7 Burst results for "Ruger Evolver"
CounterClock
"ruger revolver" Discussed on CounterClock
"There was a couple of folders where there was a bunch of evidence photos. And I was like, what is this? Yeah, and you put those up for people to see, right? On the website? Yeah, so everything is on the blog post for this episode. It's on the website, counterclock podcast dot com. And you guys really need to take a look at these pictures because they are truly better than anything that I could have imagined. It's just great. So for one thing, I feel completely validated that the gun are firearm expert. I mentioned Aaron burnell. He purchased and test fired like an exact model comparison of John's gun. So it wasn't John's gun, but it was like literally the next best thing. And so it now having a picture of John's gun, I know, based on what the pictures of the gun Aaron tested, like they're exactly the same. There's no difference. So I felt really validated that we did as unique and great of a comparison experiment as we could. And so that made me feel really good about his findings. And secondly, there's one photo of John's gun that I think is absolutely critical and I kind of want you to read what's on the gun in this picture, Ashley. Yeah, and it's like engraved in it, crystal clear. So this picture shows Ruger's manufacturer stamp literally etched into the metal on the side of the gun and it says new model single 6. You can not miss it. Exactly. So there is no denying in my mind that the gun police took into evidence the gun in this photo, John's gun was the Ruger model that had the new and improved safety feature, which prevented it from accidentally firing if it was dropped. Yet without question, but okay, so this kind of brings up something. What about Mel senior's gun? So we knew that they both had these Ruger revolvers. They were identical guns, right? Pretty much. Yeah. You mentioned that that gun could have been accessible to anyone at the farm when John died. Do we have pictures of that or anything? So that's a question that a lot of listeners wrote in about, like I reported on in the show, the whereabouts of Mel senior's gun are still unknown. And I don't I don't have a true evidence photo of that because it was never taken into evidence. So there is there isn't anything to look at it with. But all I know is just maybe in Carey's storage unit or maybe save it away. So it's weird about. Like I said, it's really one of those things that just floating out there, but I do think it's really important because I know that investigators never took it as evidence despite Matt John's older brother telling de Soto county sheriff's office about it. We know Carrie skips fiance had no seniors gun at one point. Now whether she still has it or sold it in a four Wheeler transaction, cash transaction like she said she did that's still kind of murky to me, but I did have a listener reach out who thought that he might have located mouse seniors gun. And this is something that came yeah, it came birthed out of the podcast and so I did not get a text about this. Wait, what happened? Yeah. So no joke, no joke. Through a string of different people from Arcadia. See, there's a people who like, you know, they know I listen to the show, but they're like, this is our community, but they've since moved away, they got in contact with a man who said that after his dad died a few years ago, he got a box of his dad's stuff, and in it was a Ruger 22 single action 6 shot revolver, just like John's, like literally carbon copy. So this guy told me that his family went way back in Arcadia, and he even sent me pictures and videos of this gun that he had, and it was an older model Ruger, 6 shot revolver, but none of the serial numbers on his gun came close to what law enforcement noted that the serial number numerics were for Mel senior's gun. So wait, hang on. So law enforcement took the time to note down the serial number of Mel's gun. Yes, but didn't take any pictures or collect it. Right, so it's in a report where law enforcement takes down a serial number because Matt is the one to take it out of the safe at the home and show it to them and they take down a serial number for it, but they do not take it into evidence, or at least they don't document themselves taking it into evidence. Right, so Mel senior's gun is just this, you know, it's just this giant question mark. But back to the guy who wrote in and was like, I think I might have his gun. It didn't have the same numerics, like I said. And it also didn't have any initials engraved on it. So it didn't have Mel senior or skips, you know, since they have the same name, it didn't have that on it. And it actually did though have some crude etching of the initials C and M, like on the handle, but this again, this looked like somebody took a nail in scratch. It was not engraved or done in any professional way. Though that was an exciting false alarm. Yeah, it was such a false alarm. It did kind of result in a dead end as far as I can tell. Delia, if you would have found another 22 that could have potentially solved a case, like you'd be setting like a real precedent for yourself, season three, season four. What is with all these 22? I know. 22s are like the gun in every show I have. But yeah, so I think it would have been great to have that one, but since season four came out though, I've done a little bit more digging into the history of Mel senior's gun. I've been trying to find facts about it that I can verify, and researching the serial number, right? I mean, because that's like, that should be, that should have been a slam dunk as far as like, okay, here's the gun. Here in possession of it now, like if it went through any sort of legal transaction. But you said, in the show, you were like, oh, it's missing missing a number, right? Right, right. So initially when I read the police reports where the serial number for Mel senior's gun is written down, I mistakenly thought it was missing a numeric or that it was recorded wrong, but it turns out it wasn't. And thanks to a listener who wrote in her name is Jessica, shout out to Jessica. We were able to find out a little more about the gun and to correct that information and get some clarity about that serial number and stuff. So it turns out that the serial number for Mel's gun, which is 20 zero 5 four 8 5, is just a really, really old serial number in Ruger system, and it's not one that you can search in Ruger's online database. So like every time I was plugging it into their website, which is really well done, by the way, you just put it in, I kept getting an error message, and so I just thought that it was like nonexistent. I was like, okay, something's wrong here. But Jessica, she actually worked for Ruger for 5 years and several of her family members still work there. And they're familiar with how to track down these old serial numbers that don't come up in the normal search. So thanks to her getting me access to an older serial number database, we officially confirmed with Ruger's records that Mel senior's gun was made some time in 1969, so it was definitely not this new model single 6. It was older. And I actually found the flyer for Ruger's recall for that gun, and if you want some light entertaining reading, you can go look at that flyer. It's on the blog post for this episode, but I mean, it clearly says this gun was recalled. It had a bad hammer it had a bad.
