Autopsy report amended in shooting of Strickland

The paths of a sheriff's deputy's bullets that killed Peyton Strickland are now clearer in the mind of Charles L. Garrett, who performed the teenager's autopsy.

And today, six months to the day after the Strickland shooting, attorneys with the Special Prosecutions Section of N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper's office http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070212/BREAKING/70212002/-1/frontpage">continue to review the case to determine whether charges will be sought against the former New Hanover County deputy who shot him.

Through a spokeswoman, the Attorney General's Office offered no new information about the case Thursday. But recent changes to Strickland's autopsy report help to clarify - at least slightly - what happened http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061203/NEWS/612030440">the night of Dec. 1.

On May 21, after viewing the door to Strickland's house, Garrett changed information on his original autopsy report.

Before that, Garrett believed marks on Strickland's chest came from powder, which might have indicated a closer-range shot or a direct shot. His opinion changed after seeing the door.

"There's no question," Garrett said Thursday from his office in Jacksonville. "Both shots went through the door" before hitting Strickland.

On Dec. 1, Strickland, an 18-year-old Cape Fear Community College student, was shot in the head and right shoulder by former Deputy Christopher Long. Long was part of the Sheriff's Office's heavily armed Emergency Response Team, which was preparing to enter Strickland's rental house at 533 Long Leaf Acres Drive.

Members of the team and UNCW police went to the house that night to search for evidence and suspects in the beating of a University of North Carolina Wilmington student and robbery of two PlayStation 3 game machines from him in November.

New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David has said that Long fired through the front door after mistaking the sound of a battering ram hitting the door for gunfire.

Strickland, a suspect in the PlayStation robbery, was unarmed when he died. His German shepherd, Blaze, was also shot and killed that night.

The significance of the amended autopsy is unclear, and Garrett declined comment. But apparently it was important enough that investigators from the Attorney General's Office brought the door to Jacksonville for the pathologist to view.

Investigators continue to pore over evidence to determine whether to pursue charges against Long or anyone else in connection with Strickland's death. To date, no one has been charged.

Garrett performed Strickland's autopsy Dec. 2. In the initial report, Garrett wrote that powder was found in the center of his chest. But after seeing the door, Garrett concluded that marks on the chest were produced not by powder but by glass fragments from the front door. Garrett described the door as a hollow, wood door with three glass panels.

"What I thought was powder tattooing on the skin of the chest turned out to be glass tattooing on the chest," Garrett said.

Garrett said he believed both bullets that hit Strickland passed through the glass panes first. According to the autopsy report, the bullet that hit his head was "tumbling" when it hit him, causing Garrett to determine it had passed through an object on its way.

The pathologist said it's not unheard of to amend an autopsy report after reviewing the information or after new facts come to light. Of about 450 autopsies handled by his office in a year, about 10 are amended, he said.

In mid-February, David sent the case up the law-enforcement ladder after a New Hanover County grand jury found insufficient evidence to indict Long on a murder charge. In http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061213/NEWS/61213002/-1/news30">a peculiar twist in the case, the grand jury foreman mistakenly checked the wrong box on an indictment form, and Long, in essence, was indicted. The mistake was found a day later, after media outlets widely reported the indictment, and the indictment was rescinded.

Pastor Richard Williford of Long's church, Pine Valley Church of God on Shipyard Boulevard, said Thursday the Long family is "just kind of waiting" for an outcome to the investigation. He said they remain active members of the church.

"They just seem to be handling it pretty well," Williford said.

Long's attorney, Michael McGuinness, didn't return calls to his office or cell phone Thursday.

Sheriff Sid Causey, whose office oversees the Emergency Response Team and has been the subject of significant criticism since the shooting, didn't return a call to his office Thursday.

The sheriff http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061209/NEWS/612090415/-1/news30">fired Long about a week after the shooting. At about the same time, he gave Long $1,000 from contributions to his sheriff's re-election campaign, according to campaign finance reports on file at the New Hanover County Board of Elections.

Patrick Gannon: 343-2328

patrick.gannon@starnewsonline.com