By LEDEDRA MARCHE, FN Senior Reporter

lededra@nasguard.com

The trial of Fredrick Francis, the man accused of killing two Austrian visitors in Bimini last year, resumed in Supreme Court Thursday with gruesome testimony of the couple's bloodied hotel room.

A six-woman, six-man jury was selected Tuesday and at the start of the trial yesterday, the jury heard how the two visitors, Bernhard Bolzano and Barbara Frein von Perfall were discovered.

The couple, believed to be in their early 30s, had been shot.

Their bodies were found in their hotel room at the Bimini Blue Water Resort in Alice Town on Saturday, July 23, 2005.

Sunday marked the anniversary of their ghastly slayings. Francis, 24, is appearing before Justice Stephen Isaacs on two counts of murder, one rape count and armed robbery.

Prosecutor Sandra Dee Gardiner laid out The Crown's case yesterday alleging the couple was asleep early that fateful morning when the uninvited, unprovoked

Francis decided he would pay them a visit. She said he went there because he wanted money and entered the couple's hotel room armed with a shotgun.

The prosecution contends Francis, rather than walking away after receiving the money, decided he would kill the couple. Gardiner said the accused chose to be the powerful almighty one and raped the duchess.

"If that wasn't enough, he decided to be God on that day and they would pay the ultimate price," she told the jury, adding that the Austrian visitors would not know it.

That's when she said Francis shot Bernhard Bolzano and then decided, after raping Perfall, to shoot and kill her too.

Melanie Saunders, a maid at Bimini Blue Water Resort, recalled on the witness stand knocking on the couple's door around 9:30 on the morning of July 23, 2005.

After not getting a response, Saunders used the master key to let herself in and, after seeing the couple's feet, she thought they were still sleeping and closed

the door.

The witness said she returned some two hours later to the room and again used the master key, but this time she went inside and kept calling out to the guests.

Saunders told the court that when she went to the bathroom, which is at the immediate right, she noticed that one of the beds was full of blood.

"I looked at the lady's foot and it was blue and I look at the gentleman's foot and that was blue," she said, adding that she quickly got out of the room and went to the front desk to report what she had seen.

Inspector Christopher Bain was in charge of the Bimini District at the time of the murders and was the first of two officers to arrive at the resort.

Bain gave evidence that after knocking on the room door and getting no response, Saunders let him in with the master key and he called out three times to the couple from the bathroom area.

Bain said he could see a male lying faced-down between the two beds, his hands were tied behind his back and he was nude.

A pillow was across the man's back and what appeared to be a hole was in the centre of the pillow, said the inspector.

The woman, he revealed, was on her back in an eastern bed and also nude. A pillow with a hole in it and black markings was next to her body.

Bain said he saw blood on the side of both the man and woman and blood stains on the bed head and the sliding door glass.

Inspector Bain said he did not touch the scene, but instead instructed the corporal who had accompanied him to remain there and not to let anyone near it.

He told the court that he left to phone police in Grand Bahama about his findings.

By 3:20 that afternoon, a team of officers from Grand Bahama had travelled to Bimini and about an hour later a team from New Providence had arrived to assist in the investigations.

Inspector Bain said after briefing the investigators, Assistant Superintendent of Police Ferguson took charge of the scene.

Detective Corporal Stephen Rolle said he took a series of photos and processed the hotel room for fingerprints and on Monday, July 25, 2005, a pair of

Nike tennis shoes were collected at the Francis' residence in Poggy Bay, Bimini.

He testified that he was the one who took the accused to the Bimini Clinic for DNA specimen.

Later that day, Rolle said he and another officer went back to Francis' residence where they collected a black 12-guage shotgun, an empty shotgun shell, a long blue pants, a white T-shirt and a green pouch.

Inside the pouch, the court heard, was a $20 Euro bill, Euro coins and Bahamian pennies, an electronic digital headpiece, a Minolta camera in a brown case, two local restaurant receipts and two ticket stubs each bearing the name of the deceased.

The items were submitted to the police forensic lab for analysis, he revealed.

Rolle said he also collected a sexual assault evidence collection kit from the doctor at the Princess Margaret Hospital.

Crime Scene Technician Detective Constable Marvin Cargill said he took photos of the Baroness on August 3, 2005 of her facial injury and then viewed the autopsy.

On August 2, 2005, Cargill said he returned to the hospital and took photos of Perfall which showed the wound to her head, abdomen and back.

Crime Scene Technician Detective Constable James Colebroke revealed that he visited the hospital on August 3 of last year and viewed Bolzano's body, his injuries and the clothing around his neck and hands before witnessing his autopsy.

When he went back to the Princess Margaret Hospital on August 10, he took photos of the injuries to Perfall's forehead and the left side of his face, the wound to his chest and his back.

Under cross-examination by defence attorney Carlson Shurland, all three officers said they sent the samples off for testing, however, no report came back.

The trial is expected to resume today.