CounterClock
"ruger revolver" Discussed on CounterClock
"Pat strader's statements to police from day one have always been that she had no idea what ammo went to what guns in her house, or really any knowledge about firearms whatsoever. I don't shoot guns. They can talk about the 44 to 7 millimeter and the Magnum, I don't know what in the world they're talking about a gun is done. I can't tell you what's arrival and what shotgun. She claimed to be completely ignorant of John's interest in guns and was unaware what ammunition he used or why. When they stored the gun in there, did he typically unload it or did he leave it loaded? I don't know. I don't handle that gun so I don't know. Did he normally wear the gun when he went out in the wood? I can't answer you, did he do it over time? Pat didn't know anything about a box of 17 caliber red tip bullets being in Mel senior's pickup truck. And she had no idea where John got them from. He found those somewhere in something. The only thing she remembered was that John asked her about the bullets right before he loaded his revolver and went over to take the trash to the Woods on the day he died. John came to me, I was in the computer room and he said, grandma, where are these any name to mall? And I said, John, I don't know. I said, junior friend is funeral as we had people in the acclaim and I said they'd laugh at this shoved it anywhere. So we went in the kitchen and opened the drawer one round on the corner. He said, here they are. I said, in what kind are those? And I believe it's one of those parts that wouldn't the mushroom out. I said, man, you better be careful of those. So to summarize everything for you to make it a little less confusing. We have Patrick skinner Mack wells and Matt wells all saying they knew 17 caliber ammo was at the straighter home and John became aware of it shortly before his death. But max specifies that John told him he found the ammo in Mel senior's truck and Matt at first said that too, but then later claimed he'd never seen the bullets before. And lastly, we have pad with a completely different story that says John got a hold of some red tip bullets, but they were not in the safe. They were in a kitchen drawer. Here's my point with all of this. There's no doubt there were two identical Ruger revolvers in the mix back in O three that were both capable of being loaded with 17 caliber ammunition. Rounds of that kind of ammo may have been stored in two places in the home. The safe and the kitchen drawer. But in my mind, the only way 6 bullets get in the kitchen drawer is if Matt or someone else put them there after unloading Mel senior's gun. If it was in fact unloaded and stored in the safe like Matt said. If no 17 caliber bullets were ever put in the kitchen drawer, then pat's whole story about John finding them there before he went into the Woods is a lie. Where I'm going with this is that I feel there's a very real possibility that either gun could have been used in John's murder. Why law enforcement didn't consider this scenario in 2003 is something I can't explain. I mean, detectives were told about the two guns. They were told undersized ammo was loaded in each of them, and they knew all of their suspects could have accessed them. Documents in the case files show that after talking to Matt, FDLE agents seized as evidence, the 6 Hornaday bullets that Matt claimed were the rounds he took out of Mel senior's gun. But at no point was the actual firearm seized. It never underwent ballistics tests or a forensic examination. It was never fingerprinted or sent for forensic testing. It was never considered relevant in the investigation. But I think it could be really relevant. So that's why I had to find out what happened to it after the crime. Turns out, it didn't go far. It ended up with skip and our team only found that out after speaking with Carrie, his former fiance. The only guns that I have left of skips, I have in a holster, I believe it's a Ruger, I believe it's a sick shot. And then skips name is engraved on it. Do you have that here? In my storage building. Kerry made that comment when David and I interviewed her at her house. And I think as soon as she said it, she had a realization. I don't know if I should have even brought it up. That's odd. I think I followed up with her after that, and she agreed to take me to her storage unit and look at the gun. But then every time we tried to meet up, it couldn't happen for one reason or another. Then one day, Kerry called and told me that she actually didn't have the gun anymore. She said she'd forgotten to tell me that she sold it in an exchange for a four Wheeler, a few years ago, and it was a cash deal. The irony. Anyway, I wasn't sure what to make of Carey's story about selling the gun and forgetting to tell us. She seemed pretty sure during our