As more individuals are called to the stand, emotions continue to run high.

The next witness called to the stand was Marisol Rangel, who became friends with Hedgepeth and Rosario at UNC. Rangel said she met Hedgepeth through Rosario, and she began to notice just how attached the two UNC students were.

“Faith and Karena were really close. Honestly like sisters,” Rangel said.

Rangel said she was close enough with Hedgepeth and Rosario that they would share some intimate details about their romantic relationships. She said she never knew of either of them dating anyone who was Hispanic, and she does not recognize the defendant.

When Rosario said she could not reach Hedgepeth in the morning to ask for a ride home from McCrary’s apartment, Rosario got a ride from Rangel. Rangel said Hedgepeth would tend to oversleep and be late to class. When Rangel and Rosario arrived at the apartment complex where Rosario and Hedgepeth lived together, they saw Hedgepeth’s car in the parking lot. Rangel said she assumed Hedgepeth was asleep.

Rangel said she and Rosario got out of the car and entered the apartment. “…we were both calling [out for] Faith. No one was answering. We get to the bathroom and all I could see at first is just blood everywhere. And we walked in and Faith was wrapped up in a comforter.”

Rangel was in tears recounting what she saw that day. She said Rosario got through to 911 more quickly than she did, and told the dispatcher what they saw. After the defense declined to ask any questions on  cross-examination, the prosecution called its next witness, Michael Castro.

Castro is an officer with the Chapel Hill Police Department and has been in law enforcement for 22 years. He was one of three police officers who responded to the 911 call. He explained CHPD responded because, although the apartment is in Durham County, it falls within CHPD’s jurisdiction.

–JAMES NGUYEN

12:45 p.m. – Witness questioned about possible blood on Hedgepeth’s roommate’s hands

The prosecution continues to call witnesses. The next to testify was Jordan McCrary. In a pretrial hearing last month, defense attorneys highlighted McCrary’s significance to the case, as he reported to police that Hedgepeth’s roommate, Karena Rosario, had what appeared to be blood on her hand the morning Hedgepeth was killed.

McCrary testified that he attended UNC on a soccer scholarship, and met Hedgepeth and Rosario at the cafeteria on campus.

“I was pretty close with Karena, we hung out quite a bit,” he said.

McCrary said his relationship with Rosario was romantic, and described it as on and off. He estimated that they would see each other a few times a week.

On the night of Sept. 6, McCrary said he was at The Thrill nightclub, where he stated he also saw Hedgepeth and Rosario. Around 4 a.m., after he had already returned home, McCrary said Rosario texted him about everything she was going through in her personal life, including ending an abusive relationship.

“She wanted me to come by to pick her up,” he said. “I asked her what’s going on. She said she just can’t right now, she really can’t deal with it,” he said.

After picking up Rosario, McCrary said he noticed her being upset “but not crying or anything.” As McCrary was driving out of her apartment’s parking lot, he said Rosario told him that she had blood on her finger.

“I saw her kind of like playing with her hand. And then she had said that she doesn’t know why there’s blood on her finger,” he said. “I asked: ‘Yeah why do you have blood on your finger?’ And she just said ‘I don’t know.’”

McCrary said the blood was on a finger on her right hand, possibly her index finger. McCrary also said that it didn’t look like fresh blood because it didn’t smear. He also said he did not see other red marks or smudges on the rest of her body or clothes.

The next day, while McCrary was in class, he said Rosario called him twice. Rosario texted McCrary and called him, telling him that when she got back to her apartment, she found Hedgepeth’s body.

“I said like once again, what, what do you mean? Just in disbelief,” McCrary said. “After that phone call, I remember me and my teammates actually went over to that apartment.”

McCrary said afterward, he made a call to the police and left a voicemail, because he remembered Rosario saying she had blood on her hand, and he wondered if that could be relevant to the case. The Chapel Hill Police Department then asked him to come in for questioning. McCrary consented to a phone search and DNA swab. Since Sept. 7, McCrary said he has not spoken with Rosario.

–JAMES NGUYEN

11:15am – Hedgepeth’s roommate finishes testimony, another friend takes stand

This morning the defense cross-examined Karena Rosario, who was Faith Hedgepeth’s roommate at the time of her murder. Rosario has been the subject of intense scrutiny by defense attorneys and some in the public alike.

