Thomas Balboni

Called by the State on the third trial day, the Criminal Investigation Unit investigator for the State Attorney's Office of the Second Judicial Circuit was tendered and accepted as an expert in fingerprint analysis and comparison. Direct examination established more than twenty years of experience, FBI Academy training, FDLE and professional-association coursework, thousands of comparisons performed, and hundreds of prior expert appearances. Both defense teams waived voir dire on the qualification, and the known-print exhibit was admitted without objection from either side.

The substance of the direct was a single comparison. The witness had personally collected Sigfredo Garcia's known fingerprints and compared them side by side under magnification against a right thumbprint appearing on a Florida pawnbroker's transaction form that listed Garcia as the pawner. He testified that the print on the pawn ticket matched Garcia's right thumb, read the phone number recorded on the pawn ticket into the record, and identified Garcia in the courtroom.

On cross-examination by counsel for Garcia, the questioning did not contest the match itself; it fixed the transaction date of October 15, 2013 and drew out the boundaries of the assignment. The witness confirmed he had never visited or contacted the Miami pawnbroker, had not asked whether surveillance video of the transaction existed, and had not checked whether that pawnbroker held forms associated with Luis Rivera. He acknowledged he was unfamiliar with the date and broader facts of the homicide and that the comparison was performed at the direction of the State Attorney's Office. Asked whether the killing occurred in mid-July 2014, he was invited to say so if he did not know.

Co-counsel for Katherine Magbanua conducted a short second cross that confirmed the witness had personally taken Garcia's known prints and matched one to the pawn form, then established the point aimed at Magbanua's defense: no fingerprints belonging to Magbanua were ever submitted for comparison, and no comparison involving her was made. The examination closed after a few exchanges.

The court then relayed two juror questions. Asked when Garcia's known prints were taken, the witness answered that the document recorded the collection date as June 18, 2019 — years after the 2014 homicide and shortly before trial. Asked how long a fingerprint can remain identifiable on paper, he answered, "Indefinitely." All three counsel teams declined follow-up and the witness was excused. Separately, in later testimony by a State Attorney's Office investigator, the witness was described as having joined that investigator and another on an August 26 search for a firearm at a river, bringing a metal detector.