Medical examiner says Trickey was not shot

CANTON — When a medical examiner testified in St. Lawrence County Court Friday during the murder trial of Wayne T. Oxley Jr., Oxley’s defense showed jurors a little bit more about their strategy.

Oxley, Ogdensburg, is accused of beating his neighbor Bernard A. Trickey Jr. to death with a wooden baseball bat in August 2005.

Oxley was convicted of second-degree murder in 2006, but an appellate court sent the case back for a retrial. A second trial ended with a hung jury.

District Attorney Nicole M. Duvé called Dr. Michael Sikirica, Albany, who described Mr. Trickey’s death as caused by blunt force trauma. He said the murder weapon could have been a baseball bat.

Oxley’s attorney, Peter A. Dumas, Malone, focused on a hole near Mr. Trickey’s right eye. He argued that the hole could have been caused by a bullet, but Dr. Sikirica disagreed.

“There’s no evidence to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that he was shot,” Dr. Sikirica said. “There’s no evidence of any kind of metallic fragment.”

Dr. Sikirica said the hole was a result of a bone puncture and not a bullet.

Mr. Dumas offered a photograph of Mr. Trickey’s body, but Judge Jerome J. Richards would not allow it to be presented to the jury after it was revealed the color was changed.

In cross-examination by Ms. Duvé, Dr. Sikirica said there was no merit Mr. Dumas’s bullet hypothesis. Earlier in the trial, Mr. Dumas questioned police officers who arrived early on the scene about how tear gas could alter their ability to detect gunsmoke.

Judge Richards also dismissed a juror who said previously said she was having dreams that Oxley was chasing her around her family’s barn with a baseball bat.

She was replaced by another female juror because she was having transportation issues.

Mr. Dumas said he expects to bring his first witness, Travis Howe, to testify Monday