Thursday, February 22, 2001

Expert says bullets from discarded rifle killed two teen-agers

By Jim Haley

Herald Writer

Bullets fired from a military assault rifle that was later ditched in a Lynnwood pond killed two teen-agers who were fleeing from a south Everett melee that went horribly wrong, an expert testified Wednesday.

The gun, an SKS semiautomatic, was allegedly fired by Dennis Cramm, 18, who is on trial for two counts of first-degree murder. It's one of two guns a witness testified that Cramm's father had ordered disposed of immediately after the May 30 shooting in south Everett.

Richard Wyant, a weapons expert and forensic scientist with the Washington State Patrol crime lab, said he examined several semiautomatic rifles and numerous spent cartridges found in the Cramms' yard. He also examined bullet fragments found in the bodies of Jason Thompson and Jesse Stoner, both 18.

The two both suffered head and torso wounds when bullets penetrated the steel sheeting of the car in which they were riding.

Wyant said he was able to identify rifling matches on several of the fragments found in the slain teen-agers. Those marks matched tests done with the barrel of the rifle found in the pond, he said. Those marks are distinctly different in each rifle, Wyant testified.

Deputy prosecutor Ed Stemler asked if the rifling marks found on the bullet fragments excluded other weapons.

"Yes," Wyant responded.

He also testified that several fragments could not be identified because they had no rifling marks.

Earlier in the trial, a witness testified that the defendant's farther, Dale Cramm, handed him some hip waders and told him to dispose of the SKS and an AK-47 assault rifle, both of which had been fired May 30.

The witness, John Jauregui, became a key prosecution informant when he led Snohomish County sheriff's detectives to the detention pond on 52nd Avenue W near 168th Street SW.

His family buried the AK-47, which Jauregui admitted firing after the fistfight, and it was later recovered for trial.

Wyant also testified that the SKS and AK-47 assault rifles have a lethal range of up to two miles.

Dennis Cramm is accused of "manifesting extreme indifference to human life" in allegedly firing a volley of shots at a brown Honda that was leaving the scene of a fistfight arranged for him and a then-16-year-old, Martel Baten.

Several people in the south Everett neighborhood ran for cover, and there's evidence of the semiautomatic rifle fire striking residences in the area after the fistfight escalated into a gunbattle.

Wyant said he examined spent cartridges found at the Cramm property, but could not match any of them to the SKS rifle that was found in the pond. That's because only the barrel and trigger mechanism was found, and Wyant needed the bolt to make a match, he testified.

The victims both suffered extensive wounds, testified Dr. Norman Thiersch, Snohomish County's chief medical examiner. Relatives of the victims watched while Thiersch showed the jury photographs of entrance and exit wounds, and described the damage done by the bullets.

Dennis Cramm, meanwhile, sat quietly looking down, with his elbows resting on a table and his head resting on his hands.

The one shot to Thompson's head "caused extensive damage and injury to his brain and would have caused death very quickly," Thiersch said.

Two wounds to the torso missed vital organs.

Stoner, who was hit twice, suffered even more extensive wounds, the medical examiner said. The shot to the head caused extensive brain damage that would have caused death outright, Thiersch said.

The state rested its case Wednesday, and the trial could conclude by the end of the week.