VOLUME 1 OF 1 VOLUME TRIAL COURT CAUSE NO. D-1-DC THE STATE OF TEXAS * IN THE DISTRICT OF VS. * TRAVIS COUNTY, TEXAS

Transcription

1 R E P O R T E R 'S R E C O R D VOLUME OF VOLUME TRIAL COURT CAUSE NO. D--DC--0 THE STATE OF TEXAS * IN THE DISTRICT OF VS. * TRAVIS COUNTY, TEXAS TONY BREWER * TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT TRIAL BEFORE A JURY EXCERPT OF PROCEEDINGS TESTIMONY OF DR. SATISH CHUNDRA BE IT REMEMBERED that on the th day of November,, the following proceedings came on to be heard in the above-entitled and numbered cause before the Honorable Mike Lynch, Judge presiding, held in Austin, Travis County, Texas: Proceedings reported by Stenographic Shorthand Machine Method. JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

2 A P P E A R A N C E S Mr. Mark Pryor, Assistant District Attorney SBOT NO. 00 P.O. Box Austin, Texas Phone: () -00 ATTORNEY FOR THE STATE OF TEXAS Ms. Kelsey McKay, Assistant District Attorney SBOT NO. P.O. Box Austin, Texas Phone: () -00 ATTORNEY FOR THE STATE OF TEXAS * * * * * * Mr. William Browning, Attorney at Law SBOT NO. 00 Nueces Austin, Texas 0 Phone: () - ATTORNEY FOR THE DEFENDANT -AND- -AND- Ms. Tamara Needles, Attorney at Law SBOT NO. 00 P.O. Box 0 Austin, Texas Phone: () - ATTORNEY FOR THE DEFENDANT JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

3 I N D E X VOLUME TUESDAY, NOVEMBER, WITNESS OR PROCEEDING PAGE VOL. Direct Cross Voir Dire Vol. SATISH CHUNDRU COURT REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 0 * * * * * * JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

4 INDEX OF STATE'S TRIAL EXHIBITS NO. DESCRIPTION IDENTIFIED OFFERED ADMITTED VOL. Resume Diagram * * * * * * JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

5 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : PROCEEDINGS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER, MORNING SESSION * * * * * * (Open court, defendant present with (counsel. THE COURT: You may bring the jury in. (Jury present.) THE COURT: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. We are ready to proceed now. This witness has been sworn. State may proceed. SATISH CHUNDRU, called as a witness and having been duly sworn, assumed the stand and testified as follows: DIRECT EXAMINATION Questions by Ms. McKay: Q. Good morning. A. Good morning. Q. Can you please state your name for the record and for the jury? A. Satish Chundru. Q. Is it Dr. Chundru? A. Dr. Chundru, yes. Q. Where are you employed? A. At the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office. JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

6 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Q. Okay. What is your position there? A. I am the deputy chief medical examiner. Q. Okay. And what kind of education do you have to qualify for that job? A. Well, I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BA biology degree. I then attended medical school at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. After that we do about five years of subspecialty training in pathology, which is the study of disease. After that we do a sub-subspecialty training in forensics, which is an extra year. Q. How many years total is that? A. Uh, well -- Q. A lot? A. Quite a few years. Q. Okay. And in addition to that education, what type of training did you have to become a deputy medical examiner? A. Well, I went to the University of Miami to do my forensics fellowship at the Miami-Dade Count Medical Examiner's Office. After completing the fellowship, I practiced there for about three years. Q. How long have you been with Travis County? A. Two and a half years. JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

7 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Q. Okay. What type of licenses or certificates do you have related to that? A. Well, I have a medical degree and as well I am board certified in forensics and anatomic pathology. Q. Have you been published? A. A few times. Q. What professional organizations do you belong to? A. The National Association of Medical Examiners is our main one. Q. And some other ones? A. And some other ones. Q. Okay. Dr. Chundru, did you provide me with a copy of your resume? MS. MCKAY: May I approach, your Honor? THE COURT: You may. Q. Show you what has been marked State's Exhibit No.. Is this a copy of that resume? Q. Okay. MS. MCKAY: Show it to opposing counsel and offer it into evidence. MR. BROWNING: I have no objections to State's. JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

