Opinion ID: 198913
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Ballistics Expert's Testimony

Text: 22 Hughes objects to the prosecution's statement to the jury that the ballistics expert's testimony, tells us, circumstantially, that the murder weapon was the Defendant's 9 mm Sig Sauer, the one he bought on September 30th of 1993 from D & L Shooting Supplies. Hughes contends: (1) that the ballistics expert did not identify the type of gun used in the murder; (2) that the bullets were as likely to have come from a.38 caliber as a 9 millimeter; (3) that there was no evidence that Hughes had a gun in Mexico; (4) that the presence of the cartridge casings at the murder scene was not tied to the bullets recovered from the body; and (5) that there was no proof that the bullets from the spent cartridge casings were fired where the cartridge casings were found or that they were fired from Hughes's 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol. 23 Hughes's objections disregard the nature of circumstantial evidence and reasonable inferences drawn therefrom. The ballistics expert testified that only one gun in the world could have produced the markings found on both the cartridge casings recovered at the scene of the crime and those found on Hughes's property in Rhode Island. As detailed above, this evidence permits the inference that the same 9 mm pistol that was used on Hughes's Rhode Island property was also used as the murder weapon, and that this gun was the Sig Sauer 9 mm pistol that Hughes purchased in September 1993. Moreover, as detailed below, the evidence suggests that the likely reason that Hughes drove from Laredo, Texas, to Mexico City just prior to McCarthy's arrival was to smuggle his pistol into Mexico.