Katanga shooting was at very close range – pathologist

At 10.32am, the judge walks into the courtroom. Court clerk calls for Henry Katanga case file. Suspects walk to the court dock 

Prosecutor Samali Wakooli: My Lord, Luzira [prison] is on today. All accused persons are present, with A1 (Molly Katanga) appearing via zoom from prison. The others should stand in the dock in their order.

My Lord, we have witnesses and we are ready to proceed. However, before we proceed, I wanted to raise a matter of concern related to journalists attending this court proceedings. My Lord, we have noted that there is a well-calculated scheme to valgarise this trial with negative media publication. Negative campaign that is intended to put this court in disrepute and also threaten witnesses.

Judge: Of course, what they reported was false, why we didn’t proceed was because of the Internet connection failure and one prisoner, A1, could not be accessed and we decided to adjourn up to today. So, please, don’t cook up stories to sell your newspapers. If this happens again, you may be banned. You may even come to the registrar for an interview if you don’t know what happened. You call the witness. (Witness heads to the court dock) 

Judge: How many witnesses do you have? 

Wakooli: My Lord, three.

Prosecutor Jonathan Muwaganya: My Lord, for the record, I will lead the witness, (PW 7). My Lord, the witness does not wish his face to be published by the media for the same reasons that we have actually given.

Judge: I hear the rule that his face must not be published.

Defense Counsel MacDusman Kabega: I am sorry, my Lord. We need to see his face.

Judge: That one, you will see it, but it shouldn’t be published in the media. Witness, please swear in, are you a Catholic?

Witness: Yes, my Lord, I’m a Catholic (as he takes oath)

Muwaganya: For the record, your full name, again. 

Witness: Richard Abayo

Muwaganya: Your age

Witness: 48

Muwaganya: What do you do for a living?

Witness: I’m a medical doctor.

Muwaganya: Where do you work?

Witness: I work with the Uganda Police Force in the Directorate of Health Services. I am currently attached to City Mortuary, Mulago.

Muwaganya: For how long have you worked at Mulago City Mortuary?

Witness: Since 2019, but officially deployed at the mortuary since 2021.

Muwaganya: In 2019, in what capacities were you working there?

Witness: I was doing my Masters [degree] in Pathology and the city mortuary was one of the training centres.

Judge: So you were there as a trainee?

Witness: I was there as a Masters student

Muwaganya: Doctor, what are your qualifications?

Witness: My Lord, I have a Masters of Medicine in Pathology, obtained from Makerere University in 2020. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery obtained in 2009 from Gulu University. 

Muwaganya: For how long have you practiced medicine?

Witness: My Lord, since 2010, it’s coming to 14 years.

Muwaganya: Specifically as a pathologist, what are your roles at city mortuary?

Witness: My Lord, my major roles are to do medical legal examinations.

Muwaganya: What does that involve?

Witness: My Lord, medical legal examinations are case that involve doing autopsies, and examination of perpetrators of crime. 

Muwaganya: Specifically for post-mortem examinations, how do you come to do post-mortem?

Witness: My Lord, this is how it happens, police deliver dead bodies, we receive them at the mortuary and they are unusually brought in by the police accompanied by police Form 48A, attached to it is 48B.

Muwaganya: How would you identify police Form 48A?. Just for the record, what is police Form 48A?

Witness: It’s a request made by the police requesting a medical doctor to do a post-mortem on a body delivered to a mortuary.

Muwaganya: How about police Form 48B?

Witness: This is where the report of the medical doctor is written. 

Muwaganya: How would you identify the request form submitted to be handled by your facility?

Witness: My Lord, we usually put an identification number, abbreviated as PM. It’s a unique identifier and that number runs in serials and begins with the year.

Muwaganya: (Hands him a form and asks him whether he recognises it).

Witness: This is a police Form 48A 

Muwaganya: In respect of?

Witness: In respect of the late Katanga Henry. 

Muwaganya: Does it have the post-mortem number that you described to court?

