Autopsy evidence presented in Elder capital murder trial

Apr. 19—Jurors in the 413th District Court sat through graphic autopsy photos Friday morning in the ongoing capital murder case against Jerry Don Elders.

Elders, 40, of Burleson, faces the possibility of death or life in prison if convicted.

Elders stands accused of the April 13, 2021, kidnapping and shooting death of Burleson resident Robin Waddell. The shooting occurred shortly after Elders allegedly shot Burleson police officer Joshua Lott following a traffic stop.

Elders, who has remained attentive, engaged and upbeat at times throughout his trial appeared upset and emotional on Friday as autopsy photos of Waddell appeared on screen. Elders, apart from brief glances at the screen, turned away with his head down and in his hands for the majority.

The pictures showed bullet entrance and exit wounds in Waddell's body. One bullet entered the upper right portion of her back. The second passed through her arm into the right side of her breast into her aorta.

Elders, after fleeing the scene where Lott was shot, abandoned his vehicle a short distance away after it caught fire and fled on foot, according to court records. Elders then allegedly wandered onto Waddell's property where he stole her truck with her in it in attempt to flee the county. A short time later, Waddell apparently grabbed the truck's steering wheel causing it to crash through the gate of the Joshua Police Department's parking lot. Elders at that point allegedly shot Waddell twice as she either attempted to exit the truck or was pushed out of it by Elders.

Waddell made her way to the back door of the police department where she collapsed and died a short time later. Elders fled in Waddell's truck but was located and arrested in Gainesville later that same day.

Lott, shot three times, was transported to the hospital but recovered.

Dr. Michael Chaump, a forensic pathologist with the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office, explained the bullet wound autopsy photos. Chaump labeled Waddell's death a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds.

Defense attorney Bob Gill attempted unsuccessfully to have portions of Chaump's testimony excluded based on the fact that Chaump did not perform the autopsy on Waddell.

Chaump instead relied on his review of autopsy reports and photos conducted by a doctor no longer employed with the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office and no longer lives in the state.

Reliance on such reports raises the Confrontational Clause issue, Gill argued. As such it constitutes hearsay given that a person on trial is entitled to confront their accuser.

Visiting Senior Justice Second Court of Appeals Judge Lee Gabriel, who is overseeing the trial, allowed Chaump to testify as to his findings but not to refer to direct findings and conclusions from the original pathologists autopsy reports.

Jurors on Friday also heard from Mateo Serfontein, a forensic firearms examiner with the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office.

Serfontein presented his findings showing that the bullets collected from the scene where Lott was shot and from Waddell's body came from the revolver found in Waddell's stolen truck in Gainesville at the time of Elders' arrest.

Joseph Andrew Lopez, a forensic scientist with the Texas Department of Public Safety's Waco lab testified on Thursday that DNA collected from the gearshift of Waddell's truck tested a probable match to Elders' DNA.

In answer to Gill's queries concerning possible contamination issues and other peculiarities of current DNA knowledge, Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Miller asked Lopez the actual likelihood that the DNA tested belonged to Elders to which Lopez answered more than a trillion times likely.

Johnson County Sheriff's Office Crime Scene Investigator Kim Burris spent the majority of Thursday's proceedings on the stand recounting the collection of evidence from multiple Johnson and Cooke County locations tied to Elders' alleged crimes.

Testimony in Elders trial is scheduled to resume Monday morning with the state expected to rest that day as well. The trial, which began Monday, is expected to run through at least next week.