“You wish to cross-examine further?” Dexter asked.
“No further questions,” Mason said.
“I will call Dr. Phillip C. Foley,” Dexter said.
Foley came forward, was sworn, and identified himself as an autopsy surgeon in the office of the county coroner.
“I will stipulate Dr. Foley’s professional qualifications, subject to the right of cross-examination,” Mason said. “I wish it understood, however, that I am not stipulating to his qualifications as such, only to a prima facie showing, and I have a right to cross-examine as to those qualifications.”
“Very well,” Judge Madison said. “Go ahead with your questions, Mr. Prosecutor.”
“I am referring to the body identified as that of Collin Max Durant, Number three, six, seven, four W in the records of the coroner’s office.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Who performed the autopsy on that body?”
“I did.”
“When was it performed?”
“At approximately two o’clock on the afternoon of the fourteenth.”
“When did you first see the body?”
“At ten o’clock in the morning. Actually it was just a few minutes past ten. I would say three or four minutes past ten. It wasn’t as much as five minutes past ten.”
“In your opinion, Doctor, how long had the body been dead at the time you examined it? Or, I’ll put it another way: When had death occurred?”
“I would say death took place between seven-forty and eight-twenty on the night of the thirteenth.”
“Did you determine the cause of death?”
“Yes, sir. There were three bullet wounds. One of them might eventually have proven fatal. The other two would have proven almost instantly fatal. The bullet wound which I believe was the first wound inflicted was one which penetrated the spine at the fourth cervical. The other bullet, which I believe would have proven almost instantly fatal, penetrated the ascending aorta. The other bullet entered the lung. All three shots were fired from the back.”
“Did you recover any of the bullets?”
“I recovered all three of the bullets.”
“And what was done with those bullets?”
“I turned them over to the ballistics department for possible identification, after first labeling them so I could identify them.”
“Cross-examine.”
“The phenomenon of rigor mortis is a variable, is it not?” Mason asked.
“It is.”
“There have been instances of troops slain in the heat of combat under circumstances of excitement and where the temperature has been high and rigor mortis has developed almost instantly?”
“I believe that is right. I have never seen that myself but I believe it is an accepted medical fact.”
“And there are circumstances under which rigor mortis is very slow in its onset?”
“Yes, sir.”
“It begins with the jaws and neck muscles and gradually works down through the body?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And when it leaves, does it leave in the same way?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, post-mortem lividity is also a variable, is it not?”
“Well, yes.”
“That is a phenomenon in which the forces of gravitation and those of blood deterioration or coagulation combine?”
“In a way, yes. I believe you might call it that.”
“Blood settles into the lower vessels, except where those vessels are shut off due to pressure?”
“Yes, sir.”
“The pattern is quite uniform. It follows a general pattern?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And once it has developed it does not change unless the body is moved?”
“That is right.”
“So that an autopsy expert could only tell very, very generally what time death occurred from post-mortem lividity?”
“I would say so, yes.”
“And rigor mortis is also such a variable that you can only tell very generally when death took place?”
“Yes.”
“Now in regard to body temperature, Doctor, what can you say about that?”
“Well, the body loses temperature at a uniform rate.”
“Depending, however, on the temperature of the room?”
“Yes, sir.”
“The temperature of the body at the time of death?”
“We always assume a normal temperature at the time of death in case of this sort.”
“But you don’t know that it exists? That’s only an assumption?”
“Well, yes.”
“And the rate of loss of temperature depends on the clothing?”
“Yes, to a very large extent.”
“You didn’t know the temperature of the room in which the body remained until removed by the police?”
“It was seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit.”
“You went to the room?”
“Yes,”
“And did what?”
“I used the newest method of ascertaining the time of death by the Lushbaugh method. By using this method incorporating an electrical direct reading thermometer with a thermistor in a plasticized probe, I was able to determine the precise rate at which body temperature was decreasing.
“This method enables one to ascertain the time of death to within thirty to forty minutes.
“I used this so-called ‘death thermometer’ method in this case. The result agreed with all the other physical evidence I was able to evaluate and pinpointed the time of death.”
“You fix the earliest time of death as seven-forty?”
“Using this method, yes.”
“And the latest time as eight-twenty?”
“Yes.”
“Could death have occurred at seven-thirty-nine?”
“That’s quibbling.”
“It could have been seven-thirty-nine?”
“Perhaps.”
“It could have been seven-thirty-eight?”
“Well, I’ll put it this way, Mr. Mason. I fixed those time limits as the extreme limits under this test. The probable time of death was midway in that period, again under this test.”
“That’s all,” Mason said.
“Call Matilda Pender,” Dexter said.
Matilda Pender, a rather attractive woman in her early thirties, was sworn, testified that she was a ticket seller at the bus depot, that she had seen Maxine Lindsay on the night of the thirteenth, that she had noticed her particularly because the girl seemed distraught and excited.
“During what time intervals did you observe her?” Dexter asked.
“Approximately between eight o’clock and eight-twenty.”
“What was she doing?”
“Standing by a telephone booth.”
“Now, did you see her before that?”
“No, sir.”
“Cross-examine,” Dexter said.
“She could have been there prior to eight o’clock without your seeing her?” Mason asked.
“I noticed her because she was nervous.”
“Exactly,” Mason said. “If she hadn’t been nervous you wouldn’t have noticed her. In other words, there was nothing other than nervousness to differentiate her from the hundreds of other persons who pass through that bus depot in the course of a day.”
“Well, I noticed her because she was nervous.”
“I am asking you,” Mason said, “if that was the reason you noticed her.”
“I have told you. Yes.”
“And if she hadn’t been nervous, you wouldn’t have noticed her.”
“No.”
“Then if she had been there prior to eight o’clock but hadn’t been nervous, you wouldn’t have noticed her.”
“I suppose not, no.”
“She could have been there from six o’clock and if she hadn’t been nervous you wouldn’t have noticed her.”