Gun experts testify in day three of Carter County murder trial

WEST PLAINS, Mo. -- On the third day of a Van Buren, Mo., man's capital murder trial, firearms experts said the bullet that killed a Missouri State Highway Patrol officer came from a gun similar to the defendant's.

Lance D. Shockley is standing trial on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with the 2005 death of Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. The trial was moved to Howell County from Carter County, where Shockley and Graham both lived. Shockley could face the death penalty if convicted.

John Dillon, who retired from the FBI as a firearms examiner and now is an independent consultant, testified Wednesday that he was asked by the state to analyze five bullet fragments removed from Graham's body and compare those to three found in a field at Shockley's residence.

"The best I could do was bracket the extreme," Dillon said, providing a range of .22-caliber to .24-caliber for the weapon that fired the bullet that killed Graham.

The bullet, he said, could have been fired from millions of weapons, including .22-, .223- and .243-caliber rifles.

The characteristics of two of the bullet fragments from Shockley's field were consistent with being fired from the .22- to .24-caliber class of weapons, Dillon said. The caliber of the third, he said, couldn't be determined. Dillon testified he could not say whether the fragments were fired from the same rifle.

Jason Crafton, a member of the firearms section of the highway patrol's crime lab, said it was his scientific opinion that "all four of these bullet jackets [and] bullet fragments were from the same firearm."

Crafton said he never indicated the bullets were fired from a "specific caliber" weapon, but from the .22- to .24-caliber class.

Other witnesses testified about Shockley owning a Browning .243-caliber lever action rifle and buying another such rifle.

Laura Chilton Smith, Shockley's girlfriend from 1994 to 2001 and mother of his two children, said Shockley bought a .243-caliber rifle around 1998 and that he was known to trade guns. He also had a .243-caliber rifle that was given to him by his grandfather. Smith described that .243 as his "very prized possession."

Kenneth "Chad" Towner said Shockley showed up at a job site they were working at with a Browning .243-caliber lever-action rifle a couple of months before Graham's death.

When assistant attorney general Kevin Zoellner asked why, Towner said it was because "we all had our guns at the job site," showing them to each other.

Towner described it as a "nice-looking gun."

The state has alleged Shockley's motive for killing Graham was a Nov. 26, 2004, fatal crash that left Jeffrey R. Bayless dead and in which Shockley is accused of fleeing the scene.

Graham, who was found dead March 20, 2005, after he got off duty, was the investigating officer.

The state is expected to wrap up its case today.