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People v. Mayfield1/2/1997
ecalled on rebuttal, testified that when he entered the living room of the Haverstick house to investigate the noises that had awakened him, he heard Haverstick yell: "Get out of the house. There's robbers in the house. Call the police." He immediately ran outside without seeing or hearing any other person. It was only after he was outside that he heard someone say "Don't say nothing." Turning, he saw a Black man in the doorway.
Dr. Irving Root, recalled on rebuttal, was asked to assume that the gunpowder range of Sergeant Wolfley's gun was 30 to 36 inches and that the shooting occurred in the manner described in defendant's testimony--that is, defendant and Sergeant Wolfley were standing side by side with both of Sergeant Wolfley's hands on the gun and defendant's hands over Sergeant Wolfley's hands. Given these circumstances, it was Dr. Root's opinion that there would necessarily have been gunpowder stippling or tattooing on Sergeant Wolfley's face. He testified that if Sergeant Wolfley was gripping the gun firmly with both hands, he would have had to bend his elbows to permit the gun to turn toward his face, and the distance between the muzzle and Sergeant Wolfley's chin would have been no greater that 14 inches. Even assuming that Sergeant Wolfley's arms were fully extended and the gun was coming loose from his grip when it fired, the distance would have been at least 18 or 19 inches, and there would have been gunpowder injury to Sergeant Wolfley's skin in the form of stippling or tattooing.
V. Parker Bell, a criminalist employed by the defense, conducted a test firing of Sergeant Wolfley's gun to determine the distance at which gunshot residue would leave a lasting impression on human flesh. For purposes of the test, he used ammunition that Detective Amicone had represented to be from the same manufacturing lot as that issued to Sergeant Wolfley. Taking one of the cartridges apart, Bell determined that it contained disc flake gunpowder, which has poor aerodynamic ability compared to the two other kinds of gunpowder, ball powder and flattened ball powder. The test firing was recorded on videotape, which was shown to the jury. First, the gun was fired at cloth-covered targets at distances from 12 to 48 inches. Even at 48 inches, some gunpowder particles were visible on the target. The gun was fired at human flesh by placing the exposed forearm of defense counsel one to one and one-half inches above the bullet's point of impact. At a distance of 18 inches, some particles that may have been gunpowder were visible on the skin but they came off without leaving any lasting impression. At 12 inches, gunpowder particles were found embedded in the skin, and the skin surface had the characteristic abrasion known as stippling.
After this test firing had been conducted, Bell, the defense criminalist, and Wallis, the prosecution criminalist, jointly compared a cartridge of the ammunition supplied by Detective Amicone with a cartridge from the belt that Sergeant Wolfley had been wearing on the night of his death and the single cartridge that was left in Sergeant Wolfley's revolver when defendant surrendered. They found that although all three cartridges contained disc flake powder, the powder in the cartridges differed in color and quantity, indicating chemical differences that could affect the results of skin penetration tests. The powder in the cartridge supplied by Detective Amicone weighed 8.0 grains, the powder in the cartridge from Sergeant Wolfley's belt 9.4 grains, and the powder in the cartridge from Sergeant Wolfley's revolver 9.1 grains.
Some of the ammunition from Sergeant Wolfley's belt was test-fired against cardboard targets at ranges from 12 to 48 inches. Bell consi
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