Defense Attorney James Rainsford called into question details of Rosario’s story from her original statements in 2012 and her testimony yesterday. In particular, he drew attention to the timeline of her leaving the apartment she shared with Hedgepeth to go to a friend’s apartment, where she says she stayed until returning home several hours later.

Rainsford referenced an interview Rosario had given to police in 2013 where she mentioned that she was waiting outside for Jordan McCrary to pick her up, despite having earlier testified in court that she was in a rush to leave as he was already outside.

Rainsford asked Rosario about her not bringing anything to McCrary’s place, despite knowing she had class later that day.

“You had an 11:00 class and a 12:00 class. You don’t want to take the backpack with you leaving at 4:30 in the morning?,” Rainsford asked.

Rosario explained that she was “kind of a wreck” at the time. She was going through a difficult time in her personal life, she said, including a recent abortion and leaving an abusive romantic relationship.

“I’d like to say I was an A+ student at the time, but I wasn’t,” she said. “I was going through a lot, I wasn’t thinking 20 steps ahead. I just knew that I wanted him to come pick me up, I wanted his company, I was sad, I wanted to be with him and so I asked him to pick me up.”

He also asked Rosario repeatedly why Hedgepeth did not check on her during the hour that Rosario was throwing up in their shared bathroom, calling into question Rosario’s statement that she did not see Hedgepeth after going into the bathroom.

Rosario testified that she did not find anything out of the ordinary about this, explaining that Hedgepeth had brought her a trash bag and knew that she was sick and upset. She also denied Rainsford’s claim that it was unusual for her to not have rinsed out her mouth, brushed her teeth, or gotten a glass of water in the 50 minutes while she was throwing up.

When Rosario left their apartment, she was wearing a tube top that belonged to Hedgepeth. Around the time of the murder, Rosario stated multiple times to investigators that she believed she had left the top at McCrary’s house.

However, the tube top was later found by investigators in the bedroom she shared with Hedgepeth.

Rainsford also questioned Rosario about the blood stains found in their apartment, including on the doorframe where Rosario said she had been throwing up, and McCrary’s statements about a conversation the two had in his car about blood on her hand.

Rosario says that she doesn’t remember the conversation and believes it was vomit from the red slushies she had been drinking. She said there was no reason for her to have been in contact with any blood.

Rainsford asked Rosario about her calls to Hedgepeth in the late morning, after spending the night at McCrary’s. She called 14 times from 8:46 to 10:13am.

“I wouldn’t say that’s a lot in 90 minutes,” she said. “I needed my notebook, I needed to write my essays. I wasn’t sure if she was home.”

Previously, Rosario testified that the two women shared only one key to the apartment, so she wanted to make sure Hedgpeth had not already left and locked the door behind her.

The state then called Taalib Cochrane, 34, a friend of Hedgepeth’s who she had seen the day before her murder.

Cochrane said that he and Hedgepeth had an intimate relationship, and that she was “an amazing individual.”

In opening statements, Assistant District Attorney Angela Garcia-Lamarca said that a bloody tampon was found beside Hedgepeth’s body, which she claimed was removed by Miguel Salguero-Olivares. So prosecutors asked Cochrane about having a sexual encounter with Hedgepeth the day before the murder, and whether she was on her period.

Cochrane said that she was, and for that reason the two did not have vaginal sex.

The defense declined to cross-examine Cochrane.

–FIONA SHULDINER

9:45 a.m. — It’s Thursday, Oct. 8 — the ninth day of trial for the man accused of killing UNC student Faith Hedgepeth in 2012.

Yesterday was an eventful day as the court finally agreed on the fourth and final alternate juror, allowing opening statements and then witness testimony to begin. A key witness, Hedgepeth’s roommate at the time of her death, spent more than two hours testifying, and will continue her testimony this morning.

9th Street reporter Sophie Endrud has a detailed look at the new information revealed yesterday, which could help answer some central questions in the case.

–Sarah Krueger, Managing Editor

Photo at top: Karena Rosario was Faith Hedgepeth’s roommate at the time of her death. Pool photo