“Picture boy trial” continues ….Defence calls last witness

Nov 01, 2011 News

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Dr. Dalgleish Joseph testified yesterday on behalf of the Defence as the murder trial of Cyon Collier called ‘Picture Boy’ continued before Justice Winston Patterson.
Collier is accused of killing Non Pareil Businessman, Chandrapaul Persaud, called “Kero man on September 30, 2006.
The witness, questioned by Defence Counsel Lyndon Amsterdam about his qualifications/ training, said that he graduated from the University of Havana with a specialist degree in General Surgery in 1988 but he had qualified as a Medical doctor since 1982 and was employed at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
He is currently in private practice and is also a Fellow of the Caribbean College of Surgeons.
Following the tendering of Dr. Joseph’s certificates before the court, Amsterdam made an application for the doctor to be deemed an expert in General Medicine and Surgery. This application was granted since State Prosecutor Judith Gildharie-Mursalin had no objections.
In his evidence-in-chief, Dr. Joseph explained that in his years in practice, he has seen and performed and managed surgical procedures and conditions on some 500 patients with gunshot injuries.
These patients fall into two categories — surgical and non-surgical emergency conditions.
Dr. Joseph testified that his training involved dealing with penetrating and non-penetrating traumas and explained that penetrating traumas include gunshots, stab wounds, chops with cutlasses etc.
In his 22-year career, the witness told the court that he was trained and has studied the identification of injuries caused by bullets, knives and standard operational procedure involves a taking of a history in which it is sought to determine the source of the injury.
It was explained that he meant whether it was caused by a handgun, if so, what type. Another important element, he said, was if any first aid assistance was granted and the relative time lapse between the injury and the arrival at the hospital.

Gunshots are classified as fatal and non-fatal. Fatal gunshot injuries are usually a direct result of vital organs or structures being hit.
He described vital organs as the brain, the heart and the lungs. He also explained that a gunshot injury to the lung, either the right or left one, would cause injury to the chest wall resulting in bleeding, and also the collapse of the wall of the lung ultimately resulting in coronary and respiratory impairment.
He was asked by Amsterdam whether he has dealt with persons who sustained multiple gunshots and lived. He answered in the affirmative.
He was also asked whether as far as his training goes, multiple gunshot injuries are ever a cause of death. He answered in the negative.
The cause of death on the post mortem report was multiple gunshot injuries. The defence was challenging the findings of the pathologist.
He went on to explain that because gunshot wounds are classified as lethal and non-lethal for those persons in medicine and surgery, they never deal with the diagnosis of multiple gunshot wounds but rather the injuries sustained. He explained that they deal with the living.
Dr. Joseph also explained that with gunshot injuries where vital organs are injured, death is caused by exsanguinations (bleeding out) and that is the reason a diagnosis of multiple gunshot injuries is not given as a cause of death because the injuries may not necessarily involve vital organs.
He was also questioned about the type of bones in the body and he explained from the elbow to the wrist, there are long bones.
Asked to explain what the effect would be if a person were to be shot with an AK 47 assault rifle from a distance of six to eight feet from the shooter, Dr. Joseph said injuries are not only dependent on the distance but also on the size of the weapon, the weight of the bullet and the velocity or force.
He said an AK 47 is considered a high velocity rifle. The injuries would be dependent on whether vital organs are penetrated.
The question was repeated by defence counsel and Dr. Joseph then said that there will be the trauma of penetration of the skin, tissue, muscle and possibly the bone if the bone is in the trajectory of the bullet.
If the bone is not in the trajectory, there will be an entrance and an exit wound as in the case of the arm.
If the bone is in the trajectory, direct frontal contact should cause a fracture of the bone with the possibility of the bullet moving in another direction.
Asked about the possibility of the bullet remaining in the arm of the person shot, Dr. Joseph said the likely possibility was that the person was moving.
When cross-examined by Gildharie-Mursalin, Dr. Joseph admitted that the bullet being lodged in the shot person’s arm would be consistent with that person running away from the shooter with the AK 47.
He was asked by the Prosecutor that since he had mentioned that the AK 47 was a high velocity weapon whether he could tell the court what its velocity was.
The witness was reluctant to answer and said to the prosecutor when asked the question again, “You tell me.”
Justice Patterson had to instruct Dr. Joseph that the Prosecutor was not attacking him but was simply doing her job as representative of the State and that he must answer the question. Dr. Joseph then said, “I do not know.”
He was then asked to say how many patients he had seen in his 20-odd years of experience as a surgeon who had sustained gunshot injuries from AK-47 assault rifles. The doctor explained that he saw one man in 2007 where a bullet had passed through his body and the man claimed that he was shot by such a weapon.
The Prosecutor then asked Dr. Joseph whether in all his years as a surgeon he had seen only one such patient.
The Doctor again was reluctant to reply and then said, “No. That was the last one.” Pressed to give an answer as to how many, he said he did not have all the figures in his head and therefore, could not say.
He was also asked about what was the most common type of gunshot injuries he had seen and he said he had removed bullets such as .22, .32, .38 and 9MM from injured persons. The prosecutor then asked him since he knew all about AK-47s and the injuries they cause, what type of ammunition such a weapon uses. Dr. Joseph again said, “You tell me” causing the Judge to intervene and explain that he had to answer.
The Prosecutor told Justice Patterson that the doctor was put up by the defence as an expert witness and therefore ought to be neutral and answer questions as objectively as possible.
Reluctantly, Dr. Joseph then said he did not know what bullet an AK 47 uses.
Asked whether part of his studies involved ballistics and whether he was a ballistics expert, the doctor said no to both.
He was then asked whether he was a Forensic Pathologist and he said no. He was also asked whether he would have had to see and examine a particular body on which an autopsy was done before he can challenge the findings of the pathologist who did so. He said not necessarily, that any surgeon can challenge the findings of a Pathologist since those findings had to be in correlation to the clinical antecedents.
Gildharie-Mursalin then asked what if there are no clinical antecedents to which the doctor responded that there must be such correlation.
The Prosecutor then asked the doctor if the AK 47 bullet enters the arm, hits the bone, ricochets and enters the body, punctures two vital organs, the lung and aorta and then lodges in the other arm, what would he say would be the cause of death since he said multiple gunshot injuries could not be a cause of death.
The doctor said, “I did not do the post mortem.”
The Prosecutor said, “No. You did not. But you are making pronouncements on ballistics and challenging the cause of death so please answer my question.”
Dr. Joseph then said the cause of death in such a scenario would be exsanguinations which would lead to bleeding in the chest and since the vital organs are injured, this would lead to coronary and respiratory collapse.
Gildharie-Mursalin then asked, “Please tell us, Dr. Joseph, what would have been the primary cause of the exsanguinations and all that you describe as occurring in the chest and vital organs?” Dr. Joseph’s response was, “The gunshot injuries,” to which Gildharie-Mursalin said, “Thank you very much Dr. Joseph” and indicated she had no further questions for the doctor.
The Defence closed its case following this testimony and the trial continues today when addresses to the jury are expected to get underway.
Last week Collier after, a no case submission was overruled had to lead his defence and told the court that he was in Linden at the time of the killing.
He told the court that he was innocent of the charge and that he never robbed anyone at Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara.
Ballistics  Expert Sergeant Eon Jackson Corporal Floyd Hosanna, Sergeant Chabinauth Singh, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Michael Kingston corporal Cleveland Brown ,Sergeant Chabinauth Singh, Zaheem Isshack, retired Police Inspector William Pitt, the victim’s wife Bibi Isshack and the couple’s neighbour, Liloutie Dhanai, have all given evidence in the matter.

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