Friday, August 3, 2018

OREGON STANDOFF FBI AGENT TRIAL:  FIGHTING OVER FORENSIC EVIDENCE AND MORE ON RYAN BUNDY'S  INJURY


Defense lawyers fought to get doubt in the jury Friday over details of the forensic evidence pointing to FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita being the one who fired just before Oregon Standoff protestor LaVoy Finicum was killed (shot in the back) by an Oregon State Police trooper.

Deschutes County, Oregon Detective Ron Brown testified that Ryan Bundy would not allow removal of the bullet fragment in his body unless Brown was willing to file charges in connection with the shootings that day  (January 26, 2016).   Its believed the person who shot Bundy was Agent Astarita.

A defense lawyer wanted Brown to help impeach Captain Casey Codding of the Oregon State Police,  the trooper who shot Finicum in the back.   Codding had not told investigators early on in the probe about being startled by a loud noise when Finicum exited the truck.

Lawyer David Angeli wanted to get Brown to say Codding wasn't being truthful and a federal prosecutor quickly objected.  Angeli was forced to rephrase his question.

Detective Brown said neither he nor the Department of Justice Inspector General's investigators had heard Captain Codding mention the startling noise.    Codding revealed that to prosecutors a month before the trial.

Victoria Dickerson, a senior forensic scientist with the Oregon State Police, was one of Friday's witnesses.    She found four bullet strikes on LaVoy Finicum's truck.    Captain Codding ("Officer 1-Trooper 1") said he fired three at the truck as it went into the snowbank and stopped prior to LaVoy Finicum exiting the truck.

The fourth bullet strike called "Impact W" is believed by the prosecution to have come from Agent Astarita, the accused.

Dickerson explained how the bullet traveled at horizontal angle of 125 degrees from behind and to the right of Finicum's truck at a vertical angle of 20 degrees,   The margin of error for each angle was five degrees.

Defense lawyer Meghan Ferguson used a book called "Police Shooting Scene Investigation" written by Dean Garrison Jr. to suggest her estimation may have been way off the mark.

The defense lawyers were also cross examining another witness, Deschutes County, Oregon Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Turpen.  Turpen is an accident reconstruction specialist who marked locations of evidence and vehicles at the scene.   The defense tried to create doubt about by suggesting that LaVoy Finicum's truck settled into the snow between the time his truck entered the snowbank and when Turpen took his measurements nine hours later.

The prosecution is reported to moving towards the conclusion of its case after the second week of the trial and early next week (Monday August 6th) may be date the prosecutors wrap up and the defense begins to present its side of the case.

Link below......

JEANETTE FINICUM (LAVOY'S WIDOW) REPORTS ON HER FRIDAY 8/3/2018 OBSERVATIONS

(UPDATED, EXPANDED LATE SATURDAY AUGUST 4th AND EARLY SUNDAY AUGUST 5th)

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