8 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : THE COURT: is admitted. (State's Exhibit admitted.) Q. (By Ms. McKay) Dr. Chundru, does this kind of go over what we just talked about? A. Yes, it does. Q. So you said you have been in Travis County for two and a half years? A. That is correct. Q. What are your duties as deputy medical examiner? A. Well, the main duty is to perform autopsies to determine the cause of death. Other things include education, we do quite a bit for the community as well. Q. Do you do some teaching? A. Quite a bit of teaching actually. Q. Okay. And what exactly, without I guess being too graphic, is an autopsy? A. Basically, it is an examination of the body after death to determine cause of and/or death, why the person died. Q. How many autopsies have you performed in your career? A. About 00. Q. Okay. And from this 00 bodies that you have examined, have you examined any bodies that have been strangled? JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

9 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Q. Sometimes we hear it called being choked. Can you clarify the linguistics there? A. Yeah, the choking -- MR. BROWNING: Your Honor, I am going to object. I don't -- his qualifications of examining dead people, I don't see how that makes anything he might testify to relevant in this case. We just heard from the complaining witness and she is very much alive, so I don't see how he can testify to anything that is possibly relevant. MS. MCKAY: Mr. Browning spent an extensive amount of time questioning the witness about the lack of injuries. Dr. Chundru, just because he also performs autopsies, doesn't mean he doesn't have training or knowledge with respect to live witnesses and strangulation. THE COURT: All right. Let's maybe lay a predicate in that area, and then I will rule on his motion. MR. BROWNING: Perhaps we could flesh out whether he has any experience at all examining live witnesses. MS. MCKAY: He doesn't even know if I am going to ask about live bodies. I have many questions JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

10 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : that have to do with autopsies that are relevant to strangulation. THE COURT: Let's lay a predicate on why those are relevant. MS. MCKAY: Okay. Q. (By Ms. McKay) Have you examined bodies that have been strangled? Q. About how many do you believe you have? A. Just in Travis County, three. Q. Okay. And during your training and experience, your education, all during that time, did you have a chance to learn and be educated about strangulation with respect to both live people and dead people? We really have to know about the live people to understand the dead, and vice versa. It is kind like someone who dies of a heart attack. I have to know about the clinical information to interpret anything I find at autopsy. Q. And is strangulation I guess different from other types of things like gunshot wounds? Are many of the injuries physically manifested internally? Q. And how can we I guess -- how do doctors, how can people observe those injuries? JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

11 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : A. Well, there is not very much that the clinician can do. They can do CT scans, which sometimes may or may not show the hemorrhages that you see under the skin. Q. But does it sometimes require a dead body in order to -- and doing an autopsy in order to see some of those injuries? A. Exactly. Sometimes the clinicians learn more about what to do with live patients by understanding what we find at autopsy. Q. And are oftentimes victims of strangulation, some of the injuries only -- would they only be able to have been viewed through an autopsy? THE COURT: Are you asking me -- are you -- MR. BROWNING: Your Honor, I still -- THE COURT: You still have an objection or not? MR. BROWNING: Your Honor, I still renew my objection as to relevance about this witness testifying. THE COURT: To the testimony so far, your objection is overruled. Q. (By Ms. McKay) Can you please -- or I guess have you received training specifically in asphyxiation? Q. Can you kind of talk to the jury about the JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