initial recording that she still had it in her storage unit, and to be honest, we kind of felt like she had connected the dots about how relevant the gun really was. We felt like she just didn't want to let us see it. But the truth is, I have no idea whether or not Carrie has the gun anymore. If she did sell it in a cash deal in order to buy a four Wheeler, like she said, then, so be it. That sale likely wasn't conducted through the proper channels. So finding a record of who purchased it from her is slim to none. I also can't look up the serial number for it because when police wrote it down in their reports, they incorrectly missed a digit, so I have no way of tracing it. The good news is that the firearm itself is pretty unique. It's an old model 6 shot single action Ruger revolver. That's engraved with Melvin Eugene straighters name. I'd say that's kind of distinct. So whoever has that gun now, if you're out there listening, please contact me. That firearm could be of extreme importance to this case. I'm not saying ballistics tests would confirm conclusively. It was involved in John's murder, but maybe just maybe DNA analysis could be done on it, even this many years later. I know that seems like a long shot, but it's not impossible. DNA labs international confirmed that the testing they're doing now to retrieve small samples of DNA from firearms is the best it's ever been. How long an item is sad or possibly been in an unideal environment is not as big of a challenge thanks to advances in technology. So when we're measuring how much DNA is there, we're able to see smaller quantities now. Amplification where we basically make Xerox copies of the DNA, we do that now more locations and with higher efficiency than we previously did. And then also the last part where we're actually generating that DNA profile, those instruments have all been updated and made more sensitive. Even a tough conditions we've gotten DNA from a gun that was recovered from the intercoastal, which if you're not familiar with Florida is like a canal that kind of runs adjacent alongside the coastline. So obviously not ideal circumstances, we were able to get touch DNA off of that gun. I think it been in there. Do you remember I was a week? Yeah. It was in the intercostal for a week in saltwater. But there's definitely technology and we barely need any DNA to get results at this day and age where they needed a lot more back then. So the likelihood of us getting something now is much more likely. What.
CounterClock
"ruger revolver" Discussed on CounterClock
"This is episode 14 statistics. When it comes to recreating a crime scene, there are guidelines on what to consider and what not to consider. Someone who knows that without a doubt is Erin brudenell, the forensic firearms expert and crime scene analyst who we hired to evaluate the John wells case. There's a phrase we have in reconstruction circles. It's called the limited universe. It's like a filter. You're building a giant filter with all the facts that you can assemble from the case to help sort out what's possible from what's not possible. What's likely from what's not like and try to compare scenarios. But what you never get at the end of this is, oh yes, this is exactly what happened. When Erin and I first went over the facts known about John's crime scene, the scenarios of what could have happened to him based on the evidence seemed pretty straightforward. Aaron conducted tests to rule out suicide. Then he looked at whether John's revolve or had the capability of firing. If its safety features were overwhelmed, which he proved with a high degree of certainty was not possible. Finally, Aaron evaluated scenarios that pointed to murder, but not murder by a total stranger. Martyr by someone present at the southeast tantal property that day. Someone who made sense in the limited universe of the case. You can never rule out this hypothetical possibility of some unknown shooter, came in, fired a shot, but we tend to disregard that because we're using the limited universe of what we have available. The facts that point to John being a victim of a homicide are as follows. One. The shot that killed him came from several feet away. Two. It's statistically impossible for John's revolver to have gone off accidentally. And three, his body somehow got from the four Wheeler to a watery ditch roughly 40 feet away. For Erin and Kent harshbarger, the forensic pathologist who I also consulted for this show. Those three factors support John's death being a homicide. So I think in the very beginning they were going down this pathway is, this is an accident. Knowing the weapon part, now that that's brought to my attention, I don't see how you can call it an accident. When I confirmed through case documents and transcripts that another 22 Ruger revolver, just like John's was