True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews · Real Story Media

Kelsey Fitzsimmons Trial Day 2: Michael Bonasoro — Firearm Expert: What the Gun Actually Showed

·1 hr·3 clips
Bonasaro says microscopic analysis linked one officer’s gun to the bedroom casings and projectile, while excluding the others.
The witness testifies about the firearm evidence recovered in the case. He describes the firearm at the top of the stairs, the magazine with numerous live cartridges, and the loose live cartridge. His focus is the microscopic comparison between the recovered projectile and cartridge casings and the weapons submitted for examination. He says he test-fired all three weapons, then compared the individual markings left by the firing process. His conclusion is that the weapon fired by the officer in the testimony created the discharge casings recovered in the bedroom and the projectile found above the air conditioner. He says he was able to exclude the other firearms. The weapon recovered from the black safe at the top of the stairs gets its own close look. He test-fires that gun using two live cartridges from submitted ammunition. The gun operates. It has no malfunctions. It does not fire the discharge casings or the projectile recovered from the bedroom. The testimony moves carefully through handling details. The box is packaged in the standard way used by the ballistic unit. The firearm is shown to be safe and empty. The slide is locked back. The witness and court handle the weapon with caution before continuing. The episode keeps returning to the same practical question: which gun made which mark. It answers that question with forensic comparison rather than rhetoric. The result is a straightforward expert segment built on the mechanics of proof. The pace stays brisk because the witness is answering direct questions rather than delivering a speech. The tone stays grave because the stakes are a criminal trial. The listener gets a clear view of how ballistics narrow a field of weapons. The episode also shows how a weapon can be operational without being the weapon that fired the scene evidence. It is less about spectacle than about elimination. That makes the testimony feel exact, and the exactness is what gives it force.

As heard by us

A steady forensic segment that keeps the ballistics evidence plain.

At the center of this review is a straightforward chain of proof: the three weapons are test-fired, the microscopic markings are compared, and one firearm is linked to the bedroom casings and the projectile while the others are ruled out.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Listen if you want the ballistics to tell the story, not the speculation.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Listen to the show on