Opinion ID: 3159836
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The prosecution’s evidence of the homicides

Text: In October and November 1998, Kevin Neal and Jason Tipton lived in an apartment below defendant‟s unit. The three men often spent weekends together having barbeques, drinking, smoking, and playing dominoes. After Clari left with the children, defendant told Tipton how upset and angry he was that Clari had taken his son and that he did not know where they were.3 Defendant told Tipton that he wanted to go to his mother-in-law and put a gun to her head to find out where Clari had taken his son. Tipton heard defendant say that he should “bust a cap in [Bruni‟s] ass” and that he “should just put a gun to her head and tell her to call my wife.” He said that he felt like “doing something to Clari‟s mom to get [his] son back.” At other times, he said he wanted to “fuck up” Clari‟s mother. Defendant showed Tipton the shotgun that he owned and the ammunition inside it. Defendant also told Neal how upset he was that his wife had taken his son away. Defendant called Bruni a “bitch” and was angry because she would not tell him where his wife and children were. Neal heard defendant say he wanted to confront Bruni to find out where his family was. Like Tipton, Neal had seen defendant‟s shotgun at defendant‟s apartment. On the evening of November 9, 1998, defendant, Tipton and Neal were playing dominoes and watching football. They were all drinking and smoking marijuana. Defendant seemed a little high, but not very drunk. After the football game ended, defendant, wearing a long dark Raider‟s jacket, left Tipton‟s apartment with a friend. The friend drove defendant to Bruni‟s house. 3 Tipton died in an accident before defendant‟s trial began. The trial court permitted his preliminary hearing testimony to be read to the jury. 7 Sarah Phipps, who lived with her parents and brother Steve next door to Bruni, recalled hearing Bruni‟s dog barking around 10:30 or 10:45 p.m. on November 9, 1998. The dog barked only a couple of times, stopping relatively quickly, as it usually did if it knew the person who came to the door. She estimated that it was between two and five minutes from when the dog stopped barking to when she heard three loud bangs in quick succession, followed by another loud bang. Another neighbor of Bruni‟s, Adrian Valdez, also heard two sets of loud banging noises around the same time that night. He went outside to investigate and saw a man wearing a long coat standing across the street at Bruni‟s house. The man started walking toward Valdez‟s house, noticed Valdez, waved and then mumbled something to him. The man continued to cross the street, went up onto the sidewalk and walked away from Valdez. When an alarm sounded from the direction of Bruni‟s house, the man started to run. The coat he was wearing flared and Valdez noticed that the man was carrying an object that looked like a rifle. Bruni‟s son Ritchie had gone out with Steve Phipps that night to watch the televised football game at a bar. After the game, Ritchie called Bruni to ask her to come pick him up. Bruni agreed to do so, but never arrived. Ritchie called home several times; one time defendant answered the phone. Ritchie and Steve ended up taking a taxi to Ritchie‟s home. When they arrived at the house around 11:00 p.m., the front door to Bruni‟s home was open about an inch and there were some clothes in the driveway. While Steve went to get some money at his house to pay the cab driver, Ritchie opened the door to his home and saw his mother lying on the floor “with her face blown off.” He hugged her. Then he ran upstairs where he saw his brother David lying dead. Ritchie screamed, hugged his brother, and managed to call 911. 8 The police arrived soon after Ritchie‟s call to 911. The first officer to arrive saw that Ritchie was hysterical and covered in blood and fleshy matter. Several officers tried to calm Ritchie down. Inside Bruni‟s house, the police encountered a “gruesome” homicide scene; blood, brain matter, and tissue were on the floor, ceiling, and walls. Bruni and David were shot dead. Several shell casings were found by Bruni‟s feet. Two shotgun slugs were found upstairs in David‟s room, which was also bloody. The door to David‟s bedroom showed damage consistent with it having been kicked. A pair of burgundy pants found in the driveway matched a burgundy top found in a laundry basket located inside the entryway. Clari later recognized the clothes in the laundry basket as belonging to her and defendant. She recognized the basket as one that defendant had previously used to conceal two guns that he brought into their apartment. Dr. Daniel Garber, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsies of Bruni and David, testified that Bruni suffered three gunshot wounds; one to her right shoulder, one to her chest, and one to her head. The shot to her head was consistent with the shotgun being placed in or close to her mouth. The shots were fired in rapid succession, but the head wound was probably the final shot as it resulted in the massive destruction of Bruni‟s head, leaving only her chin and jaw. One of Bruni‟s thumbs was severed and her other thumb was almost severed. These wounds were consistent with Bruni putting up her hands to protect herself. The cause of Bruni‟s death was multiple gunshot wounds. Dr. Garber testified that David suffered two different shotgun wounds, one to the chest and one to his left arm. The shotgun barrel would have been within a foot of David when it was fired and the wounds were consistent with David raising his arm to defend himself. The gunshot wound to David‟s chest was the cause of his death. 9 Police located a shotgun with a live round in the magazine and some shell casings in a bush along a trail that defendant was known to use as a shortcut between his apartment and Bruni‟s house. The expended shotgun shells recovered from inside the house came from the shotgun that was found and the recovered slugs probably came from that gun. In the same area, police found cigarette butts and packs consistent with the brand defendant smoked. Police also found several boot prints. According to a criminalist, the left boot recovered from defendant‟s apartment “probably” made one of the impressions and the right boot recovered “could have” made one of the other impressions. After defendant was arrested, police collected the clothing he had been wearing the night Bruni and David were killed. A tracking dog was allowed to sniff the shorts that defendant had been wearing. The dog traced defendant‟s scent up to the front door of Bruni‟s house, then along a route matching that of the man Valdez had seen that night, and onto the trail that defendant used as a shortcut. The dog stopped several times in locations where evidence had been found, including the bush under which the shotgun had been found. Defendant‟s pants, shorts, and swabs taken from his leg and the recovered shotgun tested positive for human blood. A prosecution DNA expert testified that Bruni‟s DNA profile was an included source for the bloodstains found on defendant‟s pants, with defendant and David excluded as possible sources. Another criminalist, using a more current DNA testing method, testified that the stains on defendant‟s pants matched Bruni‟s DNA.