12 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : subcategory of asphyxiation? A. Well, asphyxiation just generally means that there is a lack of oxygen to the trillions of cells that are in our body. Now, under asphyxia there is quite a few subcategories. One category would be suffocation, and that essentially means that there is no oxygen being delivered to the blood, and so examples of suffocation would be smothering, like if someone puts a hand over the nose and mouth, there is no oxygen coming into the lungs to nourish the blood. Other types of suffocation is something like a mechanical suffocation, where you may have heard of people that are under a car that are working under the car and the car collapses, well, when the car collapses on their chest, they don't have that breathing apparatus to be able to breath, so they don't get oxygen to their blood. Another example is choking. What we define as choking is something like a piece of meat getting stuck in the trachea, so there is obviously no oxygen that is delivered to the lungs. Q. And when someone uses their hands to strangle somebody, you are just simply saying that the linguistics choking is not appropriate? JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

13 : : : : :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 :00 A. Yeah, medically speaking, that is not an appropriate word to use. Choking is really designated for obstruction in the airway. Q. Have you ever heard of or had the chance to view someone who has been suffocated with a trash bag or plastic bag? Q. Was that person dead? Q. Okay. And are you familiar with the different methods of strangulation? There is really three types of strangulation that forensics define it as. One is hanging, which the vast majority are suicide. The other is ligature strangulation and manual strangulation. Q. What is ligature strangulation? A. Ligature is basically any kind of device, usually a rope, string that is placed around the neck to decrease the blood going to the brain. Q. And what is manual strangulation? A. Manual is the use of the hands, even the forearm sometimes can be used. That puts pressure on the neck, which results in lack of oxygen going to the brain. Q. And are you familiar with the relevant anatomy that is affected by strangulation? JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

14 :00 :00 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 MS. MCKAY: Your Honor, may I approach? THE COURT: You may. Q. Dr. Chundru, if you could approach over here. A. Sure. MR. BROWNING: Your Honor, could we have this exhibit perhaps, I don't know, proven up and admitted before it is published to the jury? MS. MCKAY: That is fine. Q. (By Ms. McKay) Showing you what has been marked as State's Exhibit No.. Can you describe to the jury what this is? A. This is a diagram of the structures that are in the neck. MR. BROWNING: Are you offering it? MS. MCKAY: Not yet. MR. BROWNING: I object, your Honor, because it is being published to the jury without being offered. THE COURT: Do you intend to present that, now that he has described it, to have him -- MS. MCKAY: Yes, I plan on drawing on it, which is why I haven't offered it yet. I want to offer it as a complete exhibit. THE COURT: You may proceed. Objection is JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

15 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 overruled. Q. (By Ms. McKay) Could you please explain to the jury what the functions of each of these items are? A. So as you can see, this is the neck, looking at it from the front. You have, going from the most superficial, you have the jugular vein. Q. What do you mean by the most superficial? A. Closest to the skin. And so the jugular vein, what that does is it drains all the blood from your head and brings it back to your heart here. Q. Could you on the diagram just draw an arrow showing which direction the blood flows from the jugular vein, I guess from the vein itself. Okay. Do it right there. You can do a big one. Don't be shy. A. (Witness complied.) Q. What does the carotid artery do? A. So the carotid artery, it is deeper to the vein, and what that does is, you know, you hear, you put your finger here and feel a pulse, that is your carotid artery. So that is sending blood to your head. So the blood is flowing that way. Q. Okay. And is the carotid artery deeper than the jugular vein? Q. And so would it take more force I guess through JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

16 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 manual strangulation to reach the carotid artery? A. That is correct. Q. What else is on this diagram? A. You also have the trachea. This is the larynx, this is the trachea, or the air tube. So essentially when you are breathing, the air goes through here to supply oxygen to the lungs and that supplies it to the body. This is made out of cartilage, so it is a lot firmer than the artery. Q. Okay. So if I am understanding you correctly, what you are saying is when someone first presses, they are going to hit the jugular, and if they go deeper or harder or -- A. With more pressure. Q. Okay, with more pressure, they will then block off blood flow from here to the brain? A. Correct. Q. And then finally, if they go even deeper, it might have effects on the trachea? A. That is correct. MS. MCKAY: We would offer at this time State's Exhibit No.. MR. BROWNING: No objection to State's as modified. THE COURT: All right. is admitted. JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