accessible at the southeast hansel property the day of the crime, that changed things for Aaron brunel. For him, it widened the scope of the limited universe in the case. Meaning, in order to be thorough, Aaron believes authorities should have evaluated Mel senior's gun as an important piece of evidence just as much as they considered John's revolver. In this case, because you have another God that apparently does have the older lack of safety features and potentially even some kind of family significance that makes it more valuable to the family. And you also have that when you say there's an 18 hour period where the gun was taken and no one over was or no one whatever. That stuff enters the limited universe just fine. Aaron says the existence of the other 22 single action 6 shot revolver opens up another possible scenario for consideration. He suggested that perhaps John was actually carrying his grandfather's revolver in the Woods on July 8th, and it was that gun that went off by accident. But then when suspects in the case discovered that gun and John's body by the four Wheeler, they manipulated the scene to remove Mel's gun and swap in John's for some reason. What if he had that gun? What if that was the gun he had there? And that was the whole reason it went off. That's a whole lot easier to reproduce. You're not having to overwhelm safety features with massive force or exotic circumstances. And since they take the gun away, maybe they just like, well, this is the family heirloom. Let's just say it was this gun instead. I mean, it could be as simple as that, which would want to explain the accident a lot easier. And then you have at least some kind of post scene manipulation. Maybe even innocently. Well, we know this gun is going to get taken by the police. Let's give them his gun since it doesn't have any engraving on it or something. That's not a family heirloom. I don't know. That's one of many possibilities. It's not an absurd scenario to think that maybe that was the gun he was carrying. That's why it went off by accident. And it was substituted for other reasons. Now, I know what you're thinking. That scenario is kind of wild, and really speculative, and you're absolutely right. There's no proof that's what happened. But it is a scenario you have to consider in the limited universe of what we now know in light of Mel senior's revolver, being in the mix as a potential alternate weapon. I'll be honest with you, though. I'm not 100% convinced that's what happened. However, because Mel senior's gun was never processed as evidence, will never know if it was fired that day as the actual murder weapon, or if it was discharged as a result of an accident and then covered up. Let's just say for a minute, though, that Mel seniors revolver was the actual murder weapon. That means John's revolver was a plant, and if Patrick skinner is right, then just like he's always claimed, John's gun was fully loaded when he found it. But at some point between the evening of July 8th and mid morning on July 9th, someone realized that in order for police to believe that John's gun was the gun that fired the bullet that killed him, there needed to be a spent casing in the cylinder. So someone took the spent 17 caliber shell casing out of Mel senior's gun and put it into John's revolver before handing John's revolver over to law enforcement. Again, let me be clear that's just a scenario to consider. It's not a theory police ever looked into, but it's one that the evidence could support. And even though it's a bit conspiratorial, Patrick admits it's a viable theory that would explain a lot. They come out of my possession into their possession, okay? Obviously they were very careful not to touch any part of the gun. Even though it was in a holster to not have anyone with my fingerprints that's just weird. Patrick's fingerprint being the only print on John's gun is kind of weird when you look at the grand scheme of things. This is a point I've made once before this season. If you consider D.C. essos current theory that it was John's revolver that went off, you'd at least expect to find his fingerprints on the gun along with Patrick's. So why was Patrick's fingerprint the only print on it? Why did DNA labs international not find a shred of John's DNA on the gun when they processed it in 2010? Then it hit me. It might not have been cleaned intentionally by the killer to remove evidence at all. It might have been clean all along. Just follow me here. I know for a fact that John was meticulous about cleaning and wiping down his revolver. There are multiple people who corroborate that, including Patrick skinner. John took care of his things, especially as knives as guns. He was actually a cling freak in some ways when it comes to that stuff. And Beth flowers. Beth told detectives during her July 2003.
