Footwear impression found in blood at 2007 murder scene matched boots of Curtis Padgett

CEDAR RAPIDS — A retired Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation criminalist testified Monday that a footwear impression found in a blood droplet was consistent with the work boots belonging to Curtis Padgett, who is on trial for killing Dennis First on May 11, 2007 in Cedar Rapids.

Dennis Kern, who analyzed the footwear impressions in 2007, said one of the boot impressions could be associated with the beating and fatal stabbing of First, 64, at his apartment, 2249 C St. SW, because the boot would have to come in contact with the blood while it was still wet. If the blood was dried, it would not have transferred to the boot’s sole, he said.

The pair of Padgett’s boots found in his apartment, which was downstairs from First, had stippling — bumps in the design created by hand, using dye and a hammer in the shoe mold or an acid etching poured over the mold to leave a pattern, Kern testified. The pattern can be overlapping and is random, so the stippling can be used to help identify a shoe impression because every mold is unique.

Kern was the final witness for the prosecution Monday. The defense only had one brief witness, and Padgett confirmed to 6th Judicial District Judge Ian Thornhill that he would not testify.

Padgett’s lawyer, during his opening statement, denied Padgett killed First, who was severely beaten and stabbed in the neck, and said the prosecution can’t prove Padgett is guilty of first-degree murder. The prosecution’s case is “speculation and circumstantial,” according to the defense.

Judge Thornhill will make a written verdict because Padgett waived his right to a jury trial. Thornhill doesn’t have a deadline to make the verdict. It usually takes more than a few months.

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Kern, during his testimony, said if the outsole design, stippling and size of shoe matches up with an impression, then about 99 percent of other shoes in the world can be eliminated.

Based on the other impressions taken from First’s apartment, two others matched the stippling of Padgett’s boots.

On cross, Kern said there are “billions” of shoes manufactured, so 1 percent still is a “huge amount” of shoes in the world.

Investigator started looking into cold case in 2016

In other testimony, Cedar Rapids police investigator Matt Denlinger said he received some information and started looking at this cold case in 2016. He did more work on it in 2019 when he decided to send Padgett’s boots to an outside lab. The lab found the boots tested positive for blood but couldn’t make a DNA match.

In 2007, the state crime lab also found blood but it was too weak to identify a match, Michael Halverson, a DCI criminalist supervisor, testified earlier Monday.

Denlinger said when he started investigating this case he couldn’t find some of the witnesses because they had died.

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Assistant Linn County Attorney Molly Edwards asked Denlinger about Don Pate, but Denlinger said Pate died in January of this year. He didn’t provide further context about Pate.

Pate and another man, Joshua Van Laningham are both mentioned in a pretrial motion to exclude their testimony because both had died and it would be considered hearsay. Pate died in January 2024 and Van Laningham died in 2018, according to obituaries.

There was no testimony during the trial about the break in the case that led to Padgett being charged last March.

The criminal complaint stated in 2016, Padgett approached a person who was “completely unrelated” to First’s death, near the person’s storage garage, and Padgett told the person he killed someone nine years earlier.

That witness told police that Padgett said he used to roll cigarettes for his alleged victim. Padgett had told investigators he used to roll cigarettes for First, according to the complaint.

No witnesses during trial testified about Padgett’s alleged confession or rolling cigarettes for First.

Cold Case Unit tested walls at apartment building

Denlinger also testified Monday that he and two retired investigators, who all work as the department’s Cold Case Unit, in 2022 wanted to test to see if the walls at the Hawthorne Hills Apartments were thin enough to hear yelling if they were in another apartment.

David Palumbo, a former tenant of Hawthorne Hills who testified last week, said he was awakened on May 10, 2007, to arguing between First and Padgett.

Denlinger said he was in Palumbo’s former apartment and had trouble hearing what the other two investigators were saying, but could distinguish their voices.

Patrick McMullen, one of Padgett’s lawyers, asked if one of the other investigators involved in the test had emphysema, as First did. Denlinger said no, but added that one investigator was 80 years old and the other was 65.

Defense calls one witness

The only witness called by the defense, Michael Lehman, testified he was best friends with First and had hung out — probably fewer than 10 times — with Padgett and First, playing cards and drinking.

Lehman, who was convicted in a 2015 Linn County fatal stabbing and is serving up to 50 years, said First had a “gravelly” sounding voice because he had “cancer,” but he had heard him yell. It may not have been easy for him to yell, but Lehman said that didn’t stop him from yelling.

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