Update 2: Dan Morse writes in the Washington Post, Experts for Defense Raise Doubts:
Three expert witnesses testifying for the defense casts doubt yesterday on the contention that former Army Ranger Gary Smith shot his roommate 18 months ago at their apartment in Gaithersburg, and one of the experts said he believed that the roommate shot himself.
“In this case, I don’t doubt it’s a suicide, period,” Vincent Di Maio, an expert on gunshot wounds, said of the death of Michael McQueen.
Update: Two more articles:
AP writer Ben Nuckols reports, Prosecution Rests in Ranger Trial:
Prosecutors have seized on Smith’s conflicting statements and forensic evidence — including blood spatter on the floor next to McQueen and blood on Smith’s hands, pants and shoe — as proof that Smith killed his roommate.
A blood-spatter expert for the state, William T. Vosburgh, testified last week that he found the outlines of a shoe and a human hand in the pool of blood next to McQueen.
But Herbert MacDonell, director of the Laboratory for Forensic Science in Corning, N.Y., disputed Vosburgh’s conclusions Tuesday, saying a void in the bloodstain was the wrong shape to have been created by the sneaker Smith was wearing when McQueen died.
While there was blood on Smith’s shoe, MacDonell testified there wasn’t enough blood on it for it to have been in the path of gushing blood immediately after the gunshot.
Also, Meghan Tierney writes in the Gazette, Blood pattern is key in Army Ranger trial:
Jezik said that Smith’s bizarre behavior after McQueen’s death may have been caused by post-traumatic stress disorder. Smith was a sergeant when he left the Army in May 2005, according to his mother, Rosemary Smith of Derwood. Her son, who she described as a close friend of McQueen’s, suffered a kidney injury that may have been caused after being shot in the back while wearing a bullet proof vest. Her son saw a friend lose a leg in Afghanistan after their vehicle was hit with a roadside bomb, she said. He is receiving treatment for PTSD from the Department of Veterans Affairs, she said.
Dan Morse writes in the Washington Post, Video Shows Shifts in Ex-Soldier’s Story:
In an hours-long interview with detectives, a former Army Ranger accused of murdering his roommate wept as he described finding his friend’s body at their Gaithersburg apartment but later appeared composed as he explained why he then altered what would be deemed a crime scene.
Prosecutors are expected to rest their case today, the seventh day of the trial. Smith’s attorney, Andrew Jezic, is expected to call witnesses into next week to show that McQueen shot himself. Jezic also is likely to try to build on what he told jurors in his opening statement: Once Smith settled down, he stuck to his story “hour after hour.”
Jurors have watched several hours of the video recording of the Smith interrogation, which took place in a small room at a county police station. Smith gave three basic versions of what happened the night of Sept. 25 or early the next morning.
Also, AP writer Ben Nuckols reports, Videotape Shows Ranger Lying to Police:
In swearing on the graves of his Ranger buddies, he said one of them was Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who enlisted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and was killed in Afghanistan.
After he made that oath, the detectives told him the evidence indicated he had been in the apartment when McQueen died, and finally, he admitted that he was.
Earlier Monday, Dr. Carol Allan, an assistant state medical examiner, testified that there was no way to tell from the autopsy on McQueen whether his wound was self-inflicted or not. However, she classified McQueen’s death as a homicide because of other evidence in the case, noting that there was no blood on McQueen’s right hand and that there was no indication from the position of his hand that he had been holding a gun.
Channel 7 News reports, Ranger Charged in Roommate’s Death:
Prosecutors played a taped police interview with Smith in court on Tuesday, on which Smith said he was in “panic mode” when he saw his roommate bleeding from the head. “It was dripping on the floor,” he said, “I remember hearing it go splat, splat, splat.”
Officers told the jury they found Smith crying and covered in blood. Smith’s attorney said his client was despondent over the loss of his friend and that he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.
If convicted, Smith faces life without parole.