CounterClock
"ruger revolver" Discussed on CounterClock
"Really good chance he would survive. That's a pretty wild finding when you stop and think about it. If John had been hit by a 17 caliber bullet, shot out of a 22 revolver, anywhere else on his body, other than his eye, he might have survived. I find that really compelling and extremely tragic. 22s are very deadly weapons. They can be. I mean, and the fact that this was using the wrong ammo made it less deadly, but it still killed him. Had that shot hit him right beforehand. I don't really know what happened. But there is definitely a good chance that he would have had a survivable injury. And I guess that's where I would leave it on that. So if we're looking at a scenario where someone intentionally shot John, then the shooter more than likely had to have known that they needed to shoot John in the face if they were going to kill him with a 17 caliber ammo shot. I guess to be fair, though, you also have to consider a scenario where maybe the shooter never intended to kill John, but they picked up his revolver, they accidentally pulled the trigger, and by sheer coincidence, the bullet entered in the exact area of John's face that caused the most damage. These are all factors and scenarios that one would think bevel Gardner and associates would have considered and worked through before delivering their final findings to James curdy in 2017. But for some reason, the firm didn't. And I want to know why. When I contacted bevel gardener and associates for this story, the firm declined to comment about its work on the John wells case. A secretary told me that because they were a private entity, they weren't obligated to provide me with anything, which is true. For months, all of my emails to the group's 5 partners have gone unanswered. And the only address I could find for the business is a billing address in Edmund Oklahoma. The first of many questions I have about BGA's involvement in the case is why James curdy chose them as a consultant in the first place. It seems strange to me that the DeSoto county sheriff's office, a small department in the middle of nowhere, Florida, would ask a forensics firm in Oklahoma to evaluate John's case. In 2017, why didn't de Soto county just take its new theory to FDLE again? A state agency it had already worked with. Why not choose a forensics consulting firm in Florida to look at the case? There are plenty of them. Why tap bevel gardener and associates for the job? The answer to that question remains unknown. This whole idea, though, of bringing in a third party firm to prove something isn't a murder, has always puzzled me. It felt unusual. And doctor William Anderson, the initial medical examiner on John's case, shares the same sentiment. Have you ever worked or been familiar with bevel gardener and associates? Or heard of them? No. I mean, this is the type of thing you'd say if the police are sure it's a homicide and nobody will agree with them. Because they want to make sure that they can prosecute a homicide. So that's when you would bring in somebody of everybody disagrees that it's a homicide and the police think it's a homicide. That's happened occasionally. But the other way around is just I've never heard of this happening before it's amazing. Doctor Kent harshbarger, a forensic pathologist with decades of experience, is also perplexed as to why DeSoto county sheriff's office would hire bevel gardener and associates as a consultant instead of a state lab or even the FBI lab. After reviewing the firm's 5 page report, Kent was surprised and honestly a little concerned by how BGA staff spoke with a sense of authority on things, they had no credentials to be weighing in on. I think it's unusual. I don't think it's wrong. They're like problem I have with the report and I just, it's assumption I'm making. I don't know, they talk about cause of death. Well, they're not qualified. If they're a crime scene analyst people, great, but to say he could have walked and all those some of their comments that they put in that report. Unless they have the appropriate consultant involved, but a crime scene person shouldn't be making those kind of comments in my opinion. I'm not sure I'll ever feel super awesome about the whole bevel gardener and associates de Soto county relationship, but regardless of why the two entities crossed paths, the fact remains that they did, and the result altered everything for John's case and his family. The last type of testing airing conducted before wrapping up his work for us involved firing 17 caliber ammo from the revolver to see if any bullets could be matched exclusively to that firearm. The police have always assumed that the bullet doctor Anderson found in John's skull was shot from his own gun. But technically, back in O three, FDLE could not say for sure because the bullet didn't have rifling on it that allowed them to say with 100% confidence that it was shot from John's revolver. When Aaron conducted similar tests, he was faced with the same challenge. Because 17 caliber ammo is too small for the barrel of a 22 caliber gun. The bullets don't get microscopic etching on the sides, essentially a fingerprint for the gun they come out of. Rifling like this on a bullet allows examiners like Aaron to say for sure what specific gun the cartridge was fired from. Aaron says the lack of rifling on the 17 caliber round that is alleged to have come out of John's revolver is super important to this case because it can't rule out other 22 caliber firearms as potentially being involved. My associate producer David Payne asked Erin about this specifically in one of our interviews. With law enforcement being able to definitively say whether the bullet recovered was from that particular gun that they think was the murder weapon. No. In fact, very critically because there's no rifling engagement. There's going to be no tool marks left behind on that bullet to identify it to that particular firearm. Any other gun that is a 22 Magnum chamber firing that type of ammunition would be indistinguishable scientifically. So if the testing we did on a firearm that's identical to John's shows it's highly unlikely his Ruger revolver went off accidentally. Then I think we have to at least consider that James curdy and bevel Gardner and associates findings could be wrong. Which means the information they provided doctor Russell Vega was wrong. And the end result is that John's case is no longer being investigated as a crime. But I'm not sure it can stay that way for long. Despite dcso being so convinced that.
