Opinion ID: 147061
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The videotapes

Text: Dr. Charles Hirsch, Chief Medical Examiner for New York City, testified that prior to the onset of rigor mortis, a dead body is pliable. The body of a woman five feet three inches tall, weighing about one hundred ten pounds could be folded and tied into a package about thirty-six inches long. Hirsch also stated that a body could be disarticulated at the joints, a simple process that someone trained in anatomy could accomplish in ten minutes. There was evidence that Bierenbaum regularly carried heavy duffel bags. The jury also learned that a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, the airplane that Bierenbaum rented, is a stable, easy-to-handle four passenger aircraft. An inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration testified that in his opinion a pilot could singlehandedly dispose of something from the plane without a great deal of difficulty. Sergeant Matthew Rowley of the New York police department's Aviation Unit executed three flights in a Cessna 172 from Caldwell Airport on October 11, 2000, during the trial. Three times Rowley loaded a bag containing one hundred ten pounds of sand and rice into the plane, flew out over the ocean, and ejected the bag, each time performing a different maneuver to get the bag out of the plane. The performance was videotaped, and the jury was shown the tapes.