Two experienced forensic pathologists disagree, when it comes to an X-ray, where Eddie Rivera was shot.

An autopsy photo shows Rivera, 32, was shot through the left nipple.

But on an autopsy X-ray, the two expert witnesses disagree exactly where that spot is.

Both doctors testified Tuesday in the murder trial of Sebastian Enrique Olmeda.

Olmeda, 23, is charged with the July 2, 2011 shooting death of Eddie Rivera. Olmeda's jury sat through the second day of testimony on Tuesday in the York County Judicial Center.

Dr. Samuel Land, testifying for the prosecution, showed the jury with an autopsy X-ray how the bullet penetrated Rivera's chest, through what he said was the left nipple. He placed the entrance wound between the fourth and fifth ribs, showing that spot on an enlarged X-ray with a laser pointer.

Visible in the X-ray were two pieces of a copper shell casing. One piece was located in the dead man's heart. The lead core of the bullet was lodged in the right, rear chest wall.

The bullet, Land testified, had moved in a downward direction through Rivera's body, puncturing both lungs and the heart.

Dr. Jonathan Arden, testifying for the defense, agreed with the injuries, but said Land had erroneously arrived at his conclusion on the bullet's path.

Arden said Land was correct that the bullet entered between the fourth and fifth ribs. But, he said, Land had used the fourth and fifth ribs near the spine as a starting point to conclude the bullet took a downward path.


He told the jury that the ribs curve out and down so that all of the ribs are lower in the front of the body than the back. The location of the entrance wound, he said, was lower on the X-ray than the spot identified by Land.

Arden said an upward trajectory would result in the injuries that Land had documented. But a downward trajectory, he said, would have resulted in injuries to the heart's major vessels -- the aorta and pulmonary artery -- which, according to autopsy results, were not injured.

The differing medical testimony plays to the prosecution's and defense's theories on Rivera's position when he was shot and where Olmeda was standing.

Witness breaks down

Lydia Rivera-Ortiz, referred to as Eddie Rivera's aunt in court, clarified that she is the aunt of Rivera's girlfriend.

She told the jury that she and the victim had been at a bar and then gone to her Pattison Street home sometime after 2 a.m.

She said there was a group of people in the parking lot behind her home and she went to speak with some of them who she knew.

She told the jury a man she did not know told her to get out. Rivera-Ortiz said when she responded, she was assaulted by several people but not by the defendant.

She said she got up and walked to her house where Rivera was in the back yard. She said they went inside and Rivera saw three men enter the back yard through the gate.

Rivera-Ortiz said she went out to see what they wanted and Olmeda said, "Tell your son to come out, or I'll go in and get him."

She said she told Olmeda that Rivera was not coming out and he was not going in. She broke down in sobs when she said Olmeda pulled a gun and shot Rivera through the storm door.

Because of the late hour and the emotional testimony, Judge Michael E. Bortner called a recess to the trial until 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Contact Rick Lee at 717-495-1782.