Posted on 05/02/2016 2:25:05 PM PDT by Chasaway
Angle of the ricochet seems kind of acute, at least at the ranges your giving.
Penetrating wound from a straight shot should be a round puncture; if the bullet was a ricochet the wound should be keyholed or at least pretty distorted, pathologist should be able to tell you that.
You might try contacting some of the ballistics experts on military bases in your area, or even their Corpsmen or Medics. They aren’t experts and probably couldn’t testify, but they have seen an awful lot of these types of holes in both materials and flesh (unfortunately).
They could probably direct you to some real experts.
WHAT! Who allowed that in a potential murder case?
The guy is NOT a lawyer, he’s a an investigator working for a lawyer.
Yep.
LEO (and I love ‘em, generally) were sloppy as hell on this one. They took pics of the hole, but with no reference markers that showed size direction of victim’s body...nothing.
And from my understanding, they floor (the concrete) has been patched and the linoleum replaced.
Like I said, the whole thing is sloppy. And it reeks.
Yep.
LEO (and I love ‘em, generally) were sloppy as hell on this one. They took pics of the hole, but with no reference markers that showed size direction of victim’s body...nothing.
And from my understanding, they floor (the concrete) has been patched and the linoleum replaced.
Like I said, the whole thing is sloppy. And it reeks.
Pics indicate an oblong-ish hole. I haven’t seen the ME report, personally. It was only yesterday that I had my initial conversation with the atty on the case.
He had not even CONSIDERED some of the points I made: Ballistics from 10 feet, floor analysis for gunshot residue/metal fragments, etc.
Once I got him going, he asked for my help in clearing his ignorance up. I’m not an expert witness in the case...neither am I getting paid at this point. There were just some glaring problems with the state’s case that I HAD to bring up.
I think it’s interesting that many on FR either malign me as an attorney (which I’m not), suggest this is the wrong place to be getting information (which is wrong), tell me to use other resources (which suggests they think FR is the only one I’d use. I guess that says more about them, really) or tell me I’m showing my hand to the state.
I’ve had only a few out of many that actually address my questions. And that’s what I sought.
Yours is one of them.
Thank you.
No comprende.
So, I agree with you.
Interestingly, there is no blood splatter that we know of. No pics from LEO anyway.
The victim only shows a little blood draining from one nostril and the blood from the back of her head. No obvious facial swelling, no other blood splatters.
And my contention was, and remains, that shot from 10 feet with ANY round from an AR-15 (assuming it wasn’t a .22LR configuration), the physical evidence would be enormously different.
The floor divot is almost secondary. It’s obvious SOMETHING made a hole in the floor...very recently. And something one couldn’t make with a hammer-type object, no matter how hard you hit it. Angles, geometry, etc. are interesting, but the point is that if the bullet hit the floor, he didn’t intend to shoot her.
No one knows what a bullet will do to any certainty if shot a concrete floor covered with linoleum.
Police/crime scene reports indicate no such investigation was conducted.
The floor has been patched and re-covered with linoleum.
This occurred before the current attorney was appointed.
I think everything you said generally supports my hypothesis. Nothing in it suggests that the round you discussed would break apart in a human skull at 10 FEET! And surely not without enormous pressures within the brain cavity, resulting in blood from the orifices in the head.
The victim only bled from the entry wound with some slight bleeding from the left nostril.
Can’t make that square with any shot from any AR round from 10 feet. Excluding a .22LR conversion of some type.
The DA overcharged in the case and knows it. If he saw this thread, it would add to his incentive to lower the charge.
No one who has actually added information regarding the actual ballistics questions has said anything to rebut the hypothesis that a shot from an AR at 10 yards would produce the results exhibited here.
I’m not asking any one for help with strategy. I’m asking for help with specific questions.
And, so no one is confused....FR is not my sole source of information.
Please.
“I think everything you said generally supports my hypothesis. Nothing in it suggests that the round you discussed would break apart in a human skull at 10 FEET!...”
Without obtaining more information about the nature and composition of the bullet, analytic and forensic science can only carry this so far.
There are 22 centerfire bullets constructed of materials so soft and light that they fragment from air resistance, if driven too quickly from the muzzle. Disintegration threshold velocity is within the capabilities of the 223 Rem cartridge. What would happen if such a bullet (necessarily at a lower velocity) impacted the “average” human skull, begs additional layers of speculation.
And I have witnessed animals in the field, hit in the skull at short ranges (30 to 50 ft) with 22 centerfire bullets of various construction. Explosive fragmentation was nil; skull size was between that of a prairie dog and that of a human.
I must reiterate the probabilistic nature of impact results. Applied science (even when all evidence has been collected, accounted for, and correlated) can help but some uncertainties will remain, in any situation. 13 years as a scientific analyst for DoD taught me that attorneys and analysts inhabit different worlds, and never the twain shall meet.
BFL = “Bump for Later” to read in more depth or add some brilliant commentary.
Ahhh...sooo.
Now I get it.
No response required.
Got it.
Did this case ever get resolved?
Yup. My client took our analysis to the DA and the DA dropped the charge to accidental.
The defendant got out of a first degree murder rap.
How’d you remember this thread?
Sometimes I just throw an interesting thead into a folder and then dig them out in a year or two to see if they go anywhere. I love to do that to prediction threads also.
I’ve wanted to do just that.
I’ll bet you’ve got some interesting ones from the last year or so.
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