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Tuesday, July 21, 1998

Doctor: Zamora had hand injury but could have attacked teen-ager

By KELLEY SHANNON

Associated Press Writer

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas (AP) - Former Naval Academy midshipman Diane Zamora had an injured left hand but could have killed 16-year-old Adrianne Jones by herself, Miss Zamora's doctor testified Monday.

"Might this make it just a little easier for her to overcome another person who was healthy?" asked defense lawyer Dan Cogdell, holding a 9 mm Makarov pistol in the air.

"That would make it quite simple," answered Dr. Scott Kasden, a plastic surgeon who treated Miss Zamora for left hand injuries she suffered in a pickup truck wreck in the fall of 1995.

Defense attorneys for former Air Force Academy cadet David Graham, 20, in his capital murder trial contend his then-fiancee, Miss Zamora, acted alone in shooting to death Miss Jones on Dec. 4, 1995.

Prosecutors allege Miss Zamora and Graham together murdered Miss Jones while in high school in the Fort Worth area because a jealous Miss Zamora wrongly believed Graham had sex with Miss Jones and demanded that he kill the girl.

Both Graham and Miss Zamora confessed to the shooting death when they were arrested the next year.

Miss Zamora was convicted of capital murder in Fort Worth in February and is serving a life prison sentence.

Cogdell told jurors in opening statements Graham "was not there" when Miss Jones was killed.

Graham, who "worshipped" Miss Zamora, his first love, helped her cover up the crime after he realized Miss Jones was dead and agreed to confess along with Miss Zamora if she were ever caught, Cogdell said.

Testifying for the prosecution, Kasden said Miss Zamora's fingers in her left hand were crushed in the traffic accident in September 1995 and that she had a steel pin in one finger until two days after the December killing.

That would have made it difficult for her to overtake Miss Jones or to break capillaries beneath the skin in Miss Jones' neck by squeezing with her left hand, the doctor said.

A forensics specialist previously testified marks on Miss Jones' neck appeared to have been made by grabbing by wide fingers of a left hand.

Under cross-examination, Kasden agreed the right-handed Miss Zamora could have used her dominant hand to point a pistol at Miss Jones and hit the girl in the head with the butt of the gun.

"She could have accomplished all that rather easily with her right hand," Kasden said.

The doctor also said finger marks on Miss Jones' neck possibly could have been made with a right hand or by some motion other than squeezing - perhaps by pressing a hand with full body weight. The defense suggested the body may have been on the ground at that point.

In other testimony Monday, a blood stain expert said blood traces found in a 1992 Mazda Protege used in the killing appear to indicate more than one person committed the crime.

"I would say it's more consistent with two or more perpetrators because of the blood in the back seat," Max Courtney, owner of Forensic Consultant Services, testified for the prosecution.

Under defense questioning, Courtney said four blood traces in the back seat of the car could have gotten there from someone tossing bloody clothes into the four-door car.

The car belonged to Miss Zamora's family. The heaviest concentration of blood found in the car was on the edge of the driver's seat, Courtney said.

Also, a firearms expert testified a 9 mm Makarov pistol found at Graham's father's home matched the bullets used to kill Miss Jones.

Richard Earnest of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office testified the two shots fired at Miss Jones were from close range - one from three to six inches from her forehead and one from 18 inches from her left cheek.

Graham could face life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty, partly because of the wishes of the victim's family.