Sparland man says he saw Judith Berchtold being shot

A Sparland man testifying Wednesday afternoon in the ongoing Tony Smith murder trial gave the most complete account yet of the shooting of Judith Berchtold last spring.

Tad Kingen, who lives near the intersection where the incident occurred on April 11, said he witnessed what prosecutors believe to be the fatal shot from the deck of his home.

After he and his 13-year-old son heard shotgun blasts from inside the house, Kingen said, he ran out to the deck to try to see what was going on. He said a man walking near two vehicles that had stopped end to end was carrying a gun and appeared to be reloading it.

"Then he took a stance and fired," Kingen testified.

Kingen emphasized he did not know Smith and could not identify the person he saw that night, but he was certain about the gun and the shot. At a prosecutor's request, he demonstrated for jurors the actions of a man bending to take careful aim and then firing at a somewhat downward angle.

"I saw a (muzzle) flash," he said.

Berchtold, 49, was found dead near Smith's pickup. She had been shot five times, four of them from behind, according to a forensic pathologist who detailed the wounds earlier Wednesday.

One was a blast to the back of her head that ended her life instantly, said Dr. Violet Hnilica, who did an autopsy two days after the shooting. Massive wounds to her lower left leg and right thigh probably would have caused her to bleed to death within minutes, Hnilica said.

A shot to her lower back shattered the woman's right elbow and caused rib and lung bruising but no internal bleeding, Hnilica said. A shot from her right side caused superficial injuries to her chest and left arm, the doctor added.

One thing the autopsy did not find was evidence that Berchtold also had been beaten with the 12 gauge shotgun, which prosecutors allege. Her skull's condition made that impossible to determine, and there were no signs elsewhere on her body, Hnilica said.

"There was almost no part of the head that was intact except around the left eye," she testified.

Jurors were shown close-up photos of all wounds except the one to the head, which co-prosecutor Steven Nate decided not to display even after Judge Stephen Kouri gave approval. Kouri denied defense objections that showing the photos would prejudice the jury.

"The mere fact that photos are gruesome - and they are - does not necessarily mean that they're unduly prejudicial," Kouri said. "The photos are gruesome because the alleged crime is purported to be gruesome."

In other testimony, an Illinois State Police forensic scientist explained why a small section of a shotgun part called the receiver, which attaches to the stock, had been sawed off while in police possession. That had stirred defense suspicions on Tuesday.

Lyndell Moore said the cutting was necessary to get access to part of a bolt that had snapped when the stock was broken off. Moore said he needed that to verify that the stock at the scene was part of the original gun.

"I removed the trigger mechanism and cut this back portion off so I could do my examination," he said.

The prosecution case could conclude Thursday with evidence expected to include the tape of a 911 call that Berchtold made from the scene. The day's testimony will be preceded by an argument about whether prosecutors will be allowed to introduce potentially incriminating statements that Smith has made to jail personnel while in custody.