- The Trial - Page 163

Byron Rhodes, a paramedic, testified that in the emergency room Zeigler noticed his name on his shirt and asked about his mother, whom he apparently knew.  Rhodes said that Zeigler told his physician, Dr. Albert Gleason, that he did not want to be transferred to another hospital.  Phillip Wymer, a second paramedic, said that Zeigler "seemed mildly upset" in the treatment room.  His wounds were not bleeding.

Dr. Gleason described Zeigler's wound, and noted that the bullet had passed to the right of any vital organs.  He said that Zeigler had a contusion on the right side of his skull, a small abrasion and bruising to the front of his right leg, a black-and-blue area over his left kneecap, and a superficial abrasion of his left cheek.  He said that he complained of pain and soreness in both index fingers, but X-rays showed no fracture.  Gleason told Terry Hadley in cross-examination that the contusion behind Zeigler's right ear was still swollen on December 28, four days after the injuries.  On the 29th, Zeigler still had "deep tenderness" around that area.

Hadley asked if that injury was consistent with Zeigler's having been struck a blow to the back of his head.

"I believe it is," Gleason said.

Hadley asked whether anyone could shoot himself in the right abdominal area and be sure that he would not hit any vital organs.

"Not that I know of, sir," Gleason said.

The next morning—now Tuesday June 15—Jimmy Yawn described answering the radio call to the store.  He said that he drove beside the north side of the store.  He believed that the gate was locked.

Q (EAGAN): In what way was the gate secured?

A: (YAWN): There was a lock, padlock, on the gate and I pulled the gate as you would pull a sliding gate and the gate did not move.

Q: Did you shake it back and forth?

A: No, sir.  I did not shake it back and forth.

Q: Did you have your flashlight on it?

A: No, sir.  the headlights of the car.

Yawn told Hadley that the bolt was open on the rear storeroom door.  He said that Mays's van was parked beside a "a heavy trailer with a—some type of heavy equipment tractor sitting on it."  He said that the trailer and the tractor would have hidden Mays's van from Dillard Street.

Hadley showed Yawn one of the OCSO photos of Mays's body on the terrazzo floor, in which his pants were down and the crank lay across his outstretched right arm.