Two articles on a shooting that occurred in December of 2003. Note the dueling firearms experts for the prosectution and the defense.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...6DD9F67F5A93B87986256FE900541350?OpenDocument
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...2A07978F38F938CA86256FEA004B1CAD?OpenDocument
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...6DD9F67F5A93B87986256FE900541350?OpenDocument
Testimony casts doubt on defendant’s claim of accidental killing
By Robert Goodrich
Of the Post-Dispatch
04/20/2005
Prosecution witnesses cast doubt Tuesday on Ramon Wilson's defense in a murder trial in Belleville - that the killing of his former roommate, Frederick Arnez Johnson, was an accident.
Defense attorney Paul M. Storment III told jurors in his opening statement they would hear evidence the shooting was an accident.
But testimony by witnesses called by prosecutors Judy Dalan and Steven R. Sallerson appeared to undermine that premise. The witnesses were:
Firearms expert Ronald Locke of the Illinois State Police, who testified the .22-caliber revolver used in the shooting would not discharge if bumped or dropped. He said it could be fired only by pulling the trigger.
Dr. Raj Nanduri, the pathologist who performed an autopsy on Johnson, who testified Johnson died from a bullet wound in the head. She said the bullet's path and gunpowder showed the gun barrel was inside his mouth when fired.
Forensic biologist Brian Hopack of the Illinois State Police. He testified that he tested the pistol and found no blood, but swabs taken from the end of the barrel tested positive for saliva.
DNA expert Jennifer Reynolds of Orchid Cellmark Laboratory in Germantown, Md. She testified that DNA tests of that saliva proved beyond any doubt it was Johnson's.
The shooting took place in an argument in the early morning hours of Dec. 29, 2003, at the apartment of Mary Miles in the 1700 block of Boismenue Avenue in East St. Louis.
Miles testified that after Wilson, 39, shot Johnson, 34, she ran to a neighbor's apartment and called police.
Crime scene investigator Matt J. Davis of the Illinois State Police said that when he arrived, Johnson's body was in the parking lot, where it apparently had been dragged.
Davis said a trail of blood led back to the apartment door, about 60 feet away. He said he found a shell casing near the front door and others by a stairwell.
Locke, the firearms expert, testified that all the casings had been fired in Wilson's .22 revolver. Police found a .22 semi-automatic pistol in the victim's clothing, but Locke said there was no evidence it had been fired.
He said it contained no ammunition and the magazine was missing.
Reporter Robert Goodrich
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 618-235-8919
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...2A07978F38F938CA86256FEA004B1CAD?OpenDocument
Jury rejects claim that fatal shooting was an accident
BY ROBERT GOODRICH
Of the Post-Dispatch
04/21/2005
Ramon Wilson, 39, of East St. Louis, was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder in the shooting of a former roommate despite his claim that the gun went off accidentally.
Wilson faces up to 60 years in prison. Circuit Judge Milton S. Wharton scheduled sentencing for June 28.
Killed was Frederick Arnez Johnson, 34, also of East St. Louis.
Johnson was shot Dec. 29, 2003, in a quarrel in the apartment of Wilson's then-girlfriend, Mary Miles, in the 1700 block of Boismenue Avenue in East St. Louis.
Miles testified that Wilson had pointed his .22-caliber revolver at Johnson, ordered him to open his mouth, shoved the gun barrel inside and fired.
Defense attorney Paul M. Storment III argued that Miles' testimony made no sense. "There's no blood on my guy," he told the jury. "At the most, this was involuntary manslaughter."
Former police Officer Bob Lucas of Peoria, Ill., an expert in gun accident reconstruction, testified that firearms are often fired by accident. It happens in homes, out hunting, even among police on firing ranges, he said.
Lucas also testified that Wilson's revolver, if cocked, could be fired with about half the pressure on the trigger that would be needed to ring an average doorbell.
But Assistant St. Clair County State's Attorney Steven R. Sallerson said testimony by prosecution witnesses proved that the shooting was no accident:
"This case is not involuntary manslaughter," Sallerson said. "This was first-degree murder."
Reporter Robert Goodrich
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 618-235-8919