Witness: Yes, it carries the PM number. 

Muwaganya: Does it bear the post-mortem number?

Witness: PM3338/2023

Muwaganya: What did the form request you to do?

Witness: My Lord, the form requested a team at the mortuary to hold a post-mortem on the name of the deceased, Henry Katanga.

Muwaganya: When was the request made?

Witness: On November 2, 2023.

Muwaganya: Proceed and tell the court what happened after you received that request.

Witness: My Lord, when we received the request, I informed one of my colleagues, Dr Male Mutumba. We had a short meeting and went and conducted the post-mortem.

Muwaganya: Apart from you and Dr Mutumba, was there any other person involved? 

Witness: My Lord, there was a SOCO (scene-of-crime-officer), we also had police liaison officers with the mortuary attendants.

Muwaganya: What followed?

Witness: My Lord, we confirmed the identification and we proceeded with the post-mortem. 

Muwaganya: How did you confirm that it was Henry Katanga?

Kabega: Can they (suspects who were standing in the court dock) be allowed to sit?

Judge: Sure, hope they have the space.

Muwaganya: What did you do after the post-mortem examination?

Witness: We made a report and handed over the exhibits, biological and nonbiological, to the investigating officer.

Muwaganya: Are you in position to identify the report that you completed? 

Witness: Yes, if I’m given. 

Muwaganya: How will you identify it?

Witness: The names of the doctors who participated in the process of the post-mortem, then the signatures, including the stamp of the city mortuary. 

Muwaganya: Look at this, do you recognise it?

Witness: My Lord, this is a post-mortem report on police Form 48B, which we jointly authored with my colleague, Dr Male Mutumba. 

Muwaganya: Does it bear your identification as you had told the court?

Witness: Yes, it bears my name and signature, and also the name of my colleague, Dr Mutumba and the stamp of KCCA police mortuary. 

Muwaganya: May you proceed to tell court how you did the examination?

Witness: My Lord, can he rephrase the report, did he want the findings of the report, what exactly did he want?

Muwaganya: What were your findings?

Witness: My Lord, it’s very clear now. The request was made under Bugolobi Police Station under Detective Sergeant Beteise David

Kabega: My Lord, I’m sorry, I don’t normally interrupt but let’s go straight to the findings, not Bugolobi.

Judge: True, Bugolobi, there is not a finding.

Muwaganya: (Objects to Kabega’s interruptions).

Witness: The findings are these, the deceased was an adult male, well nourished, with a length of 182 centimetres. He had an old linear surgical scar on the left buttock, which measured 17 centimetres long. He also had a protrusion on the bone, on the right tuberosity on the leg. It’s a protrusion on the leg, and this measured 3 by 4 centimetres.

Let’s proceed to external findings, what we found as we looked at the outside of the body. The body was wrapped in a mattress cover, with one side pink and orange colour and the other side was pink in colour. The body also wore two pairs of boxer shorts. Blue, white and gray, that is one of the boxers, the other was white, blue, pink, stripped. My Lord, the upper half of the body was not clothed. The deceased had short hair, with some scanty areas of gray hair and a short trim black gray mustache. The body was cold and stiff. It was set and complete. There was hypostasis at the back.

Muwaganya: What else, what do you mean by hypoplasia?

Witness: It’s a post-mortem change that results from blood pooling at the parts of the body. My Lord, there was also clotted blood over the face, the left shoulder, and interior aspects, right shoulder and the arm.

The back of the head, my Lord, had a loosely hanging translucent tape (there was a plaster) over the back of the head. My Lord, there was also blood oozing out of the nose, and left ear.

We go to injuries that we observed. 

Injuries on the head and central nervous system. There was a star-like gunshot wound, 1.5× 0.5 centimetres in size and, my Lord, this was found on the left temporal area of the sculptural area of the head. This wound was located seven centimetres below the vertex and 18 centimetres left of the midline of the body.

Muwaganya: Doctor, when you say 17 centimetres below the vertex, where is that exactly?

