It's the first full day that the defense has been able to put their own witnesses on the stand to cast reasonable doubt in the case against Anthony Garcia. It was heated to start the day, the judge even warned the defense of being in contempt of court.
Prosecutors and the defense wasted no time to start the fireworks Thursday in the case against Anthony Garcia. Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine objected to more than one defense witness because they claimed they weren't given proper time to prepare for last minute witnesses and reports.
When testimony did start the defense's gun and combat expert, Nick Renz a retired Navy Chief, tells the jury that he believes the magazine found at the Brumback home was excessively used every day for at least 9 months. Garcia purchased his firearm two months before the Brumbacks were killed.
Renz testified he felt the gun had a “catastrophic failure” and the piece of Garcia's firearm didn't look like it broke.
And in Renz's opinion, there would've been blood spatter on the door according to the prosecution's demonstrative rendering.
“So that's a little bit of a problem for the prosecutor that the spatter wasn't present because it's almost impossible to commit that kind of a crime and that type of a shooting and not have spatter,” said Randy Paragas, a legal analyst.
The prosecution had Renz admit that the gun parts were from a Smith & Wesson SD9 but Renz said, “That gun was like the Ford F-150 of firearms.”
Kleine also pointed out that Renz doesn't have expertise in ballistics, forensics, or blood spatter.
The defense then called Lisa Widtfeldt, the ex-wife of Jeff Widtfeldt, who the defense says was a person of interest in the Dundee murders because Shrilee Sherman had a protection order against him and dated her daughter. Widtfeldt testified she didn't know where Jeff had been on March 13, 2008 and that they never talked about the fact that he was interviewed by police in the murders.
Prosecutors pointed out that Jeff didn't drive a Honda CRV, or wear suits like Dundee witnesses remembered.
Paragas says another suspect is a typical defense to try and create reasonable doubt.
“Unless you have some pretty iron clad evidence of similarities and things like that it's tough to get a jury to buy that,” Paragas explained.
The judge also heard arguments about whether Jeff Widtfeldt should be considered a person of interest connected to the 2007 Blanchard murder. Judge Gary Randall concluded he could be discussed for the Dundee murders, but there was no evidence showing a connection to the Blanchard case.
