Shots that killed soldier re-enacted before jury

Lawyers twisted and contorted in a Colorado Springs courtroom Thursday to simulate their versions of the final moments of an Iraq war veteran slain in a hail of bullets.

At issue in the second day of former Fort Carson soldier Louis Bressler's 4th Judicial District murder trial is whether the findings of a deputy coroner will confirm or debunk eyewitness accounts that will come later about the killing of Spc. Kevin R. Shields.

On the witness stand was Dr. Sunil Prashar, who examined Shields' body after he was killed on an Old Colorado City street on Dec. 1, 2007.

Prashar says three .38-caliber bullets hit Shields, including two in his head, either of which could have killed him.

Later, lawyers will quiz two men who have already pleaded guilty in the case and say Bressler was the shooter. They're expected to give detailed accounts of each shot.
But first, lawyers bent and twisted before the jury.

Ed Farry, one of Bressler's defense attorneys, tried to show that Shields hit the ground when two of the shots were fired, his index finger pointed like the .38-caliber revolver used in the shooting as he posed his way through each bullet's flight.

He got Prashar to agree that his hypothetical sequence of events could fit the wounds found on Shields.

Prosecutor Jack Roth then did some posing of his own, showing how he contends each bullet could have hit Shields as he stood or stooped.

The stance of shooter and victim is a key part of Farry's plan to show that the two eyewitnesses are masking their guilt by framing Bressler. The two, Bruce Bastien and Kenneth Eastridge, were out with Bressler and Shields at downtown bars that night to celebrate the victim's 24th birthday.

All four were members of the same Fort Carson platoon and served in Iraq together.

Bastien is serving 60 years for his role in Shields' death and the 2007 robbery and murder of Fort Carson Pfc. Robert James, a crime in which Bressler is also charged.

Eastridge got a 10-year term for his role in Shields' death.

Prosecutors say Bressler wanted Shields dead because he knew too much about the James case and other crimes.

Farry tried Thursday to show that everything from evidence gathering by police to prosecution theories of the shooting are flawed.

One issue that is likely to be a recurrent theme in the trial is a bloody glove that defense experts found in Bastien's car months after it had been searched by police.

"I'm sick to my stomach," Colorado Springs police detective Bradley Pratt said on the stand when questioned about the glove. "I have been sick every day because we screwed up that search."

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Contact the writer: 636-0240 or tom.roeder@gazette.com