CounterClock
"ruger revolver" Discussed on CounterClock
"Plus. This is episode 11, switch. In November 2007, four and a half years after John wells was killed. The Florida department of law enforcement crime lab, packaged up all of the evidence related to the case and sent it back to DeSoto county sheriff's office for storage. The stuff in the box is in bags included John's Ruger revolver, DNA extracts from previous testing done in 2004. The unfired 17 caliber bullets, the wood spent shell casing, the holster, the belts, and all the other stuff that investigators had taken or swabbed from the crime scene or suspects. Around that same time, the wrongful death lawsuit Helen had filed against pat and skip was in full swing. With the exception that skip was no longer named in it because he died of a heart attack shortly after it was filed. So that left pat and Helen to duke it out in court. Over $15,000 in damages that Helen wanted. That legal fight would still be a few years from resolution, which meant DCS O detective Kurt maize still couldn't get access to pad, a suspect who had never fallen off his radar. Kurt was left with really only one option to continue submitting case evidence to forensic labs hoping new advances in technology would provide him with more clues. And because FDLE had sent everything back to DeSoto county, Kirk could easily get items of evidence to labs for further testing. But he didn't do that right away. Instead, he waited two more years. In December 2009, Kurt sent John's revolver to DNA labs international, a private forensics lab in Deerfield Beach, Florida, about a three hour drive from Arcadia. The lab was asked to perform touch DNA extraction from the grip of John's gun, and the cylinder. Areas that a person holding it would have had to press their skin close to if they fired it. Those little nooks and crannies could have held traces of DNA that prior tests had been unable to pick up. People say touch DNA and air quotes, a lot of times, like it's not real, but it is real. We've been testing it. We've been getting touch DNA results for the past 16 years. That's Allison noons, chief operating officer of DNA labs international. What I called to ask if she'd be willing to talk about her company's work on the John wells case. She agreed, with the exception that we talk in generalities, not case specific details. She also invited her director of research and quality assurance, Rachel a fly to join us. The lab has a policy of not disclosing information about specific cases they've worked on. Unless the investigation into those crimes has been resolved in the courts. From reading through the case file, I knew that by early 2010, DNA labs international had been unsuccessful in retrieving DNA from John's revolver, despite their best efforts. According to a report submitted to dcso on January 12th, 2010, lab techs with DNA labs international said they didn't find any DNA profile on the gun or the cylinder after running multiple tests. Allison and Rachel told me that back then, most touch DNA requests that came in were worked as thoroughly as they could be. However, due to technology limitations at the time, DNA extraction was harder to do on a piece of evidence like a firearm that had already gone through fingerprinting several prior rounds of DNA testing by another lab, and then sat in storage for years. Sometimes there's mistakes that are made that could contaminate the evidence so that you can not use it. Sometimes depending on someone might have, they might have lost a chain of custody. At some point, which is detrimental to the case, if you're ever going to go to court. So there's this various challenges when it goes from lab to lab, but there's so many things we can do now that it's common to see that. I'll get into those things that Allison just mentioned they can do now in a future episode. But for the time being, back in 2010, DNA labs international being unable to find any genetic profiles on the grip or cylinder of John's revolver, left Kurt Mays with yet another dead end. He'd taken his shot in the dark and got nothing in return. To add insult to injury, Kurt spent months spinning his wheels investigating a tip from a prison inmate in the Florida Panhandle named Richard estes. Richard claimed to have knowledge about John's murder. Richard's story was that he'd been at a party in a motel in Arcadia in 2007, and overheard a person talking about the murder. But he refused to provide authorities with the name of the alleged killer until he got a reduced sentence. Kurt eventually determined Richard's story wasn't credible. In early 2010, pat and Helen's wrongful death lawsuit came to a close, and the judge did not side with Helen. For the rest of 2010 and most of 2011, Kurt tried to talk to pat a few times, but got nowhere. Then he moved on and conducted a few more interviews with John's friends, and even drove to re interview Ralph strader. Pat's brother in law, who law enforcement news skip had called the day John died. According to transcripts from that interview, Ralph told Kurt that he couldn't recall any more, whether or not skip had specifically told him on July 8th that John had been shot. Ralph said, it might have been the day after, or even a few days after, when word got out that the ME had found a bullet in John's head. Ralph told Kurt that his fading memory just wasn't strong enough. And he ended the interview saying, regardless of what he remembered or didn't remember, he felt confident that Patton skip were not involved. After that interview, nothing really happened in the case. Until May of 2011, that's when DeSoto county sheriff's office sent John's right boot back to the FDLE lab to have touched DNA extraction done on the heel. If you remember, John's right boot heel had been the only thing not submerged in water when he was found. Law enforcement's theory was that John had been dragged to the water, possibly by his feet with his shoes still on. But unfortunately, no DNA was found on the boot heel. For the next 5 years, nothing happened with the case. It stayed dormant until 2016, when Kurt May's retired, and the investigation got reassigned to a new detective, James curdy, a newcomer to the de Soto county sheriff's office, who'd previously worked for other law enforcement agencies in Southwest Florida. Within a matter of months, James made up his mind as to what he believed really happened to John. According to what he wrote in his reports, James spent the first 6 months of 2016 reviewing the case evidence and re interviewing key witnesses. By the end of his evaluation, James determined that John was responsible for his own death. In a 6 page summary of his findings, James explained that he believed John was carelessly playing with his revolver cocked, while at the trash pile, and it fell out of his hands or out of his holster, which caused it to accidentally discharge several feet from his body. In his opinion, James felt certain that after John's gun went off, the teen didn't realize he'd been shot, and in a disoriented panic from the burning sensation flooding his eye socket, John stumbled off the ATV and crawled roughly 40 feet.
