Trial Discussion Thread #19 - 14.04.07, Day 17

[zwiebel]

Back to wounds again and collar of abrasion. Ugh, that wound looks nasty and it's nothing in relation to the rest of poor Reeva's injury...

 

[zwiebel]

Judge just told Nel off for dropping his voice.

Onto 'double tap' now. Nel says 'The first duff - was it A?'

B: I think A was probably the first shot, I can't say with certainty the next was B etc...

Nel saying he started off giving evidence about ballistics, now he is testing him on it and he should answer.

 

[kaos]

Jan is a professor of pathology with over 25,000 post mortems under the belt. I think you can take the patronising quotation marks away.

I'll keep my quotation marks where they were thank you very much. They were to highlight the word 'expert' to differentiate from the average witness.

 

[Val1]

from news24

Ahh, but does it sound like a woman?

 

[MeeBee]

The interesting thing is, in the US, testimony of this nature i.e. Order of bullets to body, position of body would normally be handled by the medical examiner, and not really the ballistics expert, and they are supposed to use forensics and ballistics reports to help them out. That's why I found it interesting that Mangena was testifying as to order of bullets to the body as opposed to the pathologist. The training of these professionals must be different.

 

[zwiebel]

N: I'm testing your premise doctor. You started of by saying, 'The sequence probably was...'.....you just looked at the injuries, not at the door?....did you take the door into account and the position of the bullet holes?

B: I took into account the height...it's the job of a ballistician to correlate it with the holes.

 

[katydid23]

Minor, where are you? I am curious to hear what you think of this DT witness...

 

[zwiebel]

Roux up, saying Nel can't say Cpt M's theory is fact, it's a version.

Nel back trying to get witness to say hole B is second shot.

 

[G.bng]

Hey, I am positive Roux told several witnesses to the screams that the defence were going to bring an expert that would testify that the head-hit was first !!!

What happened... the expert changed his mind or it wasn't true from the start?

 

[Really?]

That is a clean bullet hole paused on the screen in court...I wish it had a screen saver pop up........but good it is staring at OP

 

[zwiebel]

B: I think the bullet that ricocheted was probably the third or fourth. I'm not certain...most likely scenario, wound in hip caused her to fall, then other wounds as she was falling. If she was shot in the head first I'd have difficulty correlating how any of the other wounds were caused as she fell...

N: For once I agree with you

B: I don't think she had time to scream. She would have taken a couple of seconds to react. By that time she could have been shot again. But if there were several seconds between the shots, she may have screamed...

 

[wb180]

Hey, I am positive Roux told several witnesses to the screams that the defence were going to bring an expert that would testify that the head-hit was first !!!

What happened... the expert changed his mind or it wasn't true from the start?

That's true...Roux has said numerous "I put it to you" statements and so hopefully he will now back them up with actual evidence...

 

[zwiebel]

They are discussing the possibility of Reeva screaming and judge has popped up and accused Nel of whispering, which he is not...

 

[Really?]

Omg.........this witness.".sealed the deal on the screaming in fear.......

 

[steveml]

The interesting thing is, in the US, testimony of this nature i.e. Order of bullets to body, position of body would normally be handled by the medical examiner, and not really the ballistics expert, and are supposed to use forensics and ballistics reports to help them out. That's why I found it interesting that Mangena was testifying as to order of bullets to the body as opposed to the pathologist. The training of these professionals must be different.

I agree MeeBee.

Nel shouldn't be dragging this out really, as Both's already specifically stated he's not a ballistics expert.
He's asking qualified questions of someone unqualified to answer this.

There's a big difference between assessing injury from ballistics, and assessing ballistic trajectory's through doors etc.

 

[G.bng]

I want Nel to ask the expert would there have been other noises too, like a person falling back against the magazine rack that would surely have made quite a clatter. Or are the defence saying Reeva was silent even when falling and slumping over the loo.

 

[Really?]

Bring on the next witness !!!

 

[sorrell skye]

Excellent point Nel - in both the PT's version as well as the DT's version, Reeva was primed to be in fear, therefore it is extremely likely that she would have screamed after being struck by the first bullet to the hip.

Prof. Botha agrees.

Way to go Nel! :cheer:

 

[zwiebel]

Ha! Nel's just got witness to concede that OP running towards bathroom door yelling "Reeva, call the police" would 'prime' her so when shot, she'd have been able to scream!

With that, Nel steps down.

Now Roux up, correcting his own 'double tap' theory which apparently was incorrect??

 

[Really?]

I agree MeeBee.

Nel shouldn't be dragging this out really, as Both's already specifically stated he's not a ballistics expert.
He's asking qualified questions of someone unqualified to answer this.

There's a big difference between assessing injury from ballistics, and assessing ballistic trajectory's through doors etc.

Really ?