After Anna(77)

‘What is the basis for your expert medical opinion?’

‘My examination and expertise tells me that the pressure applied to the throat sufficient to cause death would have been in the range of strength possessed by most adult men.’

‘Would you place the defendant in that range?’

‘Yes.’

‘What, if anything, could you determine about the perpetrator’s hands from the bruising on Anna’s neck?’

‘I was able to rule out people with larger or smaller hands. The size of the hand that caused the bruising was average, and there were no distinctive fingermarks that would identify it, so the majority of the adult male population would match it.’

‘Again, would you consider the defendant’s hands to be within the average range?’

‘Yes.’

‘Thank you, I have no further questions.’ Linda faced Judge Gardner, who turned to Thomas.

‘Cross-examination, Mr Owusu?’

‘Yes, thank you, Your Honor.’ Thomas rose and strode toward the witness stand. ‘Ms Swain-Pettit, I won’t be needing the autopsy photo.’

‘Whoops, I forgot.’ Linda motioned to her paralegal, though Noah didn’t believe for a minute that she’d left it up by accident.

Thomas stopped in front of the witness stand. ‘Dr Kapoor, you testified that your office performs about 220 autopsies per year. How many of those have been on homicide victims?’

‘Probably ten.’

‘Ten total?’ Thomas lifted an eyebrow.

‘Yes.’

‘And you aren’t the only assistant coroner who performs autopsies, are you?’

‘No.’

‘How many others are there?’

‘It varies, two or three.’

‘How many homicides generally occur in Montgomery County, per year?’

‘It varies between three and five. Except last year, we had eleven.’

‘So in fact, the overwhelming amount of your experience is not on homicide victims, isn’t that correct?’

‘Yes.’ Dr Kapoor frowned.

‘And even so, how many of those homicides were by manual strangulation?’

‘I’d have to think about that. Most are by gun or knife.’

‘Would you say less than five are by manual strangulation?’

‘Yes.’

‘Would you say less than three are by manual strangulation?’

‘Yes.’

Thomas stood taller, and Noah could read his mind. He had hit paydirt. ‘Dr Kapoor, how many autopsies have you personally performed on victims where you found the cause and manner of death as homicide by strangulation?’

‘One.’

Thomas allowed himself a theatrical frown. ‘So the opinions you gave during your testimony regarding what you expected to find in a manual strangulation were not based on your actual experience, isn’t that correct?’

‘Yes.’ Dr Kapoor pursed her lips unhappily.

‘And, you testified that in your opinion, whoever killed the victim by strangulation was most likely an adult male, isn’t that what you said?’

‘Yes.’

‘Isn’t it true that you have no idea of the age of that male?’

‘Yes.’ Dr Kapoor pressed her glasses higher on her nose with an unpolished fingernail.

‘The killer could also have been any size or weight, could he not?’

‘Yes.’

‘Furthermore, the killer could have been a very fit woman, couldn’t she?’

‘Yes.’

‘In fact, you can’t tell from the bruising whether the murder was committed by a man or a woman, can you?’

‘No.’

‘Dr Kapoor, isn’t the most you can say for certain is that Anna was strangled by a person who was strong enough to strangle her with their bare hands?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you testified, did you not, that you could not determine the size of the killer’s hands by the bruises on Anna’s neck, isn’t that true?’

‘Yes.’

‘The most you could say for certain is that the hand was average in size, isn’t that correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘What is the average hand size for men?’

‘Between six and eight inches.’

‘I would assume that women’s hand sizes are generally smaller than men’s, isn’t that correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘And isn’t there an overlap between hand sizes for men and women?’

‘Yes.’

‘So in fact, you could not say for certain whether the hands of the killer belonged to a man or woman, isn’t that correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘Dr Kapoor, you also testified that there were no fingernail marks from the victim found on the defendant, isn’t that correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you further testified that because there were no fingernail marks on the defendant, you concluded that either the victim’s fingernails were too short to make a mark or that the defendant was wearing gloves, isn’t that correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘But isn’t it possible that there were no fingernail marks on the defendant because he did not commit the murder in question?’