A medical examiner was among multiple witnesses to testify in the Michael Isaac Russ (Member of Hell’s Angels MC) murder trial Tuesday.
Russ, 40, of 4511 Colonial Circle, Trinity, is charged with murdering Larry Wayne Campbell (Member of Iron Patriots MC), 27, of Denton on Dec. 22, 2017.
Campbell, a father of three, was shot and killed in a parking lot outside BBQ Joe’s Country Cooking, 4873 NC 62, Trinity.
King Dozier, along with Assistant District Attorney Walt Jones, are prosecuting the case. The defendant is being represented by Thomas Manning and Allen Swaim, both attorneys from Wake County.
Superior Court Judge Bradford Long is presiding over the case.
Following testimony by several former members of the Iron Patriots biker club Tuesday, Dr. Kimberly Janssen with the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner took the witness stand.
Janssen, who was deemed an expert in forensic pathology by the court, performed the autopsy of Larry Campbell’s body in 2017 after he was fatally shot.
A diagram and pictures were used to illustrate the three gunshot wounds Campbell received.
The first shot — though not necessarily the first shot fired; Janssen offered no opinion as to the order of the shots — described was on the left side of Campbell’s chest.
Janssen testified that shot, which caused a significant amount of blood loss and struck multiple internal organs, is likely to have been the fatal shot.
A second shot was observed on Campbell’s back and a third on his hand.
According to Janssen, her autopsy of Campbell revealed he was otherwise healthy prior to his death. The cause of death was determined to be “multiple gunshot wounds and homicide.”
When the defense was given the opportunity to question the doctor, Manning tried to illustrate that the trajectory the bullet took through Campbell’s hand would have been most likely had he been holding his hand at an angle at which he was holding/aiming a firearm. Janssen did not disagree with the angle Manning described.
Next to take the witness stand was Capt. Steven Nunn with the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office.
Nunn, who was with the Criminal Investigation Division in 2017, took a statement from Roy Pruitt, Campbell’s close friend and an eyewitness to the fatal shooting, the day of the incident at BBQ Joe’s.
“He was upset. Visibly shaken,” Nunn said.
Notes from a statement he took from Pruitt on scene matched up with prior testimony given, except in regard to Pruitt’s employment. In court, he testified he worked at a golf course, but to Nunn, he stated he worked for Coca-Cola.
Nunn was also involved in downloading information from the defendant’s electronic devices.
However, when Nunn was presented with Russ’ iPhone to do a download of it, he discovered the phone had been wiped clean and was restored to factory settings.
“All the data on it was removed,” Nunn said.
Nunn also made a copy of Russ’ computer hard drive. Information was extracted from three different computers.
Images which have yet to be shown in court were extracted from two of the three computers.
Dr. Ruth Winecker, a retired chief toxicologist for the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, tested the post-mortem blood of Campbell in 2017.
Winecker, deemed an expert in forensic toxicology, performed multiple different toxicology tests on the blood.
″(The tests) look for drugs and poisons,” Winecker explained.
The only substance found in Campbell’s blood was caffeine.
Deputies testify
Deputy Travis Short with the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office briefly testified Tuesday.
Short was en route to the shooting at BBQ Joe’s on Dec. 22, 2017, when he was alerted to Trooper McHenry on the interstate about a possible suspect.
When Short responded to the traffic stop with McHenry and the defendant, he engaged in small talk with Russ, who he described as “calm and respectful throughout” the entire interaction.
Short testified that after a detective arrived and escorted Russ to the sheriff’s office, Russ’ truck was towed.
Deputy Kayla Addison was the final witness to take the stand Tuesday.
Addison, assigned to the crime scene unit, photographed the scene at BBQ Joe’s on the day of the shooting.
Photographs were shown to the jury of items — Campbell’s gun, wallet, license, etc. — on the ground at the scene. An image of a trail of blood was also shown.
In addition to photographing the scene, Addison also took photos of the inventory inside of Russ’ truck. Not only was a Hell’s Angels jacket located, but a number of weapons were as well.
A shotgun, pistol, rifle, knives and boxes full of ammunition were discovered in the vehicle. As Addison presented the evidence to the jury, Dozier took each piece and rested it in view of the jury on the prosecution’s desk, filling a good portion of the table by the time all of the evidence had been shared.
Court dismissed for the day following Addison’s testimony and resumed Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m.
By noon Wednesday, the jurors had yet to be brought into the courtroom as the state and the defense debated one of the state’s witnesses who has yet to take the stand in front of the jury.
Doug Pierson, who the state plans to introduce as an expert witness on the Hell’s Angels, was brought into the courtroom without the jury present in order to discuss his report he plans to present.
Whether or not Pierson can be deemed an expert witness is at the center of the discussion. Time spent questioning Pierson, debating and reviewing case law overtook the first half the court day Wednesday.