CrimeMarco Topete, 39, was found guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances after a high-speed chase that led to the deputy's death by Yolo County Sