Time element complicating Oki case: Forensics expert

Time element complicating Oki case: Forensics expert

JAKARTA (JP): A forensics expert told a court hearing
yesterday that after two years it would be difficult to determine
the exact cause and time of death of the victims in the Los
Angeles triple murder case.

Abdul Mun'im Idries, from the University of Indonesia's School
of Medicine, said a two-year-old corpse poses great difficulties
for examiners. The university's top forensic expert had been
asked by lawyers to testify at the Central Jakarta District Court
for 32-year-old Harnoko Dewantono, alias Oki. The defendant has
been charged with murdering three people in Los Angeles between
August 1991 and November 1992.

The three victims were Suresh Mirchandani, an Indian who was
the defendant's partner; Indonesian woman Gina Sutan Aswar; and
Oki's younger brother Tri Harto Darmawan, alias Eri. Their bodies
were found in August 1994 in a warehouse locker at a U-Haul
Storage facility in Los Angeles, after its contents had been
auctioned off. The locker had been neglected for months.

Generally, he said, forensics experts can only determine with
accuracy a corpse's identity and possible causes of death. It is
much more difficult to determine when. After two years this task
is made even more difficult, he said.

"It is difficult to say if Eri died after the other two
victims," said Abdul Mun'im after examining forensic reports by
experts from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

In previous court sessions, the LAPD's forensic experts had
suggested that the time of Eri's death was later due to the
condition of his heart and lungs, which were heavier than the
other victims'. But, explained Abdul Mun'im, because Eri had been
more physically fit, this could explain why his lungs and heart
were found in a stronger state.

Detectives and ballistic experts were also called to testify
at hearings last year.

Regarding the Indian victim, Abdul Mun'im cited the LAPD's
forensic reports, which said that Mirchandani had his chest cut
open and his lungs and heart taken out while he was still alive.

However, Abdul Mun'im said that Mirchandani was clinically
dead when his chest was opened -- meaning that the brain was dead
even though the kidneys were still functioning. He was responding
to lawyers' questions about whether or not the victim was alive
or dead when cut open.

Abdul Mun'im said it was a fact that the victim's chest had
been split open as blood remained in the wall of his chest. But
this does not mean that Mirchandani was still alive, or that his
heart was still pumping, as Los Angeles experts had suggested.
Abdul Mun'im then suggested that the blood might not have come
from the heart's arteries.

The Indian's body also had a bullet hole in it, but Abdul
Mun'im said that it could not be determined from which direction
the shots came from.

LAPD detective Ted Ball told the court earlier that he
believed that Suresh had been shot from a short distance in a car
driven by Oki.

Given the difficult examination of the bodies, Abdul Mun'im
said a stronger basis for determining the circumstances of death
could only come from witnesses. (07)