Renfro trial focuses on officer's gun

COEUR d’ALENE — The firearm that shot and killed Sgt. Greg Moore could not have accidentally discharged in Jonathan D. Renfro’s pocket.

The holster carrying the gun that Renfro kept in his jacket pocket had a security snap that prevented the 9mm Glock from accidentally discharging, a detective testified on the third day of the murder trial in Coeur d’Alene’s First District Court.

“The holster is designed to make it difficult to draw a pistol out of it,” Detective Jerry Northrup of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office Major Crime Unit said.

In addition, the Glock Model 26 that prosecutors say Renfro used to shoot Sgt. Greg Moore in the face from less than 2 feet away has two safety mechanisms that must be disengaged before firing. It will not shoot unless someone intentionally pulls the trigger, Northrup said.

Renfro, 29, is charged with first degree murder in Moore’s death two years ago and faces the death penalty. He sat quietly Thursday beside his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Linda Payne, wearing a dark suit and glasses.

Deputy prosecutor Dave Robins used a large photograph of the firearm to show jurors the safety catch on Renfro’s Glock that was recovered from the field south of West Pointe Parkway in Post Falls.

“To pull the trigger, this must be pressed,” Northrup said.

Does this prevent accidental discharge of this firearm? Robins asked.

“Yes sir,” Northrup replied.

A Post Falls police detective found the handgun in knee deep brush not far from where Renfro was apprehended as he hid in the undercarriage of a semi-truck trailer. Moore’s stolen police car was ditched nearby.

Detective Neil Uhrig said he and a dozen officers walked 10 feet apart for more than hour before finding the discarded pistol lying in knee-deep snarls of exotic weeds. It had a hollow point bullet in the chamber. Police also found a loaded magazine nearby.

“It wasn’t hidden under anything particular,” Uhrig said.

Jurors on Thursday also heard testimony from the paramedic who kneeled beside Moore around 1:40 a.m. as he lay dead in a Coeur d’Alene residential neighborhood. Although he knew Moore personally, he did not recognize him, Capt. Steven Jones said. There was too much blood and vomit, he said.

“I couldn’t recognize who it was by just looking at him,” Jones said.

The downed officer had no vital signs.

“He was not breathing, he had no pulse,” he said.

Prosecutors played a dash cam video of the scene that showed two officers in a patrol car’s headlight beam giving Moore chest compressions, trying to revive the policeman as firefighters and an ambulance arrived.

Jurors also heard from police officers at the scene that spring night, as well as a ballistics expert, and a forensic pathologist from the Spokane Medical Examiner’s Office who conducted the autopsy.

Using autopsy images, Dr. John Howard detailed the path of the 9mm hollowpoint bullet that he said was shot into Moore’s face from a distance of around 12 inches. It fragmented into three pieces. A copper jacket lodged near the nasal passage and two lead pieces stuck in Moore’s vertebrae. One of them severed the artery responsible for supplying blood to the brain, Howard said.

The shot was so close it left Moore’s face powder burned, as the bullet entered through the upper lip in a downward direction.

“My estimate is less than 18 inches,” Howard said. “It could be as close as 6 inches.”

The combination of a loss of blood, the difficulty to breathe caused by blood rushing into Moore’s throat and lungs, and shock, likely resulted in the officer’s death, Howard said.

Jurors saw a large photograph of the bullet fragments that Howard removed from Moore’s second and third vertebrae, and the copper jacket.

The fragments had striations similar to bullets shot from the Glock Model 26 tested in his lab, Glenn Davis of the Washington State Forensic Lab said.

The bullet in the chamber of the gun retrieved from the field along West Pointe Parkway, and the bullets in the magazine found nearby were Federal Hydra Shok jacketed hollow point rounds, Davis said.

They matched the fragments retrieved from Moore’s body, he said.

“They were fired from the same firearm,” he said.

After the jury adjourned for the day, District Judge Lansing Haynes heard motions from prosecutors and defense attorneys regarding upcoming expert witnesses. Prosecutors accused the defense team of performing psychological tests on the defendant during the first week of jury selection, and attempting to admit evidence that the state did not have time to refute.

The evidence is meant to show Renfro may suffer from a traumatic brain injury that could be responsible for some of his actions.

Haynes didn’t rule on the allegations. The trial resumes today at 9 a.m. in the old courthouse at 501 Government Way.