Opinion ID: 1171490
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Defendant's ownership of .44 magnum rifle.

Text: On August 14, 1985, Lenise Allen, defendant's girlfriend, traded a Remington .44 magnum Model 788 rifle, serial number 041747, to defendant after he repaid a debt he had owed her. She had acquired the rifle in April 1985 from Martin Barbena. Martin Barbena described the peculiarities of the Model 788 rifle. On the basis of Barbena's testimony, the prosecutor argued that only a person familiar with that model rifle could have committed the murders, hence that defendant, the owner of the rifle, was the killer. Barbena testified that the rifle had no clip, but could be fired by handloading 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, Barbena testified, it would tend to simply hang; if it were out any more than that, it would fall out through the space for the charge clip. Defendant kept the rifle in a leather case either in the luggage rack on top of his car or behind the car's bucket seats. He stored ammunition in a Tupperware container which he kept inside the car. David Bergman, a Rainbow Village resident, testified that about a month before the murders he saw defendant using the rifle for target practice at a dump site near the village.