CounterClock
"ruger revolver" Discussed on CounterClock
"He said he was coming back. What does that mean? There'll be more. I'm with you every moment. I'm with all of you. Shining girls. Now streaming on Apple TV plus. This is episode 12 science. When I first read DeSoto county detective, James Curtis report that stayed at John wells Ruger revolver might be able to go off accidentally if it was dropped or was being slung around in the cocked position. I had questions. To me, that seemed to be a pretty big assumption. One that detective curdy could only make if he knew for certain it was possible. James had been able to convince doctor Russell Vega, the 12th district medical examiner in Sarasota. Enough that Vega had changed John's manner of death from homicide to undetermined. James backed up the theory he shared with Vega, thanks to support from third party forensics firm, bevel Gardner and associates. But here's the thing that's always bothered me. Bevel gardener and associates never performed ballistics test to prove this accidental shooting assumption was even possible. The firm's 5 page report on the case doesn't detail any field experiments they conducted with the case evidence, or explain with measurements or data, any reconstructions they did that ultimately support the sequence of events James curdy claims happened. Everything that went down between 2016 and 2017 with the sheriff's office, James curdy, and bevel Gardner and associates just feels very loose, very unscientific. So I decided to look into things for myself. Particularly the specs of John's firearm, a 22 Magnum single action 6 shot revolver. My first stop was going directly to the company that manufactured that gun. Ruger firearms. My associate producer David and I wanted to know if the company had ever issued a safety warning or recall for John's gun. Because if you'll remember, James curdy wrote in his report, quote, this Ruger model had a recall warning issued for it, advising owners not to carry it or store it in the cocked position. What I wanted to know from Ruger was was that true. The serial number for the wells firearm is two 6 three. Two 6 three. 9 6 6 two 7. Ruger's website allows you to plug in a serial number for a firearm, and within a few seconds, you can tell whether or not a specific model has ever been recalled or had safety warnings issued for it. There it is, that pulls it up. It's a single 6, 22 caliber Ruger. What David and I learned is that Ruger started manufacturing John specific revolver in 2000. It was a new model that had brand new safety features built into it. An older model of the same style gun did have a safety warning issued for it, telling owners not to carry it in the cocked position. But Ruger's data made the distinction between the model of revolver John owned and the older one, very clear. How can we look for any recalls? So they'll indicate on any model number gun that you have, whether it's been recalled. So the fact that this cereal number comes up in Ruger with the picture and it says new model single action 6 revolver. This confirms for sure. John's gun was not recalled by Ruger. That's right. So they have a list on their site of all the recalled models. This is not one. That's critical. David and I felt pretty confident in what we'd found online. But for me, just plugging in a serial number on a website, still didn't feel scientific enough. So in order to really know for sure whether or not it was possible for John specific model of revolver to have gone off accidentally, I hired a nationally recognized firearms examiner who purchased the same make and model gun from Ruger. We'll probably depending on how this goes. Aaron brudenell specializes in firearm ballistics testing and reconstructions. He has more than 20 years of experience in crime scene analysis, firearms, and tool mark examination, and has worked for 5 accredited crime labs in four U.S. states. This guy knows his stuff when it comes to guns. Aaron was able to get his hands on a Ruger 6 shot single action 22 Magnum revolver with a 6 inch barrel, manufactured the same year as John's. He's been a few weeks evaluating documents from the case file, and during our first interview over Zoom, clearly emphasized why at first glance, it might have been easy for law enforcement to assume John's gun was flawed, just based on Ruger's safety warning history for prior models. There have been instances of earlier Ruger single action revolver designs that were, I wouldn't consider them unsafe. They were just archaic, which is to say that it was possible you could fully load the revolver with ammunition, and then if you lowered the hammer, it was resting in such a way that it was against the firing pin and an impact to the rear gun. We very easily set it off. When I first heard about this case, oh, yeah, the old rugers that have the