CAMBRIDGE - Michael Bizanowicz's boss noticed nothing unusual about Bizanowicz's demeanor and appearance in the days after the killings of Joanne and Alyssa Presti, in testimony on Wednesday in Middlesex Superior Court.

Howard Marcley, who employed Bizanowicz as an apprentice electrician, said he did not see any marks or scrapes on Bizanowicz's hands, though Marcley noted Bizanowicz wore gloves most of the time he was working.

"Sometimes, you've got to take your gloves off to connect wires to those little junction boxes, am I right?" asked defense attorney Stanley Norkunas.

"Yes," replied Marcley.

"And do you sometimes scrape your knuckles working in those tight spaces?" asked Norkunas.

"All the time," answered Marcley.

Asst. District Attorney Adrienne Lynch contends Bizanowicz injured his hands while battling with 12-year-old Alyssa Presti before he killed her in her West Woburn home on Jan. 5, 2004.

Bizanowicz, 44, of Lowell, is also charged with the murder and aggravated rape of Joanne Presti, Alyssa's mother.

In addition to Marcley, the prosecution also finished its testimony of Det. Lt. James Connolly, who was in charge of the State Police investigation. On what would have been Joanne Presti's 38th birthday, several of her friends and neighbors also testified about Joanne Presti's activities before her apparent murder.

The prosecution still has not produced DNA evidence that reportedly implicates Bizanowicz in the murder and rape of Joanne Presti, nor a presumed suicide note from Bizanowicz to his young daughter in which he reportedly wrote "people will say bad things" about him.

The defense alleges Bizanowicz's DNA at the scene was a result of a consensual relationship with Joanne Presti, and the suicide note refers to other events in Bizanowicz's more distant past.

Apprentice electrician

Marcley said he came to know Bizanowicz through Marcley's girlfriend, Linda St. Pierre, who is the mother of Bobbi Jo Miller. A Totman Drive neighbor and friend of Joanne Presti, Miller is the mother of Bizanowicz's daughter.

Bizanowicz's working arrangement was unusual in that Marcley fronted money to Miller, which Bizanowicz would work off by helping Marcley by "pulling wires, digging holes, clean-up" and the like.

"When he needed dough, he would come and see me and he would work it off," Marcley testified. "He really didn't have a set program. If he felt like showing up, he showed up."

Bizanowicz would sometimes fail to show up on certain days, including Monday, Jan. 5, after the murders of Joanne and Alyssa Presti.

Marcley said Bizanowicz didn't call him until "later on that night," and attributed his absence to a dispute with Miller.

"He said he was up all night fighting with Bobbi Jo, he was tired and he overslept," said Marcley.

In her testimony on Tuesday, Miller said she last contacted Bizanowicz by telephone on Sunday, Jan. 4, a statement that was backed up by phone records that indicated they had a conversation which terminated at 11:35 p.m.

Bizanowicz showed up to work on Jan. 6 and Jan. 7, but Marcley said he noticed "no unusual behavior."

Marcley said he was supposed to play pool after work on Wednesday, Jan. 7, but instead went home after learning of the deaths of Joanne and Alyssa Presti, both of whom he knew from seeing them at Miller's home.

Bizanowicz also worked on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9, but Marcley said he had no specific recollection of the defendant missing any work the following week, before he was arrested for the murders on Jan. 16.

"He probably worked the whole week," said Marcley.

Marcley also said he supplied Bizanowicz with tools for various electrical jobs, but said he never would have cause to give Bizanowicz rope or duct tape. The prosecution alleges a piece of rope that was used to bind Joanne Presti matches a rope found in Bizanowicz's truck. Investigators also tested duct tape that was seized from Miller's apartment, which the defense alleges was used by Bizanowicz when he repaired an appliance in her basement.

In response to questioning from defense counsel, Marcley agreed with the notion Bizanowicz was a "quick learner" capable of installing a television cable wire which the defense argues was the reason for the defendant's visit to the Prestis' home shortly after they moved in to 13A Totman Drive in November 2003.

Asked if rope might be used by Bizanowicz to tie a ladder or some other object to his truck for the purposes of transporting it to work, Marcley said it was possible.

"If the ladder's big enough, he'd have to tie it on," said Marcley.

State Police

While the prosecution is attempting to portray an investigation that was wide-ranging and thorough in its scope, the defense alleges the probe focused on Bizanowicz and all but ceased after he was arrested on Jan. 16.

State Police Lt. Connolly said leads to Joanne Presti's landlord were followed through at least Jan. 12, when he provided investigators with a DNA sample.

Bizanowicz did not emerge as a suspect until three undeveloped rolls of film were found in Joanne Presti's home. The film was developed and depicted photos of what has been established as the first birthday party for Bizanowicz's daughter.

Bizanowicz provided a DNA sample and on Jan. 16, Connolly said he was informed of a matching profile to the defendant.

After Bizanowicz's arrest, the investigation continued with another interview of Miller, and the consensual search of her computer and apartment. On Jan. 26, investigators spoke to the landlord of Bizanowicz's apartment in Lowell, seeking the location of some items connected to the case that might have been thrown away. Police went to a landfill in Londonderry, N.H., but could not locate any of those items.

Investigators also followed leads to the father of Joanne Presti's younger son, who was determined to be in Delaware and Pennsylvania at the time of the murders, and ran tests on a knife that was found in the backyard of a Totman Drive residence, Connolly testified.

Norkunas questioned Connolly on various details of the case the investigator either had no recollection of or failed to remember, with Connolly noting at one point the more than 3-year gap between the murders and his testimony as a witness, and some 15 murders over which he has had investigative jurisdiction since then.

Friends

About a half-dozen of Joanne Presti's friends and acquaintances testified of her whereabouts and activities in the days and hours before she was murdered.

Peabody resident Diana Caproni, who called Joanne Presti her best friend, said she was Joanne's delivery room coach and thus "the first one to see Alyssa be born." She eventually became Alyssa's godmother.

Caproni said she took Alyssa shopping on Dec. 30, 2003, when they went to Target to pick out a belated Christmas gift.

Alyssa, who "was excited about doing her room over," according to Caproni, picked out bed linens, curtains and other domestic items, then slept over Caproni's house both that night and again on New Year's Eve. She was picked up by Joanne in the afternoon of Jan. 1, 2004.

On Jan. 3, Joanne Presti went to the Citizens Bank branch on Russell Street, where she made a transaction, according to two bank employees.

She was also recorded on store surveillance video in a checkout line at what was then the Star Market on Cambridge Road, a transaction which was verified by the store manager and Woburn Police Det. William Coakley.

Joanne also went to visit her friend Chandra Richardson, an optician at Pearle Vision Center in the Burlington Mall.

Richardson said Joanne, Alyssa and Joanne's younger son stayed for about an hour that afternoon.

"She (Joanne) looked very happy, peaceful," said Richardson. "The children looked well."

Norkunas asked Richardson if police had ever asked her about the details of that conversation, particularly any information of a personal nature.

Richardson said she had given details to police, but after a subsequent sidebar with attorneys and Judge Geraldine Hines, Norkunas asked only if her account to police was about "something that had happened in the past."

"Yes," replied Richardson.

Totman Drive resident Zachary App testified he was in contact with Joanne Presti during an on-line instant messaging session that started at about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 4, meaning he may have been the last person before her killer to have direct contact with Presti.

Also testifying was Joyce Middle School administrative assistant Dorothy Huchko, who said she called the Presti home on Jan. 5-7 to inquire about Alyssa's absence from school. On each occasion, she left a message on the Prestis' answering machine. None of the phone calls was returned.