[AndrewC]

At what point do you expect a defendant in a criminal trial to say, “the heck with that, it’s not my bullet?”

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)

[calcowgirl]

...we can see that the jury for whatever reasons they saw, believed Davila and not Ramos

Because he was just a poor guy raising money to help his mama pay her medical bills. He just wanted to go home! /s

[1rudeboy]

We are discussing why the defense team, and Ramos, stipulated that it was a bullet from his gun. If the defense has chosen to create reasonable doubt that the bullet was his, then it would have called into question (but not necessarily made legally impossible) his central defense that he saw a gun.

Meanwhile, the prosecution would have relied more heavily on corroborating evidence. Again, please remember that Ramos and Compean never denied firing their weapons.