RALEIGH — March 19, 1996, 5 p.m.EST

Prosecutors Tuesday continued laying out their case in the capital murder trial of Elmer Ray McNeill Jr. State investigators were called to the witness stand to testify about blood and tissue samples gathered at the crime scene, a North Raleigh supermarket.

McNeill is charged with murder and armed robbery in the 1993 execution-style deaths of two Food Lion grocery store employees. McNeill, 25, faces a possible death penalty. His brother, Robert McNeill, 27, faces trial in the case at a later date.

Evidence against McNeill is circumstantial. There were no witnesses and the weapon never was found.

On Monday, the first day of testimony, photos of the crime scene were introduced in Wake County Superior Court.

Mike Truelove and John Ray were the two employees found dead by police.

Monday morning Ray's widow, Chris, described for the jurors how on that September night she could not get an answer to the phone in the store. The subsequent 911 call to the store at Six Forks and Strickland Roads was also played back in court