Testimony from Virginia Chief Medical Examiner Marcella Fierro brought former University student Andrew Alston to tears yesterday during his trial for the second-degree murder of Charlottesville resident Walker Sisk on Nov. 8, 2003.
Fierro detailed the nearly 20 stab wounds that Sisk suffered as Asst. Commonwealth Attorney Jon Zug displayed photographs of the wounds to the jury and public observers.
During this time, Alston became progressively more unsettled, first removing his glasses and then wiping tears from his face. In the middle of Fierro's account, Alston began sobbing loudly and had to be escorted from the courtroom for the remainder of her testimony.
Several members of Sisk's family choose to leave the courtroom prior to the medical examiner's testimony.
"This is not going to be very pretty," Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Edward L. Hogshire cautioned observers after Alston left the courtroom and before Zug resumed the presentation.
According to Fierro, Sisk suffered two wounds to the face, six to the back, five to his right shoulder, one to his left side, two to his forearm, one to his palm and three on his chest -- including the one responsible for his death.
"The wound that was not survivable here was the wound to the chest," Fierro said.
The efforts of medical personnel to save Sisk's life, however, made it impossible to perform a surface autopsy of the wound, she said.
Instead, Fierro cited Sisk's clothing to conclude that the fatal stab wound was 1 and 1/8 inches long, penetrated at least three inches deep and entered Sisk's heart, she told the jury.
Sisk's death was the result of blood collecting around and compressing his heart combined with the collapse of his left lung, Fierro said. However, Sisk would have been able to move for several minutes after receiving the fatal chest wound, she added.
Fierro also explained that three of the wounds suffered by Sisk could be considered defensive injuries, resulting from victims' instinctual behavior to defend themselves by placing their limbs in the line of oncoming blows. Two defensive wounds were located on Sisk's forearm; another was on his hand.
The wound on Sisk's hand is consistent with the prosecution's suggestion that he may have tried to grab an attacker's weapon in defense, Fierro said.
Alston also suffered a wound on his hand during the incident, which Fierro said could have been unintentionally self-inflicted.
"It's the sort of wound we see when blades slip through the hand," Fierro said.
Day two of the trial opened with witness James Schwab's account of his night with Sisk, a fellow volunteer firefighter. In his testimony, Schwab depicted an easygoing night on the town with friends meant as a goodbye for Sisk, who was scheduled to depart soon for California.
According to Schwab, as the friends departed one by one, Schwab and Sisk found themselves alone on their walk to find a cab after several hours of barhopping. Schwab testified that while heading toward the intersection of 14th Street and Wertland Avenue, they encountered a group of four men across the street, one of whom was Alston. Schwab recalled one of the men -- not Alston -- yelling, "What the f*** are you looking at?" to the pair.
As the exchange of insults grew more intense, the two groups crossed the street toward each other and a scuffle ensued. According to Schwab, three of the men -- who appeared intoxicated -- fell on Sisk in an apparent accident, causing tempers to flare. A further altercation was almost avoided as the two groups peacefully separated themselves.
Then, though Schwab said he had seen no punch thrown, one member of the opposing group yelled, "If you swing at me again I'm going to kill you." At that point, Schwab said Alston threw a punch to Sisk's left arm.
Schwab said shortly thereafter, Sisk uncharacteristically yelled out in pain and doubled over onto a nearby retaining wall as Alston continued punching Sisk. Schwab said he never saw a knife.
Following a suggestion by Jeffery Cabrera, one of the three men with Alston, members of the group fled after the attack, though Schwab said Cabrera stayed behind to assist as Schwab called 911 on his cell phone.
In his testimony, Cabrera, a former University transfer student, also depicted a friendly night gone wrong. After an evening at the library, Cabrera said he decided to go out for the first time with Alston, a recent acquaintance, along with Alston's brother Ken and friend Bill Fegley.
After a night of drinking at the Biltmore and O'Neill's as well as a stop at the White Spot, the men were walking back along 14th Street to a friend's apartment when they crossed paths with Schwab and Sisk.
Eyewitnesses Majkin Klare, who lived nearby at 201 14th Street testified that the altercation involving Alston and Sisk seemed like a standard bar fight at first.
However, the intensity of the fight became clear when someone turned the fallen Sisk over, revealing blood from his chest wound, she added.
"I put the pieces together then that it wasn't an average fight," Klare said.
The prosecution also called forth Karen Graham, who dated Alston from November 2002 to September 2003. Graham testified that she looked at pocket knives with Alston on shopping trips and that he regularly carried a pocket knife.
Third-year Commerce student Erica Schaul, who was Alston's neighbor at 1815 Jefferson Park Avenue last year, testified that she saw Alston with a knife when she visited his apartment the evening of Nov. 7, 2003.
Schaul estimated the pocketknife's blade was four inches long.
"It was big enough to make me feel uncomfortable," Schaul said.
In a preliminary hearing, testimony regarding an alleged assault on Graham by Alston in September 2003 was ruled inadmissible after the complaint was dismissed in court. Also excluded from the trial was Alston's juvenile conviction for aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy in 1998.
The trial is scheduled to reconvene this morning at 9:00 a.m.
--Senior Writer Jason Amirhadji contributed to this report.
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