Opinion ID: 2633199
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Thomas's ownership of a .44 magnum

Text: Gioia died from a gunshot to the face; Kniffin died from a gunshot to the neck. A firearms expert described the differing ballistic properties of .44 magnum handguns and rifles. Based on his examination of postmortem photographs of Gioia's wounds, he opined that the exit wound would be normal for a high-powered rifle or shotgun, but was inconsistent with any he had seen made by a handgun. The prosecution established that Thomas had acquired a Remington .44 magnum Model 788 rifle from Lenise Christy Allen, his girlfriend. The person from whom Allen acquired the Model 788 rifle, Martin Barbena, described its peculiarities. Barbena testified that the rifle had no clip, but could be fired by hand-loading each round into the chamber. The breech was recessed, so a user had to push each round fully into place or there was a chance of jamming. If a bullet were half in and half out, it would tend to simply hang; if it were out any more than that, it would fall through the space for the charge clip. On the basis of this testimony, the prosecutor argued that only a person familiar with that model rifle could have committed the murders and hence that Thomas, the owner of the rifle, was the killer. Thomas Medlin, a Rainbow Village resident, testified that Thomas still had his rifle the night before the murders; he saw Thomas firing it just before sunset on August 15.