Jurors in the Carnegie Deli massacre case learned a shocking new fact yesterday – that the barrel of the murder weapon was held smack against Jennifer Stahl’s forehead, despite the shooter’s insistence that he fired “accidentally.”
Admitted killer Sean Salley has claimed since his arrest nearly a year ago that he never intentionally pulled the trigger when he pointed a .38 caliber revolver at Stahl, the 39-year-old singer who sold pricey marijuana out of the apartment above the famed Theater District eatery.
Five people were bound and shot, execution-style, in the botched May 2001 pot heist – three fatally. Salley and his co-defendant, Andre Smith, 31, face up to life in prison for the triple murder.
“With me being so nervous, I raise the gun with my hand shaking and it went off,” Salley, 30, had told cops in a signed confession.
But yesterday, jurors heard gruesome autopsy testimony that included a coroner’s lengthy description of why Stahl’s fatal bullet to the head was a “contact” shot.
Along with a bullet, guns expel burning gunpowder and searing gas, jurors were told by Dr. Susan Ely, who examined the single gunshot wounds to the head on all three bodies.
When a gun is fired flush against someone’s body, the searing gas has nowhere to go but under the skin and into the wound itself, Ely testified.
That causes the skin to swell and rip in the kind of distinctive star pattern seen in the bullet wound above Stahl’s left eyebrow, Ely testified. Stahl’s brain injuries and skull fractures were extensive, again indicating a contact shot, Ely said.
The shot also left traces of soot on the skull – yet another sign of a contact shot, Ely said.
“The muzzle of the gun was touching and making contact with the skin when it was fired,” Ely told jurors.
Defense lawyers for Salley fought the testimony. They tried to talk Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman into barring prosecutors from showing jurors photos of Stahl’s bullet wound. Failing that, defense lawyer Mitchell Dinnerstein grilled Ely on cross-examination.
Why was there no soot on Stahl’s skin, Dinnerstein asked. It could have been cleared away by bandaging, she answered. Couldn’t the lack of powder burns indicate that the gun was more than two feet away, he asked.
“The devastation of the brain and of the skull was great, and consistent with a contact wound,” she answered.
Then why did Stahl survive for several hours after the shooting, unlike the other two fatalities, Dinnerstein asked. Ely explained that unlike the other two victims, Charles Helliwell and Stephen King – who died at the scene – Stahl’s bullet did not go near her brain stem, which directs the vital functions of breathing and heartbeat.
Ely also testified that the duct tape around King’s wrists was so tight, it burst the blood vessels in his hands.
Most victims’ family members stayed outside the courtroom for the gruesome testimony. Helliwell’s father remained inside, and wore a sad expression.