Arias: Rebuttal April 25

Medical Examiner, Dr. Kevin Horn, was again questioned about the sequencing of the many wounds sustained by Travis Alexander.  Important points:

• As before, he testified the gunshot wound could not have been first in the series of injuries as Jodi Arias alleges.
• The gunshot wound would have been almost instantly incapacitating (within a few seconds).
• Blood evidence strewn from the master bedroom to the master bathroom [a distance of perhaps twenty feet] along with the presence of defensive wounds on Travis Alexander's hands and arms show that the attack had to have taken some length of time and that he would have had to have been conscious and ambulatory for most of it in order to try to defend himself.
• He continues to assert the bullet had to have passed through the right frontal lobe of the brain even though he was unable to see a wound track through the brain due to decomposition.
• Horn still does not recall having any conversation with Det. Esteban Flores subsequent to the day of the autopsy.  [Flores admits he misspoke during a pretrial hearing when he said that the gunshot wound came first according to Dr. Horn.]

Cross examination by defense attorney Jennifer Willmott was aggressive and largely pointless in nature, rehashing territory she'd cross examined on during the state's case in chief.  She was unable to illicit the answers she sought:

• that the gunshot wound could have come first;
• that Horn told Flores the gunshot wound came first;
• that Horn lied when he said he took slices of Alexander's brain after having previously described the brain as being liquified; he clarified that the brain was the consistency of pudding and not completely liquified;
• that if he couldn't see a bullet track through the brain, he couldn't possibly be certain the brain had been injured [he insisted he was certain the brain was injured based on simple geometry from the entry wound to the position of the bullet where it lodged in the sinus cavity].

On follow up to jury questions, Juan Martinez inquired whether it would have been possible for Alexander to get up off the floor following the gunshot wound [as Arias alleged].  Horn indicated he does not believe that would have been possible.

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Juror #8 has been excused (no reason given).

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The state rests so it appears the defense has been granted a surrebuttal to take place on May 1.