glenfield rifle’s capacity unchecked.