A firearm examiner has told court that he was unable to make a conclusive finding on whether the bullet that hit DJ Evolve alias Felix Orinda came from Babu Owino’s gun.
Inspector Reuben Kiptum Bett, a firearm examiner at DCI Headquarters told Senior Principal Magistrate Bernard Ochoi that the bullet he received to examine had foreign markings on it making it hard to conclude whether it was fired from the said gun.
“On the surface of the bullet, there were foreign markings indicating that the bullet had passed through a hard surface” the examiner said.
He added, “it could have passed through a concrete wall which is known to give bullets foreign markings.”
Bet further told the court that there are many other types of firearms that can fire the type of bullet (9mm) he was examining such as a Ceska pistol. Babu Owino’s firearm was a Steyr Mannlicher pistol which also uses a 9mm bullet.
According to the examiner, he received the exhibits among them a gun, spent cartridge, 9 bullets, 85 bullets and the fired bullet on 17th and 21st January 2020.
He was to determine whether the gun and the bullets and spent cartridge were compatible.
ALSO READ:state-witnesses-claim-police-wrote-statements-for-them-in-babu-owinos-shooting-incident
The Embakasi East MP Paul Ongili alias Babu was charged with misuse of a firearm after allegedly shooting DJ Evolve at B Club in Kilimani.
Bett said that in the course of his examination, he fired several bullets from the bunch he had in order to determine whether they were compatible.
The court heard that even though the markings on bullets differ from gun to gun, they will appear different if the bullet hits a hard surface such as a concrete wall.
During cross-examination by Babu’s lawyer Dan Okatch, the examiner said that he never visited the scene of crime nor did he know the source of the exhibits.
During re-examination by the prosecution, the witness said that it is possible to make a conclusion on an exhibit without visiting the scene of crime.
However, he added that the same would depend on the exhibit you are handling.
