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Homicide trial

October 19, 2007

Jury sees animation of Dennis shooting

Prosecution shows re-enactment depicting how man might have shot wife.

WILKES-BARRE – Carli Dennis was in bed, lying on her stomach. Her head rested on her left side, atop a pillow.

Standing alongside the bed, her husband, Jeff, towered over her, his back hunched a bit.

He had a pistol pointed right up against the right side of her head, by her ear.

Then came a flash.

Jeff Dennis fired.

That was the image shown Thursday to a jury hearing Jeff Dennis’ trial on homicide charges in Carli’s death. The image was a computer animation re-enactment of how police and prosecution experts believe Jeff Dennis used a 9mm pistol to kill his wife.

The animation, produced by 21st Century Forensics Animation in Texas, was done by prosecutors to rebut Jeff Dennis’ claim that Carli killed herself inside their home Feb. 27, 2006.

But its producer, Randy Matzkanin of 21st Century, came under fire from defense attorney Al Flora Jr.

Under cross-examination by Flora, Matzkanin conceded some parts of Carli’s body, like her left hand, were not put in the animation in accordance with any police or expert reports. They were put in the animation in any fashion because Matzkanin didn’t feel it was important, he said.

Flora did.

The defense attorney also thought it was important that the animation failed to show the trajectory of the bullet’s casing after it was fired.

And he wondered how Jeff Dennis, who has a girth of 48 inches, could have fit between the bed and a dresser, as shown in the animation, when the distance from the edge of the bed and middle of the dresser was not that far.

The brief re-enactment, presented by Luzerne County prosecutors Jackie Musto Carroll and David Pedri, was the first time such computer animation has been used at a criminal trial in Luzerne County.

Matzkanin told the jury the animation was based on information provided to his company by police and prosecution experts who analyzed evidence in the case.

Some of the evidence on Thursday again focused on gunshot residue.

Alfred Schwoeble, of the RJ Lee Group, an expert organization group, testified he analyzed the clothing Jeff and Carli Dennis wore when Carli died.

Both of their clothes had gunshot residue on them, he said. But Jeff Dennis’ jeans had the highest amount, he said.

Still, Schwoeble conceded the residue evidence gives no definite clues as to who fired the weapon.

The tests show the clothing was in close proximity to a gunshot or came in contact with something contaminated with gunshot residue, he said.

That, Schwoeble said, means neither Jeff Dennis nor Carli can be positively identified or ruled out as the shooter based solely on the residue evidence.

But he did say he would expect Carli to have a higher amount of residue on her hands if she fired the gun.

Carli had 16 particles of gunshot residue on her hands. Jeff Dennis had 95 particles on his hands.

A 9mm, Schwoeble said, would leave a lot of residue when fired, more than what was found on Carli’s hands.

Under questioning by Flora, Schwoeble said the amount of residue could decrease if Carli’s body was disturbed before the residue test was performed.

The experts and animation are part of the prosecution’s attempt to clear the dispute over how Carli died.

They also think Jeff Dennis’ own words, some of them conflicting, implicate him, they’ve said.

After Carli’s death, Jeff Dennis began telling people different stories as to his whereabouts when he claimed Carli killed herself.

He told friend Raymond Westphal he was standing in the hallway, Westphal testified Thursday.

He told Carli’s friend Rebecca Smith that Carli “died because of what she did to me.”

Smith testified Jeff Dennis told her Carli killed herself, and he initially said he was in the hallway when it happened.

Then, he later told Smith he came home and found Carli, Smith testified.

He told Carli’s stepmother, Sue Bitterman, he was sitting next to Carli when she shot herself, Bitterman testified.

And when Jeff Dennis found out an autopsy was performed, he fumed, she said.

“What do you mean there was a full autopsy?” Dennis asked, according to Bitterman.

Then, Jeff Dennis told Carli’s father, William Bitterman, he was out in the hallway when Carli fired, William Bitterman testified.

And he told Jill Bitterman, Carli’s biological mother, he was sitting at the foot of the bed when he heard the shot and turned around.

Carli’s family said they became cut off from Carli once she married Jeff Dennis. He became controlling, they said.

“Things started to change,” Sue Bitterman testified. “The closeness was not there.”

There’s no way, Carli’s mother and father said, that they believed Carli would kill herself.

“She enjoyed life to the fullest,” her father testified.

But under questioning from defense attorney William Ruzzo, Carli’s stepmother conceded Carli also never came to her looking for help from her husband. And Jeff Dennis never told them to stay out of their lives, she said.

Testimony will continue today before Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Conahan.

David Weiss, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7397.

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