Witness: From the roof of the head to where the entry wound was.

My Lord, we noted that at the entrance wound, there was no blackening of the tissues and there was no tattooing and muzzle imprint.

My Lord, there was another scarlett shaped gunshot exit wound, of size 5 ×3 centimetres and this was located at the right external meatus. It was located 11 centimetres below the vertex, (below the top of the head) and at the same time, 16 centimetres right of the anterior midline of the body.

Muwaganya: Explain about the entry and exit wound. 

Witness: (He physically illustrates to the court). My Lord, there was a pre-hematoma of the right parietal skull and the temporalis muscle.

Muwaganya: What do you mean when you say hematoma?

Witness: My Lord, hematoma is a collection of blood underneath the tissues that underlie the skull bone. The bullet hit the temporal skull bone, causing comminuted fractures of the left temporal skull bone with linear skull bone. It was accompanied with linear parietal skulls and occipital scan bone. The dura mater was lacerated, corresponding to the areas of entry and exit wounds.

Muwaganya: Doctor, what do you mean that there was dura matter?

Witness: Dura mater is a thick layer tissue that covers the brain. The bullet further entered the left temporal of the brain lob, causing comminuted fractures of the left temporal skull bone with linear fractures. The bullet continued further through the midbrain to the right temporal lobe, causing extensive brain laceration and confusion, including hemorrhage. On its way, the bullet hit a petrous bone and fractured it before exit. This is the bone that lines the middle ear canals. My Lord, there were also fractures involving the floor of the anterior and middle cranial fossae.

Muwaganya: May you break down.

Witness: My Lord, the skull bone is the roof of the brain. There are also lower fractures. There was also severe pallor of the inner lining of the lips and the conjunctiva. The nasal maxillary and mandibular bones were intact, including the teeth and the tongue. My Lord, we also did not see the defense injuries and the long bones of the limbs were intact.

So, the direction of the injuries: Left, to right, anteriorly and downwards.

Muwaganya: Can you explain?

Witness: My Lord, from left to right, the injury is coming from the left to the right direction but more to the front and downwards is obvious.

Muwaganya: Most of these were not external, in other words, how were you in a position to get these findings?

Witness: Good question, my Lord. We were able to cut the skull open and see for ourselves. 

Muwaganya: Let’s go to the neck.

Witness: All the neck structures were intact, there were no injuries. The trachea and oesophagus were clear and intact. We went further and examined the thorax. All the structures were intact and normal. My Lord, we went further and looked at the abdomen and pelvis, the structures within the pelvis were intact and normal, apart from the liver, which appeared mild and pale and fatty, a sign of an early liver disease. At the same time, the stomach was intact but had some fluid content amounting to 300mls. The urinary bladder was full. Finally, the genital organs were normal.

Witness: My Lord, I will proceed to the cause of death.

Muwaganya: Before we come to the cause of death, what was your role during the examination since you carried it out between the two of you?

Witness: It was a joint role as both of us were examining but at the same time, I had to take notes, so the report was written by me in discussion but the one who held the pen to write was me.

Muwaganya: Apart from you taking notes, is there anything done?

Witness: My Lord, there were photos in critical areas/ injuries that we took, apart from the injuries, the general view of the body was taken.

Muwaganya: Who was this scene-of-crime-officer under our guidance?

Witness: He is Detective Penyuthoy Vonirick

Muwaganya: Did you have to see the photos?

Witness: Yes, I was shown the photos.

Muwaganya: Let’s go to the cause of death.

Witness: My Lord, the cause of death was gunshot injuries. 

Muwaganya: Doctor, I’m taking you back, you said the body was identified, who identified it.

Witness: Yes, by one Nkwanzi Katanga, the daughter of the deceased.

Muwaganya: Doctor, you told the court about the cause of death, other than that, did you make any other observations?

Witness: Yes, looking at the injuries, we conclude that this was a near-contact range gunshot injuries. 

Muwaganya: Doctor, what do you mean by a near-contact gunshot wound?

