Ballistics expert: bullet fragmets match

DADE CITY -- Day three of the Alfredie Steele Jr. murder trial is unfolding like CSI day; a day of scientific evidence to prove the state's case.

First the medical examiner told jurors how Pasco sheriff's Lt. Charles "Bo" Harrison was gunned down that June 1, 2003, night.

Then FBI laboratory analyst Steve Casper, a ballistics expert, used bullet fragments to corroborate Steele's own damaging statements: that he twice went shooting that night, the first time at a cook shed in the Withlacoochee State Forest, then when he took aim at Harrison's cruiser outside a Trilacoochee nightclub.

Casper examined a 7.62x39mm bullet jacket recovered from the cook shed and two bullet fragments taken from Harrison's body. He compared the distinctive microscopic markings left on each slug as they were launched through a gun barrel.

"It led me to believe that the bullet fired into Officer Harrison was the same as the bullet fired into the cook shed," Casper said.

Both were likely fired from an SKS semi-automatic rifle, the expert said, which is the weapon jurors heard Steele himself tell detectives he used to kill Harrison. Casper said he also tested the 13 shell casings left behind at the crime scene.

"They were all fired from ... the same firearm," he said.

"Is that with a reasonable degree of scientific certainty?" asked Assistant State Attorney Bob Lewis.

"That is correct," Casper said.

"Can you tell if these cartridges were fired from an SKS or not?" Lewis asked.

"They could have been fired from an SKS," Casper said.

But under cross examination, he did not rule out the bullets having come from another common rifle: the AK-47.

The trial then broke for lunch.

-- JAMAL THALJI

AUDIO ONLINE: Two days after the slaying of Pasco Sheriff's Lt. Charles "Bo" Harrison, Alfredie Steele Jr., with the help of his cousin Nathaniel Vanzant, recorded an apology to Harrison's family. Warning: This unedited, four-minute recording contains profanity and offensive language. Click to listen.