Officer Testifies on Blood Evidence at Double-Murder Hearing : Courts: Gloves and a washcloth were found off the freeway near defendant Donna Lee on Mother’s Day.

A California Highway Patrol officer who was on duty the night of the Mother’s Day double slaying at Universal CityWalk testified Friday that he and his partner found bloody gloves, a blood-soaked washcloth and other blood-stained evidence just off the Hollywood Freeway, where murder defendant Donna Lee was found with her stomach slashed.

The revelations were made in Beverly Hills Municipal Court during a preliminary hearing for Lee, 44, and her boyfriend, Paul Carasi, 30, both of North Hollywood. Both have been charged with the murders of Carasi’s mother, Doris Carasi, and his former girlfriend, Sonia Salinas. The women were found with their throats cut atop a CityWalk parking garage on May 14.

Adding to the bizarre series of events, about 15 minutes after the women were found dead, Lee phoned authorities from a call box and said she had been stabbed during a robbery along the freeway, where she had stopped to rest because she felt sick.

The greater part of Friday’s hearing, which will determine whether the pair will be tried for murder, focused on what authorities say was Carasi and Lee’s strange behavior the night of the killings. Doris Carasi, 61, and Salinas, 29, were slashed after celebrating Mother’s Day with Paul Carasi at a CityWalk restaurant.

Carasi initially told investigators that he was knocked unconscious during the attack by an unseen assailant. Later he said he feigned unconsciousness after a struggle, and when he opened his eyes the women were dead. And on Friday, a paramedic testified that Carasi told him that an unknown assailant grabbed him by the hair and held him down and sat on him during the attack.

CHP Officer Edmund Munoz Castaneda Jr. testified Friday that when he and his partner found Lee, she was lying near her car and bleeding from a knife wound to her abdomen that exposed her intestines. Castaneda said Lee told him that she was in pain and did not know what had happened to her.

But minutes after Lee was rushed away in an ambulance, the patrol officer testified, he and his partner discovered a bloody washcloth, bloody latex and cloth gloves and two blood-stained fanny packs scattered down an embankment off the highway.

Under cross-examination, Castaneda testified that he found it odd that despite Lee’s stomach wound, he found no blood on her hands or on the call box she used to dial for help.

A criminalist for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department testified that a blood-stained kitchen knife with a six-inch blade and black plastic handle was recovered from the scene, along with a bloody, brown leather purse containing Salinas’ identification, a blue denim jacket and a blue sweater.

Beverly Kerr, the criminalist, also testified that inside Lee’s car she found a cellular phone, blood-stained plastic bags and a bloody, black leather fanny pack containing Lee’s driver’s license and $24 in cash--evidence that prosecutors say shows that Lee was not the victim of a robbery as she initially reported.

After court Friday, Lee’s attorney maintained his client’s innocence and said he is collecting evidence to try to prove that she was abducted on the night of the slayings. He declined to say who abducted her or why.

“Donna did not throw those things over the freeway embankment,” said attorney Martin Zaehringer. “Physically, she could not have done it, but someone else did.”

Earlier in the hearing, a CityWalk restaurant hostess placed Lee in the vicinity of the murders. She testified to seeing Lee walk past her restaurant four times that night, but could not supply the time frame.

“I’m very good at faces. I recognize faces and I saw hers,” said Angeli Melgoza, a hostess at Tony Roma’s restaurant. “She looked angry.”

Later, a firefighter paramedic for the County Fire Department testified that when he arrived at the murder scene, he found Paul Carasi with a cut finger and a blood-stained shirt. Alan G. Lenhart, the paramedic, testified that Carasi repeatedly moaned and covered his face as Lenhart asked him questions.

“For some reason it appeared unusual to me,” Lenhart said. “I kept expecting him to ask about the women . . . to say something about what happened.”

When the court hearing resumes Monday, Deputy Dist. Atty. John Gilligan said he will call a crime-reconstruction expert to the stand who will testify that Carasi’s story of how the events unfolded is inconsistent with evidence found at the scene. Gilligan also said he will present blood evidence that links Carasi to the murder victims.