The witnesses, a pathologist and a crime-scene reconstruction specialist, said gunshot wounds Barber suffered during the incident did not appear to be self-inflicted, as prosecutors allege, but instead were likely the result of a struggle with a gunman.

Barber, 34, claims a mugger attacked him and his 27-year-old wife, April, as they strolled along a beach Aug. 17, 2002. He opted not to take the stand in his own defense Tuesday, but during the six-day trial, jurors heard his version of events in three taped statements played in court.

Jurors will begin deliberating Wednesday morning after lawyers make closing arguments. The charge carries a possible death sentence.

The experts called by the defense Tuesday said two of the four wounds, one a shot through Barber's left hand and another below his right nipple, particularly supported his account of grappling with an assailant.

Story continues

William Sturner, a private consultant who formerly served as state medical examiner in Arkansas and Rhode Island, said the wounds appeared to be from a single bullet that passed through Barber's palm and into his chest as he attempted to push the gun away.

"I'm suggesting a scuffle took place. The hand was over the tip of the barrel in approximately this position," Sturner said, twisting his left hand against his chest in a defensive posture.

The crime-scene analyst, Alexander Jason, a private consultant from California, agreed with Sturner's assessment. He said he found heavy gunshot residue on the palm and around two other wounds — one on his shoulder and another in his arm — but no residue around the chest wound.

The lack of residue suggested the hand acted as a barrier between the gun and the chest, Jason said.

He also said poor alignment between holes in the Hawaiian shirt Barber wore the night of the murder and the bullet wounds indicated a force was tugging the shirt down and over at the time the gun was fired.

"It could be consistent with a struggle," he said.

Prosecutors claim Barber held his wife underwater until she was incapacitated and then shot her 300 feet from the shore near a wooden walkway. Sturner, however, disputed the meaning of a much-analyzed trail of blood on April Barber's face.

Prosecutors contend the single direction of the blood indicates she was never moved after she was shot by the walkway, but Sturner termed the blood a "re-bleed," which he said occurred after her husband dropped her near the walkway to go for help. He said initial bleeding "was probably washed away by the waves."

Jason also attacked the prosecutor's theory, saying given the angle of the wound, the tilt of the victim's head and the distance between the muzzle and the wound, the shooter would have had to hold the gun several inches under the sand to fire.

On cross-examination, assistant state's attorney Chris France implied that both men were relying on Barber telling the truth about the shooting in making their assessments.

He asked Sterner if there was anything distinctive about the wound to the hand "that prevents him from merely having shot through his own hand."

Witness Alexander Jason

"No, nothing," the pathologist conceded.

He similarly questioned Jason about the chest wound.

"Could the defendant have created that wound and shot himself?" he asked.

"He could have, yes," the expert said.

Before he took the stand, Jason's handling of evidence was the subject of a testy hearing outside the presence of the jury. The expert acknowledged accidentally marking the shirt with four red dots from a red Sharpie pen while trying to mark the location of bullet holes on an identical shirt he planned to use in a demonstration for jurors.

An angry France accused Jason of tampering with the shirt in areas that are "evidentiarily sensitive," but defense attorney Robert Willis said the prosecutor was "making a huge mountain out of a molehill."

In the end, the jury was informed of the new marks and told to disregard them as evidence.

After the defense rested, prosecutors attempted to call April Barber's best friend as a rebuttal witness. Assistant State's Attorney Matt Foxman said the woman would testify that the victim told Barber two weeks before the murder that she planned to leave him.

Judge Edward Hedstrom refused to allow the witness, however, saying her account would be hearsay.

The trial is being shown live on Court TV Extra.