Chapter 28
Jack was just entering the courthouse when he got a call on his cell phone from Judge Garrison’s assistant.
“Mr. Swyteck, the afternoon session will be in the main courtroom.”
Jack pushed through the revolving entrance door, speaking into his phone. “I’m confused. We switched to a smaller courtroom
because the next witness is a child. Is Austen Pollard not testifying?”
“Main courtroom,” she said again, and the call ended.
Jack got through security as quickly as he could and made his way to the main courtroom, where his client was waiting for
him. The prosecutors were seated at their table. Weller looked even more uptight than usual, tapping the eraser end of her
pencil on the mahogany tabletop. Before Jack could ask her what was going on, the bailiff called out the familiar command,
the murmuring in the public gallery immediately stopped, and everyone was standing as Judge Garrison entered through the side
door.
“Please be seated,” he said as he took his place on the bench. His gaze immediately fixed on the prosecutor. “Ms. Weller,
what’s the status on your next witness?”
“Your Honor, as I explained to your assistant on the telephone, it appears that Austen Pollard has not yet arrived at the
courthouse.”
The judge scowled. “Whose fault is that? Other than yours, Ms. Weller?”
“I take full responsibility,” she said. “I didn’t want to subpoena a child, and I took his mother’s word that she would have
her son here on time. That was my mistake.”
“We are not going to sit and do nothing until they get here,” the judge said. “Call another witness, if you have one, or rest your case.”
“Yes, Judge. The State of Florida calls Ms. Swathi Gupta, deputy director of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.”
The witness entered the courtroom, swore the oath, and took her seat. Gupta earned her bachelor’s degree from MIT and worked
with FDLE’s forensic division for sixteen years, but a hint of an Indian accent recalled her childhood upbringing in Mumbai.
“Deputy Gupta, did the FDLE conduct a ballistics examination in this matter?”
“Yes,” said Gupta, who then described the chain custody of the specimen, starting with the veterinarian’s examination of the
Pollards’ pet and ending with the final transfer of the “foreign object” from the MDPD homicide division to the FDLE ballistics
team.
The prosecutor retrieved a clear plastic evidence bag, showed it to Jack, and then allowed the witness to inspect it.
“Deputy Gupta, is this the specimen that FDLE was asked to examine?”
“Yes. The evidence bag contains our usual markings. There is a vial inside, which came from Dr. Swan’s office. The object
he removed from the dog’s fur is inside the vial.”
“Was FDLE able to identify the object?”
“Yes. We determined that it was a bullet that had been fired from a twenty-two-caliber handgun.”
“Were you asked to do any other analysis relating to the bullet?”
“Yes. The veterinary report stated that the bullet did not break the dog’s skin. Therefore, we were asked to conduct a series
of test shootings to determine how a twenty-two-caliber bullet fired from a handgun could impact a sheepdog without penetrating
the skin.”
“Good grief,” said the judge. “I hope you didn’t shoot any sheepdogs.”
“No, Your Honor. These were laboratory ballistic experiments with nonbiological targets that we designed to mimic the double
coat of fur that protects a sheepdog’s skin. We then conducted two different tests.”
“What was the first test?” asked Weller.
“Distance. The question was this: Assuming a direct hit on the target, at what distance would the bullet lose the kinetic
energy it needed to penetrate the double coat?”
“What did you conclude?”
“Assuming no other factors such as weather affecting velocity, the shooter would have to be more than two hundred yards away
to get beyond the effective range.”
“So, if the shooter was standing more than two football fields away and fired a twenty-two-caliber handgun at a sheepdog,
the dog’s thick double coat would probably prevent the bullet from penetrating the skin.”
“Correct. Assuming you could even hit the dog. Accuracy goes way down at that distance, especially with a handgun.”
“All right. What was the second test?”
“Ricochet. The assumption here is that there was an indirect hit after the bullet ricocheted off a foreign surface and then
got trapped in the sheepdog’s double coat without breaking the skin.”
“What did your test show?”
“The result depended on the surface that caused the ricochet. For example, if a bullet ricochets off a very hard surface,
such as concrete, it’s highly unlikely that the bullet would lose the kinetic energy needed to penetrate the sheepdog’s skin.
Distance has a much more significant impact.”
“So, if I’m ten feet away from my target and the twenty-two-caliber bullet skips off the sidewalk and hits the dog, what would
happen?”
“You would have a seriously wounded animal.”
“Did you test softer surfaces?”
