2/23/93
This morning Mr. Burr reopened the case for the prosecution long enough to introduce some new evidence. I had been prepared to hear Mr. Selvin's opening remarks, but what we ended up seeing this morning hardened my view considerably toward Charles Stevens. Paul Fenn was brough to the stand again, and he identified lead fragments and two copper jackets that he had found around the inside of his van for a few days after being shot at on the Harrison Street/Oakland Avenue off ramp. Next, Lansing Lee, the OPD's criminologist, stated that the jacketing had been fired from a weapon with 6-right. polygonal rifling. Mr. Selvin got Lee to admit that a person could take the .357 mag bullet out of the casing, or buy it separately, and then reload it into a 9mm casing, firing it through another polygonal barrel. Sorry, doughboy. (I refer to Mr. Selvin in this way because of his pasty skin and The Ladyfingers Incident) I don't buy it. When a person could buy ammo of that type that was suited to that gun, he wouldn't go to the trouble to reload it just to save a few pennies per round. Besides, the 9mm is a .355 bullet; the .357 bullet reloaded into the 9mm casing would fit, but dangerously close, with a possibility for blowback in the breech. Not worth the trouble.
The last witness for The People was Sgt. McKenna. He explained that the jackets and lead fragments had been given to the OPD Property Section, only to be forgotten. He was pretty straightforward about it, as might be expected. He's a very sober fellow, never once cracking a rather grim facade. I can imagine that it must be tough being a homicide inspector for a happenin' town like Oakland.
The real bombshell came just before lunch. Sgt. McKenna identified an envelope that was found on Chuck's dresser the day of the search (and the death of Raymond August). On the back side of the envelope we saw a list of numbers and letters, followed by a dash at each number, and another number, like this:
Sgt. McKenna identified the first number as the designation under the California Penal Code for assault with a deadly weapon. The next dealt with auto theft Section 187 designates the crime of murder. The last is a violation of the forearms code. (There is also a mysterious gap in the list, and we don't find out until after the trial what was not shown to us that day) With no real fanfare, Mr. Burr has presented us with Charles Stevens' scorecard, listing in detail the crimes he has committed. This really dealt a hell of a blow to his case, even before we've heard it. I will be very interested in seeing how the defense explains what it means to them. We looked at pictures of the DaSilva shooting scene, Paul Fenn's van, and the neighborhood around Santa Clara Ave/Chetwood Ave/Jean Street. The prosecution makes a good case for itself, with all these assaults occurring in the same area at the same time with a unique weapon, no further assaults or physical evidence connected with the gun type since then. Tough stuff to overcome. We'll see...
Next Chapter: Doughboy makes the Case
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