Jurors got a front-row seat to a murder scene Wednesday, as defense lawyers for Margaret Rudin reenacted possible scenarios inside a reconstruction of the alleged crime scene.

The mock bedroom — a replica of what prosecutors believe was the site where Rudin shot her real estate mogul husband Ron as he slept — was used by the defense during the testimony of a blood spatter expert.

"Bang, bang," yelled defense attorney Tom Pitaro with his index finger pointed at co-counsel John Momot, who pretending to fall dead on the courtroom floor.

That display prompted a screaming match between Judge Joseph Bonaventure and Pitaro, who accused the defense lawyers of testifying out of the presence of the jury. When the panel was brought back into the courtroom, Bonaventure told them that the lawyers' actions were "highly improper" and urged them to disregard it.

Reconstruction of the Rudins' bedroom

While defense lawyers spent the first two days of their case attacking the theory that Rudin was burned at that site, they spent Wednesday attempting to show the jury that Rudin could not have been shot and killed inside the bedroom of the couple's modest Las Vegas home on Dec. 18, 1994.

The expert, John Thornton, testified that the traces of blood found on the walls and ceiling of the bedroom, as well as a portrait hanging on the wall, could not have resulted from the type of gun used to kill the murdered millionaire.

According to Thornton, the .22 caliber pistol used to fire at least four bullets into Rudin's head was not powerful enough to cause blood to spatter far enough to reach the walls and ceiling of the Las Vegas bedroom.

Bright yellow blobs on the walls of the reconstructed scene represented the stains police say were blood spatter detected by Luminol tests.

The defense contends that the blood traces were not from Rudin's murder, but from the late real estate mogul's third wife, Peggy, who committed suicide in the bedroom by shooting herself in the head with a 357 Magnum.

Thornton explained that the velocity of blood spattered from a .22 caliber gun would not be enough to make it travel more than a maximum of two or three feet — and typically only a few inches.

"Blood doesn't go very far," he said.

Even if a shooter held the gun to Rudin's head and pulled the trigger, the blood would not have spattered farther than the shooter's cuff, he said.

In addition, he said, a .22 caliber gunshot would produce a blood spatter that looks like what he termed a "red mist" — but he "profoundly disagreed" that the stains appeared to be in that pattern.

"I don't see any evidence of misting anywhere in this scene," he said.

Thornton also said that the blood stains found behind where a portrait of Margaret Rudin hung on the wall could not possibly have been the result of the 1994 shooting.

"Its not going to sneak its way behind the frame and up the wall," he said.

Pitaro and Momot acted out the different possible scenarios based on the angles of the gunshots, including shooting Rudin from a crouching position next to the bed, standing on the bed or rolling the body over.

One by one, Thornton debunked each situation as being "unreasonable."

On cross-examination, prosecutor Chris Owens reminded the jury through his questioning of Thornton that the mattresses, box springs and carpet had all been changed following Rudin's death.

He also challenged Thornton's assertion that some of the blood stains didn't come from gunshots at all, prodding him to speculate about their origin.

"I don't have a clue," Thornton said.

"If it was a gunshot I'd expect to see a lot more blood, a more coherent pattern and in my view it isn't there," he said.

During the prosecution's case, crime scene analyst Michael Perkins testified that the blood stains were consistent with blood spatters from multiple gunshot wounds.

But Thornton said that the fact that there were several gunshots — at least four — did not change his opinion.

The bedroom reconstruction was admitted, over repeated objections by Owens, after testimony by witnesses who identified the set as being an accurate depiction of the actual room. The witnesses included Margaret Rudin's former maid and a retired police officer who investigated Peggy Rudin's suicide.