Final Goetz Trial Witness Rebuts Defense Claims

Testimony concluded Monday in the seven-week trial of Bernhard H. Goetz with an expert for the prosecution casting doubt on the subway gunman’s claim the four youths he shot were standing around him when he opened fire.

Suffolk County Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch, the prosecution’s last rebuttal witness, said it was medically impossible to determine how the victims were positioned when they were shot.

Hirsch’s testimony contradicted expert testimony by defense witnesses that the youths were standing in a threatening semi-circle around the gunman and could not have been seated.

Goetz has asserted he acted in self-defense because he thought the four youths, each 19 at the time, were going to rob him on a Manhattan subway train Dec. 22, 1984.

Hirsch said he “strongly” disagreed with earlier testimony from Dominick DiMaio, the city’s former chief medical examiner who on Friday testified that Goetz’s victims were standing in a semi-circle around the gunman when he opened fire.

Hirsch said the bullets that hit victims Barry Allen and Darrell Cabey, who was left permanently paralyzed and brain-damaged, traveled from back to front, bolstering the prosecution’s contention that the youths were shot in the back.

Testimony concluded on Monday afternoon and Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Stephen Crane said summations would begin Wednesday to accommodate a juror with an important appointment today.