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A forensic pathologist told the jury in the Anthony Oddone murder trial late last week that he believes it is possible that Andrew Reister died suddenly while struggling with Mr. Oddone because of a weak heart, and not because Mr. Oddone held him in a choke hold until his heart had stopped for several minutes.
Dr. Daniel Spitz took the stand for the defense on Friday afternoon shortly after the prosecution rested its case against Mr. Oddone. Dr. Spitz said that previously diagnosed medical conditions, such as sleep apnea and heart palpitations, which had once caused Mr. Reister, who was 40 at the time of his death in August 2008, to lose consciousness while sitting in his car at a stoplight, can cause stress on the heart and make a person more likely to suffer sudden death. Mr. Reister’s weight—a particular point of contention in the trial—and the fact that he had a slightly enlarged heart, something discovered during an autopsy, added to the possibility of sudden death, Dr. Spitz said on the witness stand.
Mr. Oddone, 26, of Farmingville is charged with second-degree murder and accused of intentionally killing Mr. Reister, a Suffolk County correction officer and father of two from Hampton Bays who was working part-time at the Southampton Publick House. Witnesses have testified that Mr. Oddone held Mr. Reister in a choke hold from behind during the scuffle at the bar on August 7, 2008, until long after he had lost consciousness, despite bystanders’ efforts to make him release the hold. He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
The trial took a turn for the theatrical during the prosecution’s cross examination of Dr. Spitz this week.
Almost as soon as she began cross examining Dr. Spitz—a county medical examiner from Michigan, called by the defense to challenge testimony given by Suffolk County Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. James Wilson—Assistant District Attorney Denise Merrifield questioned not the doctor’s previous testimony but his personal motivations for appearing on the stand.
With objections from Mr. Oddone’s attorney, Sarita Kedia, accompanying almost every question, and many of those objections sustained by Judge C. Randall Hinrichs, Ms. Merrifield asked the doctor if he had recently taken a pay cut at his job, and if he was merely testifying for the defense to offset his loss of income. The doctor tried to answer her questions with explanations, over Ms. Merrifield’s demands that he answer with only a “yes” or “no” response, even pounding her fist on a table at one point.
“Isn’t it true, Doctor, that you’re testifying in this case to make up the lost income?” Ms. Merrifield asked, raising her voice dramatically. “Isn’t that the only reason you’re here, Doctor?”
“Absolutely not,” Dr. Spitz responded dismissively.
He did acknowledge that he had been paid some $16,000 for his testimony, in line with his typical fee for giving similar expert testimony in trials across the country, which he does often. He said he bills about $4,000 per day that he is out of his home county. He also acknowledged that budget cuts in Macomb County, Michigan, led the district attorney’s office there to propose cutting his consulting fee for testifying in trials there, but he denied that he has taken a salary cut or that his testimony in the Oddone case was related to his Michigan contracts in any way.
An October article in the Macomb Daily newspaper, which Ms. Merrifield referenced in her questioning, reported that the local district attorney wanted to cut Dr. Spitz’s trial appearance fee from $250 to $125 an hour, an approximately $10,000-a-year reduction. Dr. Spitz is already the county’s highest-paid employee, the article said, earning more than $200,000 in annual salary to serve as the part-time county medical examiner for Macomb County, separate from his appearance fees. He is also the medical examiner for a neighboring county, as well as making regular appearances on a variety of television shows as an expert in facts surrounding death, according to the Macomb Daily.
Ms. Merrifield asked Dr. Spitz if he’d only gotten his job because his father, a renowned forensic pathologist who worked on the investigation of the Kennedy assassination, had held the position before him. Dr. Spitz similarly denied the accusation.
Dr. Spitz, the second witness called by Ms. Kedia, stood by his earlier testimony that he felt Mr. Reister could have died a sudden death during the struggle with Mr. Oddone because of existing medical issues rather than from the choke hold. He said he thought Dr. Wilson had misinterpreted some of the medical facts uncovered during his autopsy of Mr. Reister’s body. Under questioning by Ms. Kedia on Friday, Dr. Spitz said that a variety of medical problems with which Mr. Reister had been previously diagnosed, including sleep apnea and heart palpitations, could have weakened his heart and put him at risk for sudden death.
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Nice try though.
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And HB4Life may not "need an NYU Law Degree," but some knowledge of the law might be a good idea.
Oddone doesn't escape a conviction, but it won't be for Murder 2.
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Have a good Thanksgiving.
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