An agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab admitted to defense attorneys in the De’Marquise Elkins murder trial that he could not say definitively that the bullets pulled from the slain baby and his mother, Sherry West, came from the gun that the teen allegedly used in the botched robbery attempt on March 21, 2013 in Brunswick, Ga.
Gun expert Brian Leppard told defense attorney Kevin Gough in Cobb County Superior Court in Marietta, Ga.:
The GBI crime lab cannot confirm nor deny that the bullets found in the victims are the same bullets that were fired from the recovered gun.
The possible guns that the recovered .22 caliber bullets could be fired from multiple types of firearms, including a rifle, two different types of revolvers or a semi-automatic handgun;
Attorney Gough established in court that there were two different types of bullets recovered from the victims, a copper one and a brass one.
The GBI expert testified that he could not say for certain the gun found in the fishing hole on Hwy 17 matched the bullets found in the baby and his mom, Sherry West.
Leppard testified the “microscopic examination of the bullet revealed that it could neither be identified nor eliminated from the weapon, due to a combination of damage and a lack of sufficient individual characteristics.”
Gough forwarded the fact that there could have been two different guns involved in the shooting.
“That would be possible,” Leppard said.
“That would be equally possible,” Gough suggested.
“That would be possible,” the expert repeated.
Elkins, 18 is on trial for the alleged shooting death of 13-month-old Antonio Santiago and injuring Sherry West, 42, on March 21. He faces life in prison if convicted.