17 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 (State's Exhibit admitted.) Q. (By Ms. McKay) If you could talk a little bit about the signs and symptoms of strangulation. Are you familiar with what they are? Q. Okay. Let's start perhaps with the physical, visible signs that someone might see upon an exterior examination? A. Well, in the strangulations that we see, you tend to have bruises, fingernail markings. You can also have scratch marks. Instead of just the kind of curvilinear small fingernail, you may actually have scratches from the victim trying to pull the hand off, and then, of course, bruises. Q. Okay. And let's talk about bruising to begin with. Is there a certain pattern that the bruising sometimes appears in? A. The bruisings tend not to have a pattern. You may see fingerprints if they are used like this, you may see a finger pattern. Q. Could you maybe just see one thumb imprint? A. Yes, you can see one, sometimes you may see several. It depends how many fingers were used. Q. Okay. And can -- is there always bruising in strangulation cases? JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

18 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 A. No. Even in the strangulations that, you know, they pass away, sometimes the injuries are very, very minimal. Q. And bruising in particular, can it be delayed or does it appear right away? A. It can be delayed. Typically when you have a deep bruise -- you have quite a bit of muscle here that is surrounding these blood vessels -- if the bruise is really deep, it takes some time to get to the skin. It doesn't necessarily show up immediately. Q. What do you mean by a deep bruise? A. A deep bruise would be a bruise or hemorrhage that is within the musculature or the muscle. You have several layers of muscle, again, going from the skin all the way down to your cervical vertebral column. Q. When you say deep bruise, does that like mean like a worse injury? A. It doesn't necessarily mean a worse injury. It means that there is more pressure. Q. Okay. And so would -- if it took two days for a bruise to appear, would that be normal? A. A day or two. Q. Okay. And you mentioned fingernail marks. I think you talked about two different kinds. One is kind of the circular shape. What is that generally caused by? JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

19 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 A. Well, the semicircular shaped ones are caused just by the tips digging in here. That can be from the victim or the assailant. The more -- kind of like the finger pads are going to be more circular. Q. And have you heard of something called petechia? Q. Can you explain to the jury what that is? A. Petechia is pretty simple. It is just a blood vessel like that is -- I will use the word exploded. It just breaks apart. Q. And can you just describe kind of what it looks like? A. Sure. Well, one, the reason why they break apart because imagine these blood vessels are very thin and fragile, and all of a sudden you cause a lot of pressure to occur in that blood vessel. What is going to happen? It is going to rupture. And so these petechiae you typically see in strangulations are around the eyelids, on the face and within the eyes. Q. And just as I asked with bruising, with respect to fingernail markings and petechiae, are those always present in strangulation cases? A. Not always. Q. And in your opinion, does our community have a little bit of a misconception about how apparent the JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

20 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 :0 : : signs are going to be of strangulation with respect to physical signs that can be seen with the eye? A. Yeah. I actually have to watch CSI Miami every once in a while to make sure that when I testify in court that the jury doesn't have a misconception of what we can and cannot do. Typically, ones you see on TV, they have the classic fingernail markings, and that is not always the case. Q. I think you mentioned you have done autopsies where there were no external injuries? A. Yes, I can recall one where you see a little bitty bruise -- it was on an older gentleman -- and that is about it, until you get inside. Q. How quickly does petechiae disappear? A. Well, they are very small blood vessels, so the healing process is not going to be a lengthy time, so you are talking maybe days. Q. And is there anything else that could affect someone's ability to either see bruising or to see petechiae? A. Well, yes. As far as petechiae, those occur because of a couple of reasons. You remember the diagram that I showed where if you press just a little bit, you will do the jugular vein, which sends blood down to your heart, so if you just press a little bit and you have a JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

