Brain

If Bullet · Step 1

Two places, on the surface

Subarachnoid bleeding around "the cerebellar vermis and the parietal regions"Exhibit 11, pages 3 and 4, as quoted by prosecutors

• The parietal regions are the top and upper sides of the brain.
• The cerebellar vermis is the middle strip of the cerebellum, the small part of the brain low at the back, just above the top of the neck.

If Bullet · Step 2

The vermis sits just above the neck

A spinal cord cut high in the neck bleeds, and that blood can track upward into the space around the cerebellum. That gives a bullet in the neck a way to reach the vermis.

This finding fits either cause. Fits either

If Bullet · Step 3

The top of the brain is far from the path

The parietal regions sit at the top of the head, the far end of the body from a wound low in the neck. No head wound is reported.

A bullet in the neck would need a separate blow to the head to bleed here.

If Bullet · Step 4

Two places, two blood supplies

The two places are fed by different arteries. The vermis is fed by the vertebral arteries, which climb up through the neck bones. The top and sides of the brain are fed mostly by the carotid arteries at the front of the neck.

Bleeding in both at once points to something that reached the whole circulation of the head, not one spot in the neck.

Source: Exhibit 11 Analysis: bullet versus blast

If Bullet · Step 5

Verdict for the brain

Finding	If a bullet
Bleeding at the vermis	Blood can run up from the cut cord	Either
Bleeding at the top of the brain	Far from the path; needs a separate blow	Not reached

Shaped Charge · Step 1

The surge from the chest

When a blast squeezes the chest, the pressure has to go somewhere. Researchers Courtney and Courtney described a "thoracic mechanism" in 2009: a surge driven out of the chest along the big blood vessels and up into the head, where it can injure the brain even though the head was never hit.

Source: Exhibit 11 Analysis: bullet versus blast

Shaped Charge · Step 2

Both places at once

The surge travels in every artery to the head at the same moment: the carotids that feed the top and sides of the brain, and the vertebral arteries that feed the back.

That is how one blast can bleed both the vermis and the parietal regions, two places with two different blood supplies.

Shaped Charge · Step 3

Verdict for the brain

Finding	If a shaped charge
Bleeding at the vermis	The surge, or blood from the cut cord	Fits
Bleeding at the top of the brain	The surge reaches it through the carotids	Fits

What would settle it:

• The full report's description of the brain and its covering.
• His eardrums, the part of the body a blast bursts most easily.
• Any CT scan or X-ray of the head.