“The point at which you have testified the body was found was a distance of several feet from that threshold?” Linton asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Was there anything to indicate how that body might have been moved from the one spot, which we will refer to as position number one, to the other, which we will refer to as position number two?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What?”
“The force of gravitation could well have moved that body,” Dr. Newbern said smiling.
“Will you please explain?”
“When we boarded the yacht, it was almost low tide. The yacht had heeled way over until it was very difficult to keep one’s footing. The boat was tilted so that the starboard side was the low side, and so far as the medical evidence is concerned, it is quite apparent that as the tide had gone out the night before, the body had rolled over into approximately the position in which it was found.”
“The body could have done that without being touched by any person?”
“In my opinion the body would have done that without being touched if the period of low tide had preceded rigor mortis. If the body had been lying with the arms and legs outspread, and rigor mortis bad set in before the interval of low tide, it is quite possible the body would not have moved very much from its original position. But with a low tide intervening before rigor mortis set in, the body would very naturally have rolled over to the low part of the cabin.”
“When does rigor mortis set in?”
“As a rule, general stiffening will be well established within ten hours after death. Say ten to twelve hours to make a pretty fair average.”
“Rigor mortis had developed in the body at the time you saw it?”
“Oh yes.”
“And what time was that?”
“That was eleven-seventeen Saturday morning.”
“In your opinion, Doctor, what was the time of death?”
“The time of death,” Dr. Newbern said, “was from fourteen to eighteen hours before I first examined the body.”
“Can you fix that in terms of hours?”
“I examined the body at eleven-seventeen. I would, therefore, say that death occurred after five-seventeen the previous evening, and before nine seventeen. Any time within that four-hour limit would satisfy the conditions as I observed them.”
“The nature of the wound was such that it caused rather extensive hemorrhage?”
“Both external and internal, yes. There was a rather severe hemorrhage.”
“In your opinion, death was almost instantaneous?”
“I would say from the conditions which I observed that in this particular case unconsciousness followed immediately upon the blow, and death occurred within an interval of a few minutes.”
“Were there any other wounds on the body?”
“There was a contusion on the point of the jaw, just to the left of the point.”
“Indicating a blow?”
“Indicating a trauma of some sort. There was a well defined traumatic ecchymosis.”
“Any other wounds on the body?”
“None whatever.”
“Cross-examine,” Linton said. “He’s your witness.”
Mason slowly got to his feet, faced the doctor. “Then this wound, which we will describe as the fatal wound, is the only one which would have caused any hemorrhage?”
“That’s right.”
“Now then, Doctor, how long would hemorrhage from such a wound continue after death?”
“From this particular wound, I would say that any extensive hemorrhage would have ceased within a very few minutes after death.”
“What do you mean by a very few minutes?”
“Well, to be on the safe side, say ten or fifteen minutes.”
“On moving the body would there have been another drainage of blood?”
“Yes, sir. That’s right.”
“And how long would that have continued?”
“That would have continued for some time.”
“Then the pool which you found under the head of the body in the position in which you found it might have been the result of drainage from moving the body?”
“No, sir, I don’t think so. There were evidences of a true hemorrhage rather than mere drainage. And from the size, the nature and the extent of that stain on the carpet, I would say that it was the result of hemorrhage.”
“You aren’t, however, taking that into consideration in fixing the time of death?”
“In fixing the time of death,” Dr. Newbern said, “I am acting only upon the evidence which I found in my examination of the body itself. As far as my examination of the environment of the body, that is a matter for the detective. I am testifying here only as an expert medical witness. I am fixing the time of death from various evidences as to the body temperature, the onset of rigor mortis, and the state of progress of certain other very definite post-mortem changes. I am not engaging in any detective work or any speculation predicated upon the position of the body other than as that position has some medical significance.”
“I see. That is, of course, a very conservative and a very proper position for you to take, Doctor.”
“Thank you.”
“I take it, Doctor, that there was every evidence that the blow which caused death was a severe one?”
“The blow was very severe.”
“In your opinion, could that blow have been sustained by a man stumbling and falling back against the threshold?”
“I doubt it very much. In my opinion, that blow was very severe. If it was sustained when the head was thrown against that threshold, then the blow must have been more severe than would have been the case if it had been sustained in an ordinary fall occasioned through stumbling. The man must have been knocked back against that threshold with very considerable force.”
“A force which could have resulted from a blow?”
“That could have done it, yes — a blow struck by a very powerful man.”
“Then it is possible that the victim could have been struck on the point of the chin at the place where you saw that bruise, and the force of that blow would have thrown him back against the threshold and inflicted the injury which caused his death?”
“That’s objected to,” Linton said, “as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial and improper cross-examination. It assumes a fact not in evidence, and is a frantic attempt by the defense to secure some peg upon which it can hang — a defense of manslaughter.”
“Objection overruled,” Judge Newark said. “The defense is entitled to cross-examine any witness upon any theory he sees fit, just so that theory is pertinent to the issues, and the questions cover matters which directly or by inference were touched upon in the examination in chief. Answer the question, Doctor.”
“That could have been the case.”
“It is possible?”
“It is possible.”
“That’s all.”
Linton said, “Just a minute, Doctor. Inasmuch as this element has been injected into the case, while you say that it is possible that the injury could have been received in such a manner, assuming for the sake of this question that it had been received in such a manner, what would have been the nature of that blow?”
“It would have been a very violent blow. The man must have been struck in such a manner that much of the force of that blow was transmitted to the impact of the head against the threshold. In other words, the head must have struck with greater force than would have been the result of an ordinary fall.”
“A blow that would have taken the injured person entirely off guard?”
“Well, a very violent blow.”
“Not a blow which would have been struck in a combat where the recipient was braced, but a blow which was struck in such a manner that the recipient was caught entirely off guard — is that right?”