Posted on 05/02/2016 2:25:05 PM PDT by Chasaway
I need some general firearms/ballistics information.
I'm working on a criminal defense case. The defendant is accused by the state of shooting his girlfriend in the back of the head with an AR-15 at 10 feet...using a .223 round.
The defendant is a real scumbag and knows he's going to the pen over this. BUT, he claims he accidentally discharged the gun, it caromed off of a linoleum-covered concrete floor and then struck her. It all occurred in a very small kitchen.
My working hypothesis is that this WAS an accidental shooting and that the bullet DID ricochet off of the floor. That means that the defendant couldn't have MEANT to shoot her, because there is no way to accurately predict, ad hoc, the performance of a bullet after caroming off of a concrete floor.
Also, if he HAD shot her directly from 10 feet, I wouldn't expect the round to fragment and stay in her brain pan and I would expect to see some other residue from the round on her clothes or in her hair, etc.
Right...
But is this low-life d***head liable to have that or is he more likely to have normal, laying around ammo?
You are publicly calling your client a scumbag and low-life dickhead?
Just surrender your law license now.
You’re right and that’s my point.
I do have pictures. The linoleum has DEFINITELY been punched. And it is fresh...new...no one has walked over it.
My point is EXACTLY that if the floor was shot, he didn’t mean to shoot her.
Very steep, in a room that size. Seems the muzzle would have to be pointed at the floor to achieve the deflection angle necessary.
You need to talk to a subject area expert.
Suggest you contact the NRA (National Rifle Association) to ask them for a referral to someone who would know who you should talk to.
btw,.223 ammo is considered less powerful than the military 5.56mm ammo. Some manufacturers of .223’s will warn against using 5.56mm ammo in a rifle chambered for .223.
This sounds like a fun case to play around with, but if you don’t get an actual expert your client is screwed.
Say more about that.
It is my contention that the bullet ricocheted off the floor.
What I want to know (to ask the ME) is what evidence points to an aimed shot at 10 feet?
I don’t think they have any, but juries need convincing. I want to show how it COULDN’T have happened...or that there’s no evidence showing it happened as they say.
He’s a private eye.
They don’t need a license, just a decoder ring.
See, I disagree.
The evidence presented is against them.
There is no evidence of a direct shot at 10 feet. There is only evidence of “a” shot that killed her. The ricochet hypothesis best explains all of it.
And that would let my client's client out of a murder charge.
Your client is screwed. Anyone that think THIS nonsense is the angle to attack (no pun intended) is an idiot.
Disagree.
I do this a lot. The jury will be a bunch of country folks who know guns and shoot a LOT of deer.
Nobody I know would shoot a deer at 10 feet with a .223 FMJ and expect the bullet would stay in the animal...headshot or no.
But thanks for your input.
There should be no question about the ammo used.
What kind of ammo was in the magazine, and what kind of ammo was chambered? If it is .223 FMJ, there is almost no way a round could be shot into somebody’s head at 10 feet and not go thru and hit something else directly in line with the trajectory (and probably go thru a wall of a kitchen). Most shooting ranges don’t allow FMJ rounds for AR calibers because of their tendency to penetrate and pass through backstop materials.
I’m not a lawyer, dude.
I’m a private investigator. My client is a lawyer.
And HE told me the client was a low-pants wearing, low-rent, unintelligible felon.
But you’re Laz. You’re free to jump to conclusions.
I can’t picture a direct shot at 10 feet leaving a slug in her head. Sounds like a guy that oughta do time for manslaughter, though.
The 223 bullet is very likely to tumble after hitting a linoleum floor over concrete. If there is a clean entry into the skull and not “keyhold” it probably did not hit the floor but came straight out of the barrel into her skull.
Any further speculation is useless without knowing the exact bullet type, barrel length and grains. Far to many variables to analyze properly.
p.s. It is hard to imagine a .223 round (with what? maybe a 2,800 fps muzzle velocity) remaining inside the head if shot directly, barring the bullet being something like a Glazer Safety slug type round...which very few .223’s are....fmj most commonly.
A ricochet where the initial impact is the floor and the person is 2ndary impact, is more likely. You might read how Israel used low power (subsonic) .22 rimfire rounds in govt usage for wet work, in suppressed .22rf pistols, for reason of quiet and for head shots, the round stayed inside the skull.
.223 bullets mostly are sharply pointed penetrators of small frontal area which allows greater penetration travel, due to less resistance than an equivalent ft/lbs M.E. bullet of larger caliber would have.
Laz...
Where do you get off?
You don’t know anything about this case. You don’t know who it is. You don’t know who I am. You don’t even know what I do for a living.
And brother, if you ever needed my help, you’d want someone like me doing EXACTLY what I’m doing to help you.
But you’re a long-time poster here. So you must be smarter and more advised than anyone else in my field.
Jerk. Go find someone to “hit”.
The recommendation against using 5.56mm in a rifle chambered for .223 has to do with different headspace, not intrinsic power of the round.
The 5.56mm is slightly longer and when fired in a .223 rifle the bolt may not fully lock.
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