Testimony in Leslie Sharp’s murder trial Wednesday provided forensic details of the fatal injuries of Christopher Cole, the man Sharp says she shot in self-defense.
Nashville-based forensic pathologist Adele Lewis, formerly of the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office, performed the autopsy of Cole, whom Sharp shot and killed on Kelly Road on Nov. 10, 2008.
Cole had seven gunshot wounds to his body that caused injuries to his liver, right lung, intestine, ribs and major blood vessels, Lewis said. Cole also had internal bleeding into the right side of his chest.
Cole had five entrance wounds to the front of his chest near his collar bone and upper and lower parts of his back. Five bullets were recovered from Cole’s body, including two in the abdomen, one in the left thigh and one in the lower part of his back. Only two of the seven bullets that struck Cole entered and exited his body, one through the upper right arm and one through the right thigh.
Mississippi Bureau of Investigation crime scene analyst Melissa Clare Nethery reconstructed the crime scene the night of the shooting. Nethery showed the jury a supplemental sketch to photographs she took at the scene, which included the casings from Sharp’s 9 mm pistol and the vehicles of Cole and eyewitness Kayla Huffman. However, Nethery couldn’t fully reconstruct the scene and sequence of events because the body had been moved before she arrived.
Bryan McIntire, a forensic scientist with the Mississippi Crime Lab in Jackson, said the Clerke .32 revolver Cole was carrying that night didn’t work properly. Cole’s revolver had one spent shell casing and four live rounds with indentations from the gun’s hammer. During lab tests, McIntire said the weapon fired three of the 14 times it was tested in single-action and double-action modes. Additionally, the gun’s hammer would not lock in single-action mode and had to be manually held.
“Typically, we don’t have to manipulate many things about the firearm to get it to test-fire,” McIntire said.
As for the indentations on the remaining live rounds in the revolver, McIntire said the markings were similar, but there was no way to determine how many times the hammer struck each round. During cross-examination from defense attorney Mark Williamson, McIntire stated “it’s possible” for bullets to misfire when they come back around the cylinder. Additionally, McIntire said the indentations on the bullets he tested were the same size and orientation as those from Cole’s gun.
Following forensics testimony, the prosecution called lead investigator Freddie Pate of the MBI, who arrested Sharp the night after the murder. Pate conducted the initial interview with Sharp and transcribed it. He also transcribed the 911 recording. Pate acknowledged numerous transcription errors when cross-examined by defense attorney Jack Brown, but said any documentation he made wasn’t meant to replace anything from the original recordings.
Perhaps Pate’s most relevant piece of testimony came when Assistant District Attorney Rhonda Hayes-Ellis asked him, “If someone was walking away from you, would you consider it a threat?”
“No,” Pate replied, following an overruled objection from Brown, whose client maintains she acted in response to Cole firing and pointing a gun at her and three other women, who were in the car.
The prosecution rested its case shortly before 2 p.m.
The defense called five witnesses, including Cole’s friend, Joseph Turnipseed, who was with Cole before he was confronted on Kelly Road by Sharp, his girlfriend, Alissandra Inzuna and two other women, one of whom he was accused of also pursuing a relationship with. Of the five witnesses, only MBI Lt. Kenneth Bailey was involved with the investigation, and he only assisted at the crime scene.
Mississippi State University professor Dr. David Dampier, who retrieved text messages from four of the five cellular phones at the scene, testified about text messages he retrieved from the phones on Jan. 11, 2011. Some text messages were manually deleted and replaced with new messages, he said.
With two witnesses remaining, including Sharp, 16th District Circuit Court Judge Lee Howard recessed early in anticipation of lengthy testimony from the defendant.
Testimony is expected to conclude today.
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