Denying a motion to exclude new blood and DNA test results, U.S. District Judge James Shadid has allowed results to be used in April for the trial of Brent Christensen, alleged murderer and kidnapper of Chinese visiting scholar Yingying Zhang.

After new evidence of handprint-shaped bloodstains and DNA was discovered at Christensen’s apartment, his attorneys filed a motion to exclude new test results from the trial in April.

The court heard testimony from Jerrilyn Conway, legal program manager in the DNA Casework Unit of the FBI, to determine the result’s threshold for admissibility.

Conway explained the blood and DNA samples were tested using STRmix, a forensic software that produces a likelihood ratio to measure the possibility of a new sample to match a known sample. This software has been used by the FBI since 2015.

Elisabeth Pollock, Christensen’s attorney and assistant federal defender, questioned the credibility of the examination. Polluck argued at least 50 studies stating the software is credible was conducted by one of the founders of STRmix.

Polluck questioned why the FBI used the STRmix and not a newer DNA testing method that studies the actual DNA sequence.

Along with an initial test indicating if even a very small sample of blood is present, a confirmatory test will be conducted to assure the presence of blood in a given sample, Conway said.

The sample is tested twice because the initial test is highly sensitive and can react positively to not only blood, but also to other substances including some cleaning supplies and horseradish.

Conway noted a negative result from the confirmatory test does not mean blood was not present in the sample. A negative response would just mean that the test could not confirm a trace of blood.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene Miller said denying Conway’s testimony at trial would be unfairly prejudicial to the prosecution.

Shadid ruled the new evidence test results be used at Christensen’s trial in April.

Monday’s hearing also discussed the credibility of Sage, a police dog that reacted to indicate the existence of a body in Christensen’s apartment bathroom.

Alex Rothacker, a professional dog trainer, said he trains dogs to detect real body parts using cadavers. Rothacker said he took Sage through two different cadaver searching courses.

Shadid has yet to rule on the reliability of the cadaver-sniffing canine due to other testimonies scheduled later that day.

In addition to a motion to exclude evidence test results, Christensen’s attorneys have asked the court to delay the trial to October.

If this motion is accepted, the trial would have been delayed 25 months behind the original trial scheduled Sept. 12, 2017.

Christensen’s attorneys said the time will be used to continue to examine Christensen’s mental health in depth.

The motion stated specialists have uncovered evidence of a long psychosocial history in Christensen’s family. In the motion to delay the trial, Christensen’s attorneys said they plan to show evidence of critical mental illness.

In case of conviction, Christensen’s attorneys plan to use evidence of mental health problems as a mitigating factor to avoid the death penalty.

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