Developments in the retrial of Lyle and Erik Menendez from Nov. 13-17.
NOVEMBER 13
The jury heard testimony for less than an hour. The attorneys spent the rest of the day arguing over which exhibits the prosecution would enter into evidence.
Due to a scheduling problem, engineer Roger McCarthy did not testify. Instead, the defense called a witness out of order. Kurt Kuhn, a Beverly Hills police department criminalist, testified that he collected the physical evidence at the murder scene. The defense called Kuhn because they believe his measurements of the Menendez family's living room den and furniture will undermine McCarthy's testimony. McCarthy said his crime scene reconstruction was based partly on the "geometry of the room."
NOVEMBER 14
The defense tried to show that Roger McCarthy was not qualified to testify about crime scenes.
Under questioning by defense attorney Charles Gessler, McCarthy conceded that he never visited a crime scene or witnessed an autopsy. He also admitted that he had never seen gunshot wounds on an actual body and did not consult with the medical examiner or criminalists before reaching his conclusions about the Menendez case.
McCarthy previously testified that Jose and Kitty Menendez were sitting on a couch in their home when they were fatally shot. The conclusion was based on a computer-generated reconstruction of the crime scene.
Then, during an intense line of questioning by attorney Leslie Abramson, McCarthy said he had never testified in a criminal case. Most of his work, he said, is for civil litigation and involves accident reconstruction for major car manufacturers.
McCarthy admitted that he is trying to bring in more business for his company, Failure Analysis Associates, and that he was working on the Menendez case for free. Abramson suggested that he was doing charity work for "poor (Los Angeles District Attorney) Gil Garcetti who is on a losing streak."
Abramson also pointed out that medical and ballistics experts, who will testify for the defense, disagree with McCarthy's findings. Abramson also lambasted McCarthy for offering medical opinions, such as which would were post mortem and antemortem wounds, because he has no medical expertise -- he's an engineer.
McCarthy admitted that he never spoke with Dr. Irwin Golden, the coroner who performed the autopsies on Jose and Kitty Menendez. And, he conceded, that he had never heard of Dr. Robert Lawrence, the pathologist who testified for the prosecution, until just two weeks ago.
NOVEMBER 15
Defense attorney Leslie Abramson continued her attack on the credibility and reliability of key prosecution witness Roger McCarthy.
Abramson spent the day asking McCarthy painstakingly detailed questions about his computer-generated reconstruction of the crime scene. Prosecutors argue the reconstruction done by Failure Analysis Associates proves Erik and Lyle Menendez ambushed their parents.
In attacking McCarthy's bias, Abramson raised the fact that he is a close friend of Donald Vinson, a jury consultant who worked with the state on the O.J. Simpson case. Vinson is also the jury consultant in the Menendez trial. Abramson asked McCarthy whether Vinson asked him to "come down and help out poor (Los Angeles District Attorney) Gil Garcetti who was having a losing streak."
McCarthy answered no, but acknowledged that it was at Vinson's request that he is helping in Menendez prosecution. McCarthy is providing his company's services free of charge. He also waived his $600-an-hour, expert-testimony fee.
And, Abramson also hammered away at the fact that McCarthy lacked the ballistics and medical background needed to analyze a crime scene.
NOVEMBER 16
Defense attorney Leslie Abramson attacked as "pure fantasy" a key prosecution witness's re-creation of the slayings of Kitty and Jose Menendez.
In her characteristically feisty courtroom style, Abramson said that engineer Roger McCarthy's shot-by-shot re-creation did not fit the evidence at the crime scene, conflicted with a coroner's findings, and didn't make sense.
She sought to ridicule his finding that Kitty Menendez was able to turn on her right side after lying flat on her back on the floor with debilitating blasts to her left leg, right arm and shoulder, and face.
"Aren't we way out there now, even for you? That's pure fantasy," Abramson said.
"It got done, somehow," McCarthy responded.
McCarthy's presentation featured computer-generated illustrations and is considered crucial to the prosecution's effort to convince jurors that the brothers are guilty of first-degree murder. According to the reconstruction, the first shot struck Jose and Kitty Menendez while they were sitting in the living room of their home. The defense contends that the parents were standing.
Abramson questioned McCarthy about his conclusions for each of 12 shotgun blasts, even questioning him about the locations of each of 27 pellets contained inside each shell.
NOVEMBER 17
After undergoing several days of cross-examination, witness Roger McCarthy reiterated his belief that Jose and Kitty Menendez were sitting down when they were ambushed by their sons.
McCarthy made the statement during re-direct examination by prosecutor David Conn. Conn's questioning followed the conclusion of defense attorney Leslie Abramson's cross-examination.
