when the trial opened on tuesday , june 17 , they were all in attendance.-they heard the attorneys for the prosecution and the defense give their opening statements.-then they began to call witnesses.-one of the sheriffs men told of coming to the oreilly place and seeing the dead body of ramon mendez after it had been so brutally battered by the bullets from the semi-automatic gun used by the killer.- his body had been all but cut in half by the rapid and prolonged gunfire.-we determined the type of gun and ammunition used by the recovery of the shell casings as they had been ejected onto the roadway .