Ok, so let’s assume Ramos’ attorney received his law degree from a Cracker-Jack box. At what point do you expect a defendant in a criminal trial to say, “the heck with that, it’s not my bullet?” He’s a veteran officer . . . not some guy with diminished mental capacity just off the street.
It’s more complicated than that. There were a lot of questions as to the chain of custody of that bullet. There are even more questions as to the ballistics tests that appear to NOT have been performed by the time of their arrest, despite an affidavit by the investigator, Chris Sanchez.
Had Ramos not “stipulated” to the bullet, the prosecution would have had to make the case. Instead, once the jury decided that discharging his weapon was not appropriate, the charge of “assault” was a slam-dunk... which then led directly to the mandatory 10 year sentence. Ramos’s attorneys handed the defense the trump card.
I don't get your point. It probably was Ramos bullet. Ramos is not lying. He shot at Davila and thought he missed him. It turns out Davila had a hole in his butt. So logically since Davila was playing Jesse Owens at the river, Compean had not hit him. Therefore the bullet belonged to Ramos. I suppose it was an error not to make the prosecution prove their case, but how would an implied denial later proven false look in relation to Ramos credibility? Having hindsight, we can see that the jury for whatever reasons they saw, believed Davila and not Ramos.(at least 9 of the 12)