DAVENPORT, Iowa -- A ballistics expert testified in a Davenport murder trial that evidence recovered after the shooting death of Jason Roberts, 46, in downtown Davenport last June came from one weapon.
Deondra Thomas, 37, is charged with the first-degree murder of Roberts. Prosecutors argue that Thomas was in an altercation outside the MVP sports bar on June 9, 2018, and shot Roberts who was trying to tried to break up the fight.
Victor Murillo, a criminalist with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Criminalistics Lab, told jurors he had examined cartridges and bullets recovered from the crime scene by Davenport Police, including markings, directions and patterns left by the bullets. In all, 13 fired 9-millimeter cartridge cases and three bullets and bullet fragments were found. One of the jacketed bullets came from the victim's back and one from his pelvic area.
Murillo said the evidence from the cartridges point to a single weapon, while evidence of the bullets show they came from the same class rifling.
If the cartridges and the bullets came from the same weapon, "it had to be a Glock 9mm pistol," he concluded.
Another witness who was outside MVP in the early hours of June 9, 2018, Elizabeth Williams, took the stand in the morning. She had retrieved Roberts' mobile phone as it was dropped to the ground in the shooting’s aftermath. Her fiancee Chad Murray, who testified Friday, said, in a panic he had wrapped it in toilet paper and buried it outside. He told jurors he could not find it when he later attempted to retrieve it for police.
Davenport police detectives are testifying Monday afternoon.