Witness: It means a muzzle target distance of up to 30 centimetres that is the size of a common foot ruler. We did not recover bullets or fragments. Fragments are broken or detached parts of the bullet. We also took blood swabs for DNA profiling for future comparison tests. My Lord, we further took samples from vitreous humour, 3mls of it, we took 30mls of stomach content and 5mls of blood and 5mls of bile and 30mls of urine, we cut parts of the liver and kidney for purposes of drugs and alcohol.

Muwaganya: Any other remark of observation?

Witness: Nail clippings, and fingerprints and this was taken by the scene-of-the-crime-officer.

Muwaganya: Was it signed?

Witness: Yes, by Dr Male Mutumba, a pathologist, myself, dated and stamped November 2, 2023.

Muwaganya: You said there are photos that were taken under your guidance, if showed, can you be able to identify them?

Witness: Yes. (He is shown the photos). These are the photos of the late Katanga that we took. 

Muwaganya: Can I have back my documents, all of them. My Lord, I apply to tender in the request for post-mortem police Form 48A and report Form 48B and 10 photographs taken during the post-mortem exercise as exhibits.

Kabega: My Lord, we have no objection. 

Judge: Police forms 48A and 48B are admitted and photos marked as 5a to 5J

Muwaganya: My Lord, that is all for this witness, he is available for cross-examination.

Defense lawyer Peter Kabatsi: My Lord, Elison Karuhanga will do the cross-examination.

Karuhanga: Good afternoon, Doctor. In your evidence in-chief, you said one of your roles is to carry out medical legal autopsy requests, is that correct? Would I be right to suggest that the term legal autopsy can also mean forensic post-mortem? 

Witness: Right.

Karuhanga: Just to understand, would I be correct to call a forensic post-mortem, a medical examination of a deceased person’s body to determine manner and cause of death? 

Witness: You are partially right and partially wrong. My Lord, a forensic investigation is not only limited to establishing the cause of death and manner of death because we go further and approximate the post-mortem interval.

Karuhanga: What do you mean by post-mortem interval, is it from the time of death and examination?

Witness: Yes.

Karuhanga: Would I be correct to say that the report you have tendered in this court is a forensic post-mortem?

Witness: Right.

Karuhanga: Doctor, would I also be correct to say that a forensic post-mortem is from a branch of medical science called forensic pathology?

Witness: Not right

Karuhanga: Would I be correct to say that forensic pathologists are the ones who are qualified in that branch of autopsy?

Witness: No 

Karuhanga: Doctor, so it’s fair to say that your opinion must be firmly grounded in medical science, is that a correct thing to say?

Witness: Yes.

Karuhanga: Doctor, would I be correct to say that your opinion must be supported by literature in gunshot wounds?

Witness: Yes.

Karuhanga: Would I be correct to say you said you had received some of your medical instructions from Makerere University?

Witness: Yes.

Karuhanga: Are you conversant with the Albert Cook library, which contains authoritative books in medicine?

Witness: No, that may be your opinion.

Karuhanga: What is yours?

Witness: there are also authoritative books in other universities

Judge: We are talking about this one.

Witness: It’s a no, there are also other authoritive books in other university libraries. 

Karuhanga: Does Albert Cook have good authoritative books on medicine?

Witness: Yes.

Karuhanga: Doctor, I want to give you a book, Simpson’s Forensic Medicine, 11th edition, have you heard of it?

Witness: Yes, I have heard of it but it’s not an authoritative book, it’s an old-school book and archaic and I used it as an undergraduate.

Karuhanga: But it’s useful for instructions for undergraduates, can you have it?

Muwaganya: My Lord, for fair trial, we request a copy of materials, texts or books that our colleagues are relying on, otherwise we cannot follow a trial where books are just thrown at us.

Karuhanga: I will share with you the texts.

Muwaganya: My Lord, it’s only fair that we have a copy of this book as prosecution. We can only follow if we have a copy being traversed. My Lord, we need it.