Leah Cuevas murder trial testimony on bloodstained carpet

A Brooklyn woman’s carpet was so soaked in blood — apparently her neighbor’s — that a forensic scientist was unable to find an unstained portion to use for comparison purposes.

Forensic scientist Helen Wong of the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory testified Wednesday during the trial of Leah Cuevas, 44, charged with second-degree murder in the death of her neighbor, Chinelle Latoya Thompson Browne, 28.

Parts of Browne’s dismembered body were found in Hempstead and Bay Shore on four different days in July 2014.

“That’s a lot of blood,” Browne’s husband, Dale Browne, whispered as he and jurors looked at a photo of the carpet displayed in the Riverhead courtroom of Suffolk County Judge John Toomey Jr.

Prosecutors say Cuevas stabbed Browne to death in a dispute over rent and utility payments. Defense attorney Mary Elizabeth Abbate acknowledged the two fought, but said her client did not kill Browne.

Wong said the approximately 4-foot-by-6-foot section of carpet was “almost entirely covered in staining” when she received it at the lab almost five months after the July 5, 2014, killing.

The darkest part of the staining, which soaked through to the padding below, had no DNA in it, Wong said.

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“It probably didn’t have a chance to dry out properly,” she said during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla. That could allow bacteria to degrade the DNA, she said.

Where Wong could recover DNA — not only from other parts of the carpet, but also from body parts and the blood-soaked clothing removed from the torso found in Bay Shore — it matched Browne, she said. The probability that the blood on Cuevas’ carpet could be anyone other than Browne’s is 1 in 2.4 sextillion, Wong said.

During cross-examination by Abbate, Wong said she did not test every stain on every piece of evidence. She said it’s sufficient to test representative samples of items that have evidentiary value.

Wong said two blood stains on the apartment building’s stairs matched Cuevas.

Also Wednesday, a former employee of Seapod Pawnbrokers in Brooklyn testified that Cuevas, a repeat customer, pawned two gold rings on July 7, 2014, for $170.

Biancavilla in his opening statement said those were Browne’s engagement and wedding rings and that the money Cuevas received paid for her cab ride to Long Island to dump the body parts.

The employee, Joelsy Abreu, told Abbate during cross-examination that she had no particular recollection of the rings other than they were 14-carat gold and had no stones.