Menendez brothers on trial: Jury sees dozens of gruesome photos

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(Court TV) -- Developments in the retrial of Lyle and Erik Menendez from November 6-10, 1995

NOVEMBER 6
The jury was shown dozens of gruesome photographs of the shotgunned bodies of Jose and Kitty Menendez, as prosecutors began the final phase of their case.

Prosecutor David Conn called private pathologist Robert D. Lawrence to the witness stand instead of Los Angeles County Deputy Coroner Irwin Golden who performed the autopsies and testified during the brothers' first trial.

Lawrence's testimony is key to the prosecution's new theory of the crime scene. The state contends Lyle and Erik Menendez executed their parents and then shot them in the legs to make the killings look like an organized crime hit.

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Lawrence used wooden mannequins pierced with metal rods to demonstrate his conclusions about the angles of the shotgun blasts. He testified that Jose Menendez was struck four times, while Kitty Menendez was hit with nine shotgun blasts. The couple, he said, were shot in the head and extremities but suffered no wounds to their torsos.

Lawrence also told the jury that Jose Menendez was seated on the sofa when he was shot, and that a shotgun wound to the thigh was inflicted after Menendez had died. The fatal shot, he said, was fired at point-blank range into the back of Jose Menendez's head.

Most of the shots to Kitty Menendez occurred when she was lying on the floor, and some shots to her arms, hand and shoulder indicate she may have been cowering, Lawrence said.

During the first trial, Golden testified that Jose Menendez was struck six times and Kitty Menendez 10 times. Golden also said he could not determine how many shots were fired or the sequence of the shots.

NOVEMBER 7Defense attorney Leslie Abramson showed to jurors a blood-caked, short-sleeved shirt worn by Jose Menendez when he was killed. During cross-examination, Abramson suggested to pathologist Dr. Robert Lawrence, who testified for the prosecution, that blood patterns on the shirt indicate that the shots might not have been fired in the direction that the prosecution claims.

NOVEMBER 8
The prosecution's star witness took the stand in an attempt to show jurors that the brothers caught their parents by surprise as they sat in front of a television. Using high-tech illustrations and bloody autopsy photos, Roger McCarthy of Failure Analysis Associates reconstructed the August 20, 1989, slayings shot by shot.

NOVEMBER 9
Prosecutors presented computer-generated illustrations of the killings in an effort to show that Erik and Lyle Menendez planned the deaths of their parents.

Roger McCarthy of Failure Analysis Associates testified that Jose and Kitty Menendez were sitting side-by-side on a sofa in the den when they were attacked, and that the brothers aimed "kneecapping" shots at their parents to make the killings look like a Mafia hit.

"This does not appear to be a random shooting in the dark, but a very focused shooting with an intent to kneecap to make it look like a Mafia killing," said Deputy District Attorney David Conn.

McCarthy's testimony contradicted the findings of Dr. Irwin Golden, the coroner who performed the autopsies on Jose and Kitty Menendez. During the first trial, Golden testified that he could not determine how many shots were fired or the sequence of the shots.

The brothers maintain their parents were standing when the shooting began.

"I remember what I realized was my dad at some point sort of coming forward in my direction," Lyle Menendez testified. "And I remember firing at him, I believe he fell back."

NOVEMBER 10The court was in recess for Veterans Day. E-mail to a friend