“Yes. Some surfaces are just too soft to cause a ricochet, such as a couch cushion. But if the bullet is traveling at a severe
angle, we were able to cause a ricochet on what I would call medium-soft surfaces. Hard rubber, for example.”
“What did you find with these medium-soft surfaces?”
“The tests revealed that the bullet lost some kinetic energy upon contact with these surfaces. And sometimes—especially if
the bullet was discharged at a severe angle—the loss of kinetic energy was so significant that, upon impact with the target,
the bullet was trapped in the sheepdog’s double coat and did not penetrate the skin.”
Jack rose. He could see where the prosecutor was heading with the “ricochet” test, and he needed to shut it down.
“Your Honor, I have to object. Clearly, the prosecution is trying to explain how Mr. Pollard was able to call 911 and say
he had been shot before his body was found with a catastrophic shotgun blast to the head. But the only wound mentioned in
the autopsy report was from a shotgun, and the only spent ammunition recovered from the crime scene was buckshot. There’s
no evidence that a stray bullet skipped off a rubber mat, a rubber ball, a wall, the floor or anything else inside the house.”
The judge drew a deep breath, but he seemed receptive to Jack’s objection.
“Yes, Ms. Weller. What is your point here? That Mr. Pollard tried to shoot himself in the head with a twenty-two, missed and
hit the dog, and then used the shotgun?”
“No, Judge. My point is that Mr. Stafford shot the victim in the head with a twenty-two. Even if it doesn’t penetrate the skull, a bullet skipping off your head is
enough to cause a brain hemorrhage that at some point may result in a loss of consciousness or even death. Mr. Stafford then
blasted away the evidence of the actual mortal wound with a shotgun to make it look like suicide.”
The proverbial lightbulb was flashing above the judge’s head, though for Jack it was like a kick to the stomach. Weller seemed
especially pleased with herself, having created the perfect diversion with all the fuss over Austen Pollard’s testimony, and
then dropping this bomb. Jack had to think fast.
“Judge, the prosecution’s clever speculation does not add up to admissible evidence. All this talk of a sheepdog, ricochets, and a twenty-two-caliber gunshot wound is starting to sound like Oliver Stone, JFK, and the magic bullet.”
The judge nodded, but not in agreement. “Mr. Swyteck, about two minutes ago I was thinking the same thing. It seemed that
Ms. Weller was just tap-dancing to kill time until Austen Pollard gets here. But I’m going to allow some latitude here. Ms.
Weller, if you can make your point, make it.”
“Yes, Your Honor,” she said, and then she faced the witness. “Deputy Gupta, before conducting these tests, did you review
the autopsy report for Mr. Pollard?”
“Yes.”
“Did you note the thickness of the surviving portions of Mr. Pollard’s scalp as reported by the medical examiner. By ‘scalp’
I mean not just the outer skin but all five layers, from the hair follicles down to the pericranium, the layer directly on
the skull.”
“According to the autopsy report, the thickness was approximately seven millimeters.”
“Did you conduct any ricochet tests on a medium-soft surface with a thickness of seven millimeters?”
“Yes. We laid the medium-soft surface over a hard surface and fired a twenty-two caliber from a distance of ten feet.”
“What were your findings?”
“If the bullet was fired from a severe angle, the medium-soft surface created enough drag that the ricocheted bullet did not
penetrate the dog’s skin. It lost kinetic energy and was trapped in the double coat upon impact.”
“Deputy Gupta, is the human skull, below the scalp, hard enough to cause a ricochet?”
“Objection.”
“Overruled. You may answer, Deputy Gupta.”
“With a twenty-two-caliber bullet fired from a distance of ten feet and at a severe angle, most definitely. I’m familiar with a study from Canada showing that barely sixty percent of the attempted suicides involving a twenty-two-caliber gunshot to the head resulted in instant death.”
Jack kept fighting. “Your Honor, I renew my objection. We have a twenty-two-caliber bullet found in the hair of a dog. There’s
no basis for speculation about a ricochet off a human skull. What’s next, the grassy knoll?”
“Overruled. But, Ms. Weller, sheepdogs are like Velcro. This bullet could have been swept up in Fido’s coat months ago. Connecting
it to the shotgun blast that killed Mr. Pollard requires quite the leap of faith.”
“Boo,” said Weller.
“Excuse me?”
“The dog’s name is Boo. In any event, I can strengthen the connection.”
“Please do,” said the judge. “Proceed.”
Jack felt a killer question coming. He didn’t even bother to ask his client what it might be.
“Deputy Gupta, did your forensic team examine the bullet in question for any foreign substances?”
“Yes. And we found traces of blood.”
“Dog blood?”