21 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : carotid artery still pushing blood to your head, then you are not draining the blood that is coming to the head, so the blood vessels get that pressure and rupture. But if you occlude both of them, both the jugular and the carotid, then there is no blood circulating and the ruptures won't be as big. Q. So lack of petechiae could actually indicate that there was more pressure placed during the strangulation? A. Correct. Q. I want to go over some symptoms, not physical manifestations so much as things people feel while they are being strangled or things that they feel afterwards. Can you talk to the jury about some symptoms that might occur during the strangulation? A. Well, in some of the strangulation that is particularly manual or ligature, you have that loss of blood to the brain. Now, when you have that loss of blood to the brain, brain cells can only live a few minutes without oxygen. You can imagine your brain is going haywire, it is doing all sorts of things, so you may have blurred vision, some people actually defecate or urinate on themselves because they lose that sphincter tone. Seizures is a common thing that strangled victims succumb to. JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

22 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Q. What about feelings of being dizzy? A. Dizzy, that is another part of, again, the brain losing the oxygen. Q. What about a body going numb? A. That is as well, because the brain, as you know, has nerves, and nerves are what cause the numbness. Q. What about if someone described the feeling of feeling like they were going to pass out? Typically when you do -- when the manual strangulation or ligature strangulation occurs and you put enough pressure to cut off the carotids, you lose consciousness in about to seconds. Q. Let's talk about things the victim might feel afterwards, after they have been strangled. Can you give some examples of what that might be? A. Well, it really depends on what the victim -- were they under the influence of any drugs or anything alcoholic, because if they are, then there is not much of a violent struggle, but if there is a violent struggle, then you can expect quite a bit of things. All those injuries that occurred in the neck manifest themselves as difficulty swallowing, because you have all this swelling that occurs in the neck afterwards. So difficulty swallowing, maybe a hoarseness of the voice. Those are things you may see. JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

23 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Q. Okay. What about I guess you said something about it being the neck. The raspy voice or the hoarse voice, as you described, and it hurting to swallow, sore throat, that kind of thing, would that give you any indication of what level of strangulation occurred in terms of did it go to the jugular, did it go to the carotid, or did it go all the way to the trachea? A. Well, the hoarseness, the swelling around the epiglottis or the trachea and the esophagus, the food tube, those are all deep structures, so you are looking at a pretty intense pressure. Q. And if someone were to say that the next day or the days following, their upper body felt sore, do you have any way to explain that? A. Well, I guess if the chest and abdomen or arms are sore, it depends on the situation. If the assailant was, for example, on top of the person, on the victim, then of course they are going to feel some pain and stuff in the chest and abdomen. Q. And have I -- have you reviewed any documents in this case? Have you looked at the police report or the witness statements? A. No. Q. Do you have any knowledge about the specifics of this case? JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

24 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : A. No. Q. I want to ask you, does all pain manifest itself in some type of physical, visible evidence? A. No. Q. Can you think of any examples? A. Well, probably the best example would be has anyone hit their funny bone on the elbow, so when that happens, what happens is you get extreme pain but there is no bruising or swelling or anything like that. That is actually because the nerve was hit, and so that nerve is what is causing that pain. Q. Can you describe to the jury the difference between an event like manual strangulation and how it is different than something like blunt force trauma where someone takes a bat and hits you in the neck? A. For example, the bat injury, it is a one-time hit, so yeah, you will get bruises, you will get fractures, but you are not going to get the unconsciousness or blood loss to the brain because you don't squeeze the blood vessels when you get hit by a bat. You just injure the surrounding tissues. Q. But in the bat trauma, are you more likely to actually upon visual inspection see some type of external injury? A. Yeah. I mean if it is something like a bat JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

25 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : swinging, you are going to see some injuries on the neck. Q. So is it fair to say that strangulation is more of an obstruction event rather than a trauma event? A. That is exactly, that is exactly what it is. It is an obstruction. Q. Okay. And have you had opportunities to examine people who have died from manual strangulation? Q. Okay. And can you please describe the internal injuries that have resulted from that strangulation? A. Well, usually the internal injuries consist of fractures, and I showed you the diagram. The larynx, which is the voice box, you typically get fractures in that location, and that is just due to the heavy pressure that is placed on it. Q. And are some of these injuries that you have seen when -- I assume this is done through performing an autopsy? Q. Are some of these injuries things that could be present in somebody who survived a strangulation attack? A. Sure. Q. And I know I guess through CAT scans and things like that you might be able to view them, but absent that, are these injuries that could be viewed upon JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

