Prosecution rests in Ranger murder trial

[unhappycamper]

Prosecution rests in Ranger murder trial
By Ben Nuckols - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 21:32:04 EDT

ROCKVILLE, Md. — A blood-spatter expert cast doubt Tuesday on the prosecution’s theory that shapes in bloodstained carpet show how close an Army Ranger was to the fellow soldier he’s accused of killing.

Sgt. Gary J. Smith, 25, is on trial for murder in the fatal shooting of his roommate and fellow Ranger, Spc. Michael A. McQueen II, 22, in September 2006. The defense contends that McQueen shot himself and that Smith dumped the gun in a nearby lake to cover for his buddy.

The barrel of the gun was pressed against McQueen’s temple as he was shot, meaning the prosecution must prove Smith was close enough to McQueen to have pulled the trigger. A blood-spatter expert called by 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, who died while sitting in a folding chair in the Gaithersburg apartment he shared with Smith.

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.

“The sneaker itself is much too round to create a pointed void pattern such as that,” MacDonell said. “My conclusion was it was not the object that intercepted blood.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_rangertrial_032508/