Doctor at pharmacist's murder trial testifies it is possible unconscious, wounded robber had involuntary movements

Under defense questioning, prosecution witness Chai Choi agreed Antwun “Speedy” Parker could have had involuntary movements or seizures that could have been perceived as a threat.

“That is possible,” the doctor testified at Jerome Jay Ersland's murder trial.

Testimony is set to resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Oklahoma County District Judge Ray C. Elliott sent jurors home early Tuesday afternoon because of approaching storms. The trial could conclude Friday.

Ersland, 59, is accused of going too far when he shot Parker five more times inside Reliable Discount Pharmacy in south Oklahoma City on May 19, 2009. He shot Parker again after chasing a second robber away, security camera recordings show.

Prosecutors contend physical evidence and the pharmacist's own actions prove Parker didn't move after the shot to the head knocked him to his back on the drugstore floor.

Defense attorneys contend Ersland bravely defended himself and two female co-workers.

Choi did not do the autopsy on Parker. She reviewed autopsy records in order to testify at the trial because the doctor who did do the autopsy was fired. Choi has worked in the medical examiner's office 29 years.

She told jurors Parker, 16, would have lost consciousness very quickly after being shot in the head. She said the shot sent a lead fragment into the boy's brain. She called such a brain injury probably fatal but survivable if treated properly and immediately.

She said Parker was alive when he was shot five more times in the chest and abdomen. She said blood loss from those injuries shows his heart was beating. She said the last five shots “speeded up death.”