Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
From: [c r philli] at [hound.dazixca.ingr.com] (Ron Phillips)
Subject: Randy Weaver Trial - Day32
Message-ID: <[1993 Jun 9 144300 4596] at [dazixco.ingr.com]>
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1993 14:43:00 GMT

This was posted to the firearms-politics mailing list by
Drew Betz.
=================================================================
Date:         Tue, 08 Jun 93 16:53:15 MST
From: Idaho_Survivalist <[R P SBETZ] at [idbsu.idbsu.edu]>
Subject:      Randy Weaver trial update: Day 32.
To: [firearms politics] at [cs.cmu.edu]


Note: These trial updates are summarized from reports in the
_Idaho Statesman_ and the local NBC affiliate television
station, KTVB Channel 7.

Randy Weaver/Kevin Harris trial update: Day 32.

Thursday, June 3, 1993 was the thirty-second day of the trial.

Synopsis:  FBI agent Dick Rogers was angered by defense attorney
references to the Waco debacle.  FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi
testified today that he did not mean to kill Vicki Weaver.
Horiuchi said he was aiming at Kevin Harris when he fired two
rounds the day after the gun battle that left federal agent
William Degan and Randy Weaver's son, Samuel, dead.

The day began with the cross-examination of FBI Special Agent
Dick Rogers.  Defense attorney Gerry Spence reestablished that
FBI lethal force rules were significantly relaxed during the
standoff between the Weavers and federal agents.  Spence then
sought to connect the lethal force rules in the Weaver affair
with the lethal force rules used in the Waco debacle.  Spence
asked Rogers specifically about the lethal force rules the FBI
used in "shooting Branch Davidians," which angered Rogers.
"Judge, I resent the implication that man is making about Waco,"
Rogers loudly said while pointing at finger at Spence.  Rogers
continued, "Is he [Spence] aware that no shot was fired [by
Roger's FBI sniper teams] at Waco?"  U.S. District Judge Edward
Lodge told Spence to drop the line of questioning and to never
bring it up again.  The line of questioning may, despite the
judge's decision to exclude it, have merit because Rogers was
involved in both the Waco incident and the Weaver incident.
Rogers ordered FBI snipers into position on August 22, 1992, one
day into the standoff.  That very day FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi
shot and killed Vicki Weaver while she was cradling an infant in
her arms.

Horiuchi, a four year veteran of the crack FBI sniper team, was
next to testify.  Horiuchi, a former member of the U.S. military,
addressed both prosecution and defense attorneys as "sir."  In
simplest terms, Horiuchi said that he did not mean to kill Vicki
Weaver and that her death was an accident.  Horiuchi had taken up
a position about 200 feet from the cabin [this is the Statesman's
number - the video on KTVB showed the distance to be much
greater than this, perhaps more like 200 yards].  Horiuchi went
on to say that he believed that Kevin Harris was threatening a
helicopter carrying federal agents when he decided to fire.  Just
as he fired, Horiuchi said that, "it looked like he [Kevin
Harris] was trying to jump through the doorway...I saw him react
like he got punched in the side.  He fell into the door."
Immediately after the shot, Horiuchi heard a woman screaming, a
scream that did not subside for about 20 seconds, after which it
abruptly stopped.  Only later did he find that he had killed
Vicki Weaver.  Horiuchi testified that via his rifle scope he
could see the open door of the cabin, but he could not see
through the window on the door because of the curtain.

KTVB carried some footage of a few photographs taken at the
scene.  It is true that the cabin door had a curtain.  However,
the curtains were pulled back and covered, at the time the photo
was taken, perhaps only half of the window area.  Furthermore,
the curtains were sheer, and it seems difficult to believe that a
sniper could not have seen someone behind the doorway.  Finally,
and perhaps most remarkably, the bullet passed through an area of
the window that was not covered by curtains at all.

The trial is scheduled to resume Friday, June 4, 1993 with the
continued testimony of Lon Horiuchi.
=================================================================
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