Elderts died from gunshot at close range

Kollin Elderts bled to death from a wound caused by a gunshot fired 2 to 3 inches from his chest, the person who perform the autopsy testified Thursday in the murder retrial of U.S. State Department special agent Christopher Deedy.

Deedy, 30, is on trial in state court a second time for the Nov. 5, 2011, shooting death of the 23-year-old Elderts because the first trial last year ended with a hung jury.

Dr. Kanthi De Alwis, a board-certified forensic pathologist and former Hono­lulu chief medical examiner, performed the autopsy on Elderts.

She said she found gunpowder on Elderts’ shirt and undershirt. She said gunpowder can travel 18 to 24 inches.

De Alwis said she also found soot from burned gunpowder on Elderts’ shirt but could not tell whether there was any soot on the undershirt because it was soaked in blood. She said soot can travel up to 6 inches.

She said Elderts’ fatal injury was definitely not a contact wound, which means the gun would have been touching his body when it was fired, because there were no burns on the clothing or skin.

De Alwis said the distance was probably 2 to 3 inches.

There likely is no soot on Elders’ skin because he was wearing two layers of clothing, de Alwis said.

Lawyers for neither the prosecutor nor the defense asked De Alwis for her opinion on which of the three shots Deedy fired in the Waikiki McDonald’s restaurant was the one that hit Elderts as they had in last year’s trial. Police found the other two shots in the wall and ceiling of the restaurant.

Former restaurant employee Brandalynn Salzbrenner testified Tuesday that after she heard the first shot, she saw blood on Elderts’ shirt. She said Deedy fired the first shot when the two men were still on their feet and Elderts was pushing Deedy back and punching him in the face.

Salzbrenner said she heard the next two shots when Elderts was on top of Deedy punching him. But she said Elderts didn’t deliver those punches with the same force as his punches before he was shot.

"I wouldn’t say they were hard punches," Salzbrenner said.

She said Elderts didn’t "wind back" his arms for the punches when he was on top of Deedy as he did when both men were on their feet.