Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Please be seated. Let the record reflect we have been rejoined by all the members of our jury panel. Doctor, would you resume the witness stand. Mr. Kelberg, you may resume with your direct examination.
If I may just temporarily stand in front of the monitor so that I can reread the question--
Doctor, I'm asking you this hypothetical question: Doctor, assuming that a single person perpetrated all of the sharp force injuries on Mr. Goldman and assuming that as a result of the lethal assault by that single individual on Mr. Goldman he sustained all of the blunt force trauma you identified, and assuming further that that single perpetrator was six feet two, weighed 210 pounds, was armed with a single-edged knife with a six-inch blade, approximately, as you have previously described, can you form an opinion as to the minimum amount of time necessary, under that hypothetical set of circumstances, for that person to have inflicted these injuries on Mr. Goldman?
Within a few minutes and even--and I said even within a minute it is possible, because he has certain number of sharp force injuries which could have been inflicted in that short time.
KEY QUOTEAnd doctor, in a set of circumstance such as I gave, and if in your opinion they could all have been inflicted and received in less than a minute--is that accurate?
--how long would it have taken for Mr. Goldman to have been physically incapacitated from those injuries?
After receiving the injuries how long would he be--I mean, how long it would take to get incapacitated?
As I said, after the infliction of these injuries he would be rapidly incapacitated especially because of the aortic injury, the lung injury and the jugular vein injury which all would have been inflicted in this short period of time. You are talking about several major structures which are going to bleed, and he would go into shock very soon without medical treatment.
Rapidly under a circumstance of all of these injuries being received within less than a minute, "Rapidly" means what?
Within a minute he would have been into shock, especially also talking about other sharp force injuries in the left side of the neck--I mean, the right side of the neck and the back, so to answer your question, all these sharp force injuries, which are of a certain number, they could have been inflicted within a minute, I said, and also he could have gone into shock within a minute after that.
Doctor, in your opinion, what is the minimum period of time that Mr. Goldman lived from the time the lethal assault began?
Doctor--and with the Court's permission again, can we ask the doctor to approach the photographs?
Dr. Lakshmanan--Dr. Lakshmanan, in describing injury no. 3, as seen in the photograph G-51, you mentioned a number of findings, including something about the tail end of the wound and so forth. I would like you to clarify, if you would, in some fashion, each of those findings and what they signify to you?
I described this injury as a complex injury which has this forking on the left side with an abrasion in between. The reason I said it is complex is it is not just a straight stab wound. There could have been an incise wound prior to this wound which could have been extended into--into as a stab wound. There has been also some twisting involved, so really it is just more than a simple stab wound or a simple incise wound. It is a complex wound. There are numerous processes which could have been taking place. And this wound was created--
--this could be from either the movement of the weapon or the movement of the victim.
Is this an example of that schematic illustration no. 3, if you remember back to I believe Tuesday, with what you looked for in the form of wound patterns on the body in trying to identify single-edge or double-edge knives?
Doctor, the forking that you described, what, if any, significance does that have to you?
Well, that is why I said there could have been an incise cut, a stab, then another cut here, so really this fork will not really reflect the weapon itself, because that is why this wound could have been caused by either the single-edge or a double-edge weapon.
But is it a wound which is consistent with that same single-edge knife that you have talked about as being consistent with causing all of the sharp force injuries both to Nicole Brown Simpson and to Ronald Goldman?
Doctor, you also mentioned--did you say something about an abrasion around the margin?
Yes. There is a linear abrasion extending from the margin of--the lower margin of the wound.
For the record, again, your Honor, this is on the lower edge of the wound as seen in photograph G-51.
Again, there would be the stabbing and cutting process is a dynamic process with the victim moving and the assailant stabbing, so when the knife is withdrawn, or the assailant--the victim pulls--tries to withdraw from the assailant, the knife which comes out can draw out like an abrasion in the margin.
KEY QUOTEAgain using myself as Mr. Goldman and yourself as the perpetrator, can you indicate how the knife can do that?
When the knife is penetrated and it is coming out, you can get a linear abrasion as the knife draws across the skin, either by the victim pulling away from the weapon or the weapon as it is being withdrawn draws across the skin.
And the part of the weapon that draws across the skin, we talked about if it is a single-edge knife it has a blunt and a sharp edge. What edge is doing that?
Either side, no. If it is a double-edge it will be the tip which can draw an abrasion, but usually you expect a cut also, but here is only an abrasion, so the tip of a double-edge also could do an abrasion.
I'm sorry, so the abrasion, in and of itself, is not a basis on which you can say it is a single-edge knife versus a double-edge?
It would favor a single-edge, but you cannot really exclude a double-edge.
KEY QUOTEYour Honor, for the record, Dr. Lakshmanan was in front of me--actually I think the Court may recall this better than I do, because I shouldn't have asked the question--
Within a few minutes and even--and I said even within a minute it is possible, because he has certain number of sharp force injuries which could have been inflicted in that short time.
Without medical treatment he would have died within five minutes.
It would favor a single-edge, but you cannot really exclude a double-edge.
Again, there would be the stabbing and cutting process is a dynamic process with the victim moving and the assailant stabbing, so when the knife is withdrawn, or the assailant--the victim pulls--tries to withdraw from the assailant, the knife which comes out can draw out like an abrasion in the margin.