Medical examiner testifies in Palatine double-murder trial
A Cook County assistant medical examiner testified Friday he could not say conclusively which of the three bullets fired into the chest of Luis Reynoso claimed the life of the Palatine teen.
However, Dr. Steven White did indicate that one of the bullets entered the 15-year-old's chest to the left of center on a downward trajectory, striking his heart and lung and exiting his back.
"The gun was held near or up against the skin," testified White, who described the proximity of the gun to the victim's torso as "contact range" as evidenced by soot and gunpowder residue on Reynoso's body.
Prosecutors say Marco Lopez, 19, killed Luis Reynoso and his father, Segundo Reynoso, 36, early on March 19, 2014, in the family's apartment on the 1900 block of North Green Lane.
They say Lopez - a member of a Chicago gang who lived with the Reynoso family after his own family kicked him out because of his gang involvement - killed fellow gang member Luis because he believed Luis had snitched to police about a series of burglaries they committed.
Authorities say Segundo Reynoso was not a gang member.
Defense attorneys say Lopez is innocent. They say another man, a member of a rival gang, shot the father and son because the man believed Luis had initiated his teenage son into Luis' gang.
White described the victims' injuries to jurors during the fourth day of testimony in Lopez's trial. Luis Reynoso was struck three times in the chest. One bullet entered his right side, striking his lung and liver. Another entered his side and exited his upper arm, White said.
Segundo Reynoso suffered a single gunshot wound above his right eye. The bullet traveled downward through his mouth and into his neck, where it struck his carotid artery and jugular vein before lodging in his upper chest. Segundo Reynoso managed to stagger to a neighbor's apartment before he collapsed in the hall.
White testified the downward trajectory of the bullets suggested the victims could have been crouching or bent over. Under cross examination, he also testified the shooter could have been taller than the victims, whose height ranged from 5'7" to 5'9".
A witness identified Lopez leaving the apartment building shortly after the gunshots erupted about 12:20 a.m.. Two brothers, in statements to police hours after the shootings, said Lopez was with them in their apartment about a mile from the Reynosos' home the night of March 18, 2014. They told police Lopez told them he had to handle something. Police say the brothers, who are fellow gang members, told them Lopez took a revolver, left the apartment about 11:30 p.m. and returned about an hour later "huffing and puffing."
On Wednesday, the brothers testified they made up those initial statements after detectives threatened to deport their parents. Palatine detective and juvenile officer Charles Murphy Carrollo and lead detective Martin McCarthy testified they interviewed the brothers, whom they considered witnesses, and that no officers made threats.
McCarthy testified he told the teens, "We need to be serious, we need to be honest."
The defense presents its case beginning Tuesday in Rolling Meadows.