HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jeffrey Nine testified Thursday that Anthony Mendiola was shot three times before dying in Hågat earlier this year.
However, Nine explained all three injuries could have been equally “fatal with the amount of blood loss over time.”
On Thursday morning, the trial for Nathan Jon Ojeda continued in the Superior Court of Guam, with Nine being called as an expert witness to testify about an autopsy he conducted on Mendiola.
Ojeda is on trial for the charge of murder for allegedly shooting Mendiola on Jan. 4.
Nine, who was the prosecution’s witness, conducted an autopsy on Mendiola on Jan. 10, where he determined his cause of death was from multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death was homicide.
During the prosecution’s questioning of Nine, the island’s medical examiner, who has been on the job since November 2022, he testified that Mendiola suffered three gunshot wounds in different areas of his body.
The first was a shot through Mendiola’s abdomen, below his rib cage, that “came out his back and went right through his body.”
The other two shots, Nine testified, hit Mendiola’s left leg and shoulder and did not exit the body.
Nine testified he believed the two bullets struck the ground and ricocheted, which ultimately resulted in the bullets remaining in Mendiola’s body.
“Both look like the bullet struck something before it went into his body. There was a lot of fragments of bullet around and fragments that may have struck his skin around the entrance wound,” Nine said, referring to “shrapnel injuries.”
Additionally, Nine testified, Mendiola was already on the ground when he was shot in the knee and shoulder.
Defense
After Nine answered questions posed by the prosecution relating to the autopsy conducted on Mendiola, which involved Nine specifically going over the report he had written, Ojeda’s attorney Jocelyn Roden started her cross-examination.
Roden, while primarily asking questions similar to those of the prosecution, also asked which shot among the three injuries may have contributed to Mendiola’s death.
Nine stated that although the first shot through Mendiola’s abdomen caused about 1.5 liters of blood to be lost, he could not state whether one shot was more fatal than the others.
“I would not say any of them are more or less contributing. They all … could be fatal with the amount of blood loss over time,” stated Nine, who added the shot to the abdomen would lead to more “rapid blood loss.”
Roden then raised questions regarding where the bullet that entered Mendiola’s abdomen was and about Mendiola’s body position when that shot was fired.
Nine explained he did not have the bullet and that it was not in Mendiola’s body when the body was examined. When Mendiola was shot in this particular area, Nine said, he believed hypothetically that Mendiola could not have been lying down when shot in the abdomen.
For context, Nine said he was tasked only with conducting the autopsy, and he did not know all the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
“I don’t know all the details or the circumstances other than that he suffered gunshot wounds,” Nine said.
Trial
Prosecutor Basil O’Mallan told The Guam Daily Post after Nine’s testimony he intended to call one or more witnesses to testify before resting the prosecution’s case.
It remains unknown whether Ojeda will testify or if his defense attorney will call any witnesses to testify before the attorneys go into closing arguments and the jury begins deliberations.
Ojeda faces life in prison if convicted of the murder charge. However, he also is facing a special allegation of a deadly weapon used in the commission of a felony, charges of possession of a firearm without an ID card and possession of an unregistered firearm as third-degree felonies.
Nathan Jon Ojeda listens to testimony at his trial Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, at the Superior Court of Guam in Hagåtña
Jeffrey Nine