firing pin set the way it is. Okay, I can see that going off. These new ones, much less likely. So this gun is not the type of Ruger firearm that is known or prone for that. So if you were to drop the gun under normal circumstances, it shouldn't go off. After our first interview, Aaron spent several months conducting a series of ballistics tests on the stand in gun that was essentially an identical twin to Johns. We don't have access to the firearm and evidence. So I have to take a few things on faith that the testing I did with my reference gun is comparable to what would be done if I had access to that firearm. To make the comparison as close as possible, Aaron also purchased 17 caliber Hornaday red tip bullets. The exact same ammo that was loaded into John's gun back in 2003. For several weeks, Aaron studied the mechanisms of the revolver and documented each of his experiments on video. He focused closely on assessing the functionality of what's called a transfer bar. There are pictures and diagrams of this mechanism for the gun on our website. So definitely check them out if you want a clear picture in your mind of what Aaron is referring to when he says the term transfer bar. This is a very important safety feature that's really relevant to this case. So it's a single action. What that means is you have to actually pull the hammer to the rear and the trigger performs a single action just releases them. So as I pull the trigger here, you watch it fall, and that's how firing event would occur. What happens is it falls, it's a transfer bar and that transfer bar completes the circuit. But the transfer bar is linked to the trigger. So if that trigger is not pulled, that hammer will fall and it will not set to go off. So essentially, unless you pull the gun's trigger, which causes the transfer bar to rise into place between the firing pin in the hammer, the gun won't go off. The hammer will still fall, but it will never be able to strike the firing pin unless the transfer bar is put in place. Period. Mack well's John's dad knew about this safety feature when he bought the revolver for John. It's the main reason he says he purchased it in the first place. Mack felt that this improved design by Ruger, made the revolver much safer for John to carry. Regardless of.
Gun & Gear Review Podcast
"ruger revolver" Discussed on Gun & Gear Review Podcast
"About me so we might have nowhere. So that did that did give any. It's here for review so eventually we'll get to reveal on it now. Tony now that i made you just about you know die. I know the you had a diversity shoot so you can tell us what you did besides that and that if you would like okay cool man. July has been a heck of a month for the diversity. Shoot thank you for all. The people volunteered and helped us out everything else. But good lord is kicking my butt Diversity shoot last night Got home at like one. In the morning woke up for to go to work. It was really cool we also had. Us lawshield out there And he gave his presentation at your c. j. f. o. New jersey's busiest second amendment rights group. They came and it's cool guns on online. I bought out the high point and hightower armory chassis. Annaborough product ruger ten twenty two and a high point in high. Tom re chassis just to get people to see something totally different. We had Really cool guns including a frigging savage one. Ten and three away was allowed enough but we still had fun and we even had one of our trainers help out a lady who dude i gun gun store of course convinced it again. A three fifty seven or thirty eight seven taurus revolver. Because that's what all women should shoot. Well okay yeah yeah okay now about what. She's doing what she's never shot. A gun before. Nasa work a double action revolver in. We have david rosenthal who is like with a guru guru's when it comes to training in the matt Her at seven yards during the zipper as in punch with the pistone. Just pull the trigger. Taylor was empty. Control recoil in san round straight ups in a lot and shoot what off hand. We didn't have a lot of people so he was able to concentrate on her actually help her learn how to use a gun that she'd never shot before until she showed up at our awesome. So i'm glad we had time for that. Is that was a person that wants to have a firearm. To protect yourself but the gun shop did her. No favors osama way see the counter to buy a ruger revolver getting worry morris tap dancing. Good lord almighty chad lead me but yeah that's like two two strikes against the gun shop. Taurus thirty eight snub-nosed choice to shooter sexism. Right there it is what it is man but it was. It was a great diversity. Shoot rains. It's frigging newest range state. It is pristine clean on Really nice guys. Sad part is they. They don't sell ammo or rent guts. So it's just a local rank and with a decent price. I.