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HD:Nicoles dying moments detailed: Coroner describes how killer slashed her
throat
CL:REENACTMENT: Los Angeles County Coroner Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran,
right, demonstrates stab wounds on murder victim Nicole Brown Simpson to
prosecutor Brian Kelberg during the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial in Los
Angeles on Wednesday. (AP photo
LOS ANGELES (AP -- Nicole Brown Simpson probably faced her killer for several
moments, hit her face on a wall in a struggle and died swiftly after her
throat was slashed, a coroner told O.J. Simpsons jurors Wednesday.
Using black-and-white drawings and color autopsy photographs, Dr. Lakshmanan
Sathyavagiswaran told grim-faced jurors that once Nicole Simpson was on the
ground, probably knocked senseless, her attacker could have turned his
attention to victim Ronald Goldman and then returned to cut Nicole Simpsons
throat.
Death, he said in a flat voice, came quickly once the final stab wound was
inflicted.
I would say she died within a few minutes, probably much less than a
minute, he said. She would have gone into rapid shock with this massive
injury.
Lakshmanans illustrated lecture on knife wounds and bleeding patterns was
censored by the judge, preventing Simpson, spectators and reporters from
seeing the autopsy pictures to which the witness referred.
The jurors, who saw the first of the photographs late Tuesday, appeared
composed, remarkably inured to the nightmarish quality of the display mounted
directly in front of them, which included life-size close-ups of Nicole
Simpsons gashed neck.
The panelists stared straight ahead, barely blinking as Lakshmanan used a
pointer to describe each of Nicole Simpsons wounds.
The judge warned them again that the pictures are upsetting and urged them to
ask for breaks if they felt uncomfortable. No requests were made.
Simpson sat flanked by two lawyers across the courtroom and behind the board
of pictures. He frequently gazed at the ceiling, rocked in his chair and
breathed deeply, particularly when the coroner began talking about Nicole
Simpsons bruised brain and samples taken of her tissue.
The former football star is charged with the June 12 murders outside Nicole
Simpsons condominium. He says he is the innocent victim of a frame-up.
Lakshmanan repeatedly commented on the issue of how long it took Nicole
Simpson to die, saying the brevity of the killing explained why there were few
defensive wounds on her hands.
She was probably rapidly incapacitated and wasnt able to offer much
resistance, he said.
Timing has been a focal point of the prosecution case, which suggests that
Simpson had adequate time to kill two people, rush to his home two miles away
and meet a limo waiting to take him to the airport.
For the second day in a row, prosecutor Brian Kelberg offered himself as a
model to show how Nicole Simpson was slain. Laksh-manan faced the prosecutor,
his hand clenched in a fist as if holding a knife, and showed how a killer
would have approached Nicole Simpson face to face.
He showed a photo of four slash marks on her neck. Three could each have been
fatal if untreated, he said, but the coup de grace was most likely a long
slash that severed one jugular vein and both carotid arteries.
Lakshmanan said Nicole Simp-son was on the ground with both hands on the
walkway when an assailant pulled up her head by the hair and cut her throat.
Because the cut started at the left side of her neck and curved up to her
right ear, it was almost certainly made by someone wielding a knife in the
right hand. Simpson is right-handed.
A right-handed person inflicts this injury -- at least, a person used his
right hand to inflict this injury, Lakshmanan said. The upward angle would
support this scenario.
The photos were shown only to jurors and attorneys after Superior Court Judge
Lance Ito turned aside First Amendment arguments for immediate media access.
In a stinging reply to media arguments, Ito said, The victims should be
allowed some final shred of dignity rather than having their earthly remains
publicly displayed in their savaged and pathetic state.
Ito, acknowledging he ruled the pictures essential to an understanding of
the issues regarding cause and manner of death, said he would allow
reporters to see the photos on Monday or after the coroners testimony ends,
whichever comes first.
The judge made clear he was allowing it only because the First Amendment
doesnt carve out exceptions for minimum standards of good taste (and
common decency.
(Published text ends here
Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. complained that the courtroom television
camera was trained unrelentingly on Simpson during the testimony. The judge
noted he had ordered the camera operator not to show the autopsy photos, so
courtroom participants would have to rely on the operators judgment of what
else to show.
The camera operator later stopped showing Simpson except for brief glimpses.
The judge scolded spectators he spotted leaning and craning their necks,
apparently trying to glimpse the photos and observe the jury.
I might add that I found distracting the contortions of some members of the
audience and, if it continues to be distracting, those persons will be asked
to leave the courtroom, the judge said.
He also expressed irritation with six audience members caught on videotape
chewing gum or eating but backed off his immediate threat to ban them
permanently from his courtroom.
He held one of them up to scrutiny by showing a surveillance videotape of her
chewing candy. The reporter, Kimberly Maroe of KCAL-TV, said also she was
summoned to Itos chambers and told not to do it again.
The coroners testimony was unusually detailed, with explanations of blood
flow patterns and the depth, width and length of each mark on the body.
Lakshmanan did not perform the autopsy on Ms. Simpson, and portions of his
testimony have been designed to head off expected defense attacks on the
competency of his deputy, Dr. Irwin Golden.
Lakshmanan has admitted that Golden made more than 30 mistakes in the Simpson
case but said none proved significant.
Before the jury entered, Kelberg tried to pre-empt a defense attack by seeking
to bar mention of three previous Golden autopsies in which bungling was
alleged.
The judge eliminated one because it was not clear who was in the wrong. He blocked a second, in which Golden threw away a
childs brain, because the alleged mistake did not affect the outcome of the case.
But he said the defense could explore one case in which Golden reported that an elderly man had a thyroid while the mans
widow said his thyroid had been removed years earlier. Ito said that matter involved thoroughness and was relevant.
In another development, Faye Resnick, author of a best-selling book about the Simpsons tumultuous relationship, was
subpoenaed to testify for the defense.
Her lawyer, Arthur Barens, said Resnick is scheduled to testify on or about July 3. She is going to be truthful, he
said.
Barens said it was speculation that Resnick would be asked about her admitted past cocaine use.
I dont know why the defense would think shed be helpful for their purpose except in another contorted version of the
facts, he said.
The prosecution, which repeatedly interviewed Ms. Resnick about her friendship with the Simpsons, dropped plans to call her
as a witness after publication of her book, Nicole Brown Simpson: The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted.
AP-WS-06-07-95 2014EDT
