Report Detailing Knife Tests Is Released

After a prolonged legal battle, Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito on Wednesday released coroner’s reports detailing, among other things, efforts to determine what kind of knives could have made the deep, slashing cuts that killed Ronald Lyle Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.

During last summer’s preliminary hearing, defense attorney Robert L. Shapiro elicited an admission from Dr. Irwin Golden of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office that there could have been more than one knife used in the June 12 attack.

If true, that could bolster the defense’s contention that more than one assailant was responsible for the killings and could undercut the prosecution’s insistence that only O.J. Simpson committed the crimes.

During that hearing, Shapiro sharply asked the deputy medical examiner when he intended to determine how many knives were used.

“Now?” Golden responded.

In fact, however, the report detailing the study of various knives is dated Jan. 13, six months after Golden’s preliminary hearing testimony and just weeks before opening statements in the murder trial. Steven J. Dowell, a criminalist with the coroner’s office, performed those tests by stabbing a fresh hog belly with four types of knives.

“I cannot rule out the possibility that the stab wound in the . . . cases might have been produced by knife 1 or 2,” Dowell wrote. One of those knives was a German stiletto; the other was a kitchen knife with a 5 1/2-inch blade.

The reports also indicate that coroner’s officials searched the bodies for microscopic evidence that might help identify the weapon or weapons. That search was unsuccessful.

The reports released Wednesday also describe each of the wounds to the two victims and note that no drugs were found in either body.