LAKEPORT — The doctor who performed the autopsy of a Clear Lake Riviera man who was bludgeoned to death in 2009 testified Thursday during the murder trial of the alleged assailant.
Dr. Ikechi Ogan, a forensic pathologist from Forensic Medical Group, Inc., an organization based in Fairfield that performs autopsies for Lake County on an “as needed” basis, told the jury that he performed an autopsy of Eric Joaquin on March 3, 2009.
John Gray faces a murder charge with special allegations of inflicting great bodily harm and personally using a deadly weapon for allegedly beating to death his then-roommate Joaquin during the early morning hours of Feb. 28, 2009.
Joaquin”s body was found at 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2009 on the floor of his bedroom in Gray”s house on Del Monte Way in Clear Lake Riviera.
Judge Arthur Mann presided. Deputy district attorney Art Grothe represented the Lake County DA”s Office and attorney Kevin Ikuma represented Gray.
Ogan was the only witness called during the trial”s fifth day, which was shortened to only a three-hour morning session because of court scheduling.
Ogan described the facts and conclusions of his autopsy to the jury before analyzing nearly 60 photographs of Joaquin”s body taken during the autopsy.
Ogan said he recorded information about “at least 44 injuries” on Joaquin”s body at the time of the autopsy. The vast majority of those injuries appeared to have occurred at or around the time of death, according to Ogan.
Joaquin”s body had bruises on the legs, feet, chest, back, arms, hands, neck and face, Ogan said. Additionally, Joaquin suffered 16 broken ribs, a ruptured spleen, two punctured lungs and a lacerated left kidney.
Joaquin also suffered damage to the head from at least four separate blows, according to Ogan. The injuries to the head included broken teeth, two black eyes, bruising to the temple and two deep cuts to the head that exposed the skull bone, he said.
One injury to the back of the head resulted in a fractured base of the skull, which Ogan said would have rendered Joaquin “rapidly immobile” and would have led to death in about one or two minutes.
Ogan said the extent of injuries inflicted on Joaquin appeared to be “excessive” and “overkill” because a number of the wounds would have, on their own, been enough to kill a normal adult man.
The autopsy report offered no exact time of death, according to Ogan.
Grothe showed the jury photographs from the autopsy, using an overhead projector, and asked Ogan to describe the injuries depicted in each image.
Around 10 of the bruises on Joaquin”s body appeared a deep purple or black at the center and appeared red around the outer edges, according to the photographs. Some of the deep colored bruises were round and others were elongated.
Ogan said the linear bruises appeared to be wider at one end and narrower at the other, leading him to conclude that a linear weapon that was longer on one end and skinnier on the other caused them.
Ogan said that the injuries were “consistent” with possibly being caused by a baseball bat but that he could not determine exactly what object caused the wounds because that was out of the realm of his expertise as a medical examiner.
Gray”s girlfriend, Barbara Wallace, testified Oct. 19 that she found a metal baseball bat in Gray”s house while cleaning in May 2009. The authorities later determined that bat was the murder weapon.
Detective Jerry Pfann, of the Lake County Sheriff”s Office, did not complete his testimony Wednesday, and the continuation of his testimony was delayed Thursday to accommodate Ogan”s schedule. Grothe said such a delay of testimony is not uncommon.
The trial recessed for the week at noon Thursday. It will reconvene Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the Lake County Courthouse.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
