BELL COUNTY, Texas — Before the first week of Carmen DeCruz's trial wrapped up, forensic scientists took the stand and analyzed the firearm used during the deadly shooting of Michael Dean.
DeCruz is accused of killing Michael Dean during a traffic stop in 2019.
Here is an overview of what happened in court.
Texas DPS Texas Ranger Samuel Travis Dendy took the stand again to examine the interview recording of DeCruz after the shooting. Two different recordings were played; one taken before DeCruz saw the body camera footage and one taken after seeing the body camera footage.
In both recordings, DeCruz said he thought Dean may have been reaching for his gun during the incident. The state attorney looked into if this was true and if Dean ever touched DeCruz's weapon.
Multiple specialists taking the stand, with one of them being DNA specialist for Texas DPS Agatha Eason. Eason did an examination of the gun DeCruz used on the night of the shooting taking multiple swab samples of the gun and other items on the scene.
It was revealed that three DNA samples were found on the swab from the gun but Dean's DNA was not present on the gun in any way.
Texas DPS forensic scientist Jeffery Kelly took the stand to further explain his analysis of the firearm DeCruz used during the shooting.
In the recording, DeCruz mentioned that he did not shoot Dean intentionally and Dean may have grabbed for the gun, touching it during the incident.
Kelly confirmed that all three safety functions inside of the firearm were functional and the gun could only go off if the trigger was pulled.
To make the body camera footage easier to see for TPD, the jury and attorneys, Texas DPS Multimedia Forensic Scientist Elinor Hehir was required to do a frame by frame analysis, de-pixilation, stabilization, and correction of the lighting in the video.
She corrected a total of four videos with enhancements for clarifications with an additional frame by frame of the body camera footage of the incident.
Trial will continue Mon. Jan 30. 6 News will continue to provide full coverage.