Hammers, formerly of the state Medical Examiners Office here and now a New York medical examiner, said she could not say in which order the injuries were inflicted on each victim.
SPRINGFIELD - Dr. Jennifer Hammers testified at Adam Lee Hall’s Berkshire triple murder trial Thursday that she could not say whether the dozens of gunshot, stabbing and cutting injuries to the three victims came before or after death.
Hammers, who did autopsies on the three men, said the fact that they were dismembered - and that by the time they were found there was significant decomposition - prevented her from making some definitive findings medical examiners would ordinarily be able to make.
Hammers, formerly of the state Medical Examiners Office here and now a New York medical examiner, said she could not say in which order the injuries were inflicted on each victim.
The men’s arms, legs and heads were cut off, she said.
She said she listed their cause of death as “homicidal violence,” and for each listed injuries contributing to the death.
Hammers said she could not say if one particular injury in itself was fatal.
Hall, 36, of Peru, is facing 20 charges, including multiple counts of murder and kidnapping from three separate incidents from 2009 through 2011. Testimony is expected to continue Friday.
In August 2011, weeks before he was to testify against Hall, David Glasser and his roommate, Edward Frampton, and their friend Robert Chadwell, all of Pittsfield, disappeared.
Their dismembered bodies were found in Becket nearly two weeks later.
Hall was a ranking member of the local Hells Angels when he, David Chalue, 46, of North Adams, and Caius Veiovis, 32, of Pittsfield, kidnapped the three victims from Frampton’s Pittsfield home sometime in the early hours of Aug. 28, 2011, and fatally shot them, according to prosecutors.
Hall is being tried first.
The trials were moved to Hampden Superior Court after defense lawyers said publicity in Berkshire County would make is impossible for a fair trial.
Carol Chadwell Smith, Robert Chadwell’s sister, sat in the courtroom crying often as the discovery of her brother’s remains and the results of his autopsy were detailed.
Photos of the injuries were circulated to the jury as they were introduced.
Defense lawyer Alan J. Black had asked the photos not be shown on the large screen in the courtroom.
Kinder reminded jurors when they were selected they were asked if they could be fair even after seeing graphic photos depicting dismemberment and injuries.
He asked them to look at the photos without emotion.
Hammers detailed injuries to each man.
Chadwell had a gunshot wound in his cheek; a gunshot wound with holes in his back and front; and two gunshot wounds in the torso.
He had two stab wounds on his neck; two shallow wounds on a wrist; a blunt force injury to the chin causing the lower jaw to have many fractures; and rib fractures.
Hammers described a cutting injury to Chadwell from the pubic region up to the bottom of the rib cage going into the abdominal cavity. Alongside that were four superficial wounds.
Frampton had five gunshot wounds: one in the left cheek; one in the back of the left shoulder; and three in the arms.
There were three stab wounds on Frampton’s jaw line and one on his neck; a wound to the chin; other wounds on the shoulder; and wounds on the torso.
There was a deep horizontal wound in the upper back which went through the skin and muscles of the back which cut the spinal cord; there was a wound in the lower back; and a wound in the left thigh.
There was a wound from the pelvic area to the base of the ribs that went through the abdominal cavity.
Glasser had three gunshot wounds: one through the ear into the head; one in the left jaw; and one on the thigh.
There were three stab wounds in Glasser’s back, two were two inches deep and one was slightly deeper.
There was a laceration on his eyebrow. On the top of the head were three soft hemorrhages with bleeding underneath the scalp consistent with a blunt injury.
Prior to Hammer’s testimony, jurors heard State Police Sgt. Christopher Meiklejohn, who supervises the detective unit for the Berkshire District Attorney’s office.
He said on Sept. 9, 2011, when police received information the men might be buried on a property in Becket, they went there.
They began digging and an excavator was brought in to remove big boulders and a six foot long rock slab. Trenches were made for runoff of a liquid was primarily water with globules of a fatty substance “like the skin on top of turkey soup,” he said.
They began to see black plastic under the slab.
They saw a severed human arm on the top of one bag.
Eventually 15 bags were brought to the medical examiners office, he said.
Early Thursday jurors heard from Henry Sayers of Sayers Auto Wrecking in Pittsfield and Jason Hassan, who worked at the salvage yard.
Sayers said Hall often brought in scrap to sell and was paid by the weight.
Hassan said when Hall brought a Buick in to be scrapped Aug. 29, 2011, the dashboard was stripped apart, the interior was soaked with water, the back seat was missing, there were no rugs on the back floor, and there was no carpet in the trunk.
On Wednesday David Casey testified Hall transported the plastic bags of the mens’ remains in the Buick.
Casey, 65, of Canaan, N.Y., is charged in the case with three counts of accessory after the fact of murder, three counts of accessory after the fact of kidnapping, and three counts of accessory after the fact of intimidation of a witness.