In the wake of the vacation of a gag order preventing witnesses, investigators and other interested parties from speaking publicly, Fifth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons released a list of expenses related to the two murder trials of Gary Dunn, although the Public Defender Commission declined to provide the same information.

Dunn was tried twice for the 2005 murder of 19-year-old Nona Dirksmeyer — once in 2010 and again in January — with both trials ending in mistrials after juries failed to reach a verdict. Dirksmeyer’s boyfriend, Kevin Jones, was tried and found not guilty in 2007.

In Dunn’s 2010 trial, $504.76 was spent on special prosecutor expenses, $5,575.58 on lodging, $11,325 for expert witnesses, $292.43 for food, $1,694.24 on witness mileage, $1,500 for airfare, for a total cost of $20,892.01

Gibbons said special prosecutor expenses include food, lodging, gas and other expenses for the special appointed prosecuting attorneys; lodging expenses refer to lodging during the trial itself; and expert witness expenses were to provide for DNA witnesses.

During the second trial, held in 2011, special prosecutor expenses were $595.46; lodging, $7,941.25; expert witnesses, $15,325; witness mileage, $1,470; airfare, $1,549.70; and transcripts, $6,838.30, a combined total of $33,719.71.

Costs for obtaining transcripts from the first trial were split between the prosecution and defense, Gibbons said.

The figures, however, don’t represent the amount of taxpayer dollars committed to the two trials. Gibbons said the prosecution’s trial expenses were paid from a large sum of money the office received as part of a forfeiture in a federal drug case.

So what is the taxpayer’s investment? The answer to that question remains unclear.

The Public Defender Commission, whose funds for the case are assumed to come from tax dollars, declined to submit a list of trial expenses. When presented with an Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Jacque Alexander, defense services administrator at the commission, said the defense’s figures were currently not releasable and “are considered privileged until the case is completely closed.”

In addition, Gibbons said it is difficult to put a dollar amount on the time and resources used by law enforcement officials during the course of the investigation.

The case

Information available publicly reveals only hints at the events that left Dirksmeyer lying bloodied and nude on the floor of her living room the night of Dec. 15, 2005.

Jones; his friend, Ryan Whiteside; and his mother, Janice Jones, found Dirksmeyer. Next to her was a broken lamp, the murder weapon. And on the lamp was a bloody palm print later matched to Jones, who would eventually be arrested and tried for the murder. A Franklin County jury judged him not guilty in 2007.

Jones has since maintained he left the palm print when he found his girlfriend. But prosecutors claimed it was the proverbial smoking gun — until their focus shifted in 2008 to Dunn, a Dirksmeyer neighbor whose DNA Jones’ attorneys, with the help of a moonlighting Dover policeman, matched to that on a condom wrapper found at the scene of the murder.

Special state prosecutors took the information and ran with it, building a case around the culpability of the parolee that centered on the DNA finding, inconsistencies in Dunn’s alibi and damning testimony from his estranged wife, who has twice told jurors her husband brutalized her and had ties to Dirksmeyer.

Two juries were less than convinced, however, and both were unable to reach a verdict.

After the second trial, prosecutors initially announced intentions to try Dunn a third time. In April, prosecutors announced they would not seek a third trial — but left themselves the option to change their mind in the future.

Prosecutorial pay

Their financial interest in the matter is readily accessible, exempt from the gag order designed to ensure “the ability to seat a fair and impartial jury,” according to a court document.

But a look at the annual compensation of the state’s attorneys — a combined $171,600 for H.G. Foster and Jack McQuary, and $88,739 for Assistant Attorney General Kent Holt, who joined the prosecutorial team in 2011 — still makes for murky waters.

They are not paid by the case, making it difficult to track the “cost” to taxpayers for their work in prosecuting a criminal defendant.

“It doesn’t matter if they do 20 cases or 30 cases, it’s the same thing,” Bob McMann, prosecutor coordinator for the state, said last month.

And although Foster and McQuary, combined, have worked about 29 cases and investigations since July 1, 2010, some were assigned in earlier fiscal years, making it nearly impossible to measure their work load against their salaries in a divisible manner.

A known figure

Some of the only real math that may be applicable in determining the cost of continued attempts at “justice for Nona” is that applied to the costs paid jurors for their service.

In 2007, more than 12 jurors considered Jones’ guilt or innocence during the course of eight days. In 2010, more than 12 considered Dunn’s, for 13 days. In 2011, during Dunn’s second trial, 11 days.

Considering only the $50-per-day fees paid to impaneled jurors — not their counterparts called to serve but ultimately not selected for the jury — the taxpayer cost for juror services alone is, by a highly conservative estimate, $19,200.