26 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : physical, just kind of external physical observance? A. Not physical observance. Things like CT scans might be able to detect it, yes. Q. Okay. Despite the lack of external injuries, are these -- is this manual strangulation event something that would likely cause them pain? Q. With the symptoms I went through earlier, feeling dizzy, body going numb, raspy voice, hurting to swallow, a hurt neck, having to use the restroom, feeling a sore body, feeling they are going to pass out, are those symptoms that you would consider to be consistent with strangulation? Q. How does death occur from manual strangulation? A. Well, death occurs -- the injuries themselves are not going to cause the death. It is the lack of blood to the brain, and so if there is enough sustained pressure for a certain period of time, within a few minutes, you have enough -- your brain cells start dying in about five minutes, so that is about the time period you are looking at, so it is obstruction of the blood that decreases the oxygen to the brain that causes the death. Q. And in your opinion, is a hand capable of JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

27 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : causing death or serious bodily injury? Q. How many seconds would it take for someone to lose consciousness from manual strangulation? A. Actually, it doesn't take long at all, about, seconds. Q. How many minutes or seconds would it take for someone to die from manual strangulation? A. Well, that can vary. Again, it depends on the amount of pressure and the length of time that pressure is applied, so you know, you could have people go through a strangulation process where it may take, minutes. Then again, you may have someone that puts complete pressure on them for -- and keeps it constant, and that would only take a few minutes. Q. Okay. And how could it be if someone describes that strangulation went on for ten minutes, how is it that it would be possible they wouldn't completely black out or die from that? A. Well, either the assailant is not completely putting pressure over the carotid artery, so you still have blood going to the brain, and also if the victim is probably struggling quite a bit, so maybe the victim -- I mean the assailant's hand gets off the neck for a few seconds, and so that is going to keep causing a delay in JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

28 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : the death, if they end up dying. Q. If someone described them kind of going -- feeling like they were going to pass out and kind of coming to, would that be consistent with someone squeezing and letting up and squeezing and letting up? Q. One last question. Is a knife capable of causing serious bodily injury or death? A. Sure, sure. MS. MCKAY: Pass the witness. CROSS-EXAMINATION Questions by Mr. Browning: Q. Doctor, my name is Bill Browning. Is it Chundru? Q. And I am certain I am not -- A. That is fine. Q. Did you examine anybody connected to this case at all? A. No. Q. So you have no personal knowledge about whether Ms. Smith, who is the complaining witness in this case, was assaulted at all? A. No. MR. BROWNING: I have no further questions, JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

29 : your Honor. : : : THE COURT: Thank you very much, doctor. THE WITNESS: Thank you. THE COURT: You are excused. * * * * * * JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -

30 0 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE THE STATE OF TEXAS ) THE COUNTY OF TRAVIS ) I, Joni Salminen, Official Court Reporter for the th Judicial District Court of Travis County, Texas, do hereby certify the foregoing contains a true and correct transcription of all portions of evidence and other proceedings requested in writing by counsel for the parties to be included in this volume of the Reporter's Record, in the above-styled and numbered cause, all of which occurred in open court or in chambers and were reported by me. I further certify that the Reporter's Record of the proceedings truly and correctly reflects the exhibits, if any, admitted by the respective parties. I further certify that the total cost for the preparation of this Reporter's Record is $ charged to. WITNESS MY OFFICIAL HAND this the day of,. JONI SALMINEN, CSR No. 0 Official Court Reporter th Judicial District Travis County, Texas P.O. Box Austin, Texas () - Date of Expiration of Current Certification: -- joni.salminen@co.travis.tx.us JONI SALMINEN, TH DISTRICT COURT, () -