I'm wondering if Weitzman saw the rifle while looking between the large gap of the stacked cartons on the pallets
Why wonder?.....Just read what Weitzman testified....
Mr. WEITZMAN - Yes, sir; this is taken the opposite side the flat I was looking under.
Mr. BALL - Looking from the top side of this picture?
Mr. WEITZMAN - Well, I would be looking over--Boone was looking the top side; I was looking under the flat.
"I was on the floor looking under the flat at the same time he [Boone] was looking
on the top side and we saw the gun, I would say, simultaneously and I said,
"There it is" and he started hollering, "We got it."
-- Weitzman
Interesting. If the rifle is beneath the pallet, how can Boone (on top of the pallet) see through the stacked books to the floor?
"Well, I would be looking over--Boone was looking the top side; I was looking under
the flat. We were looking over everything. I was behind this section of books.
I believe there were more books in here."
-- Weitzman
Hmm. "I was behind this section of books"? He's probably crouched down near the floor ("I was looking under the flat") when he saw the rifle trough the gap between the stacked cartons ("I was behind this section of books").
"at the time we found the gun there were no boxes protruding over the gun"
-- Weitzman
Doesn't sound like there's a pallet and a huge stack of cartons over the rifle.
CE 515 (marked by Boone) |
Mr. BALL - Now, 515 contains the arrow which shows the space between boxes
where you found the rifle, is that right?
Mr. BOONE - Yes.
Boone's arrow point to the line of boxes where the rifle appears in the Crime Lab pictures.
"I left Fritz in charge while Deputy Boone and I began looking for the weapon.
...
Boone was about six to eight feet from me when he said, "I see it!"
I stepped over and looked between the cartons and said, "Sure, that's the weapon!"
-- Luke Mooney, in "No More Silence" (Snead, 1998)
"Looked between the cartons".
Mr. BELIN - How far were you from Officer Boone when he hollered?
Mr. CRAIG - About 8-foot.
Mr. BELIN - What did you do then?
Mr. CRAIG - I went over to the--uh--luster of boxes where he was standing and
looked down between the boxes and saw the rifle lying on the floor.
Mr. BELIN - When you say "between the cluster of boxes," could you describe
which way the boxes were?
Mr. CRAIG - There was a row going east to west on the north side of the weapon,
and a box going east to west on the south side of the weapon, and--uh--if I
remember, uh--as you'd look down, you had to look kinda back under the
north stack of boxes to see the rifle. It was pushed kinda under---uh---or up
tight against 'em---you know, where it would be hard to see. And, of course,
both ends of the rows were closed off where you couldn't see through 'em.
You had to get up and look in 'em.
Mr. BELIN - You are gesturing with your hand there---would you say that the boxes,
then, as you gestured, were in the shape of what I would call a rectangular
"O", so to speak?
Mr. CRAIG - Yes, yes, uh-huh.
Mr. BELIN - And about how high were the walls of this enclosure, so to speak?
Mr. CRAIG - Well, it-it was different heights. Now, the part where I looked in
particularly was about---uh---oh, was about 5-foot.
"Looked down between the boxes and saw the rifle lying on the floor". Sounds like they're standing South of the pallets of stacked cartons and looking northward through that gap:
Gap between stacked cartons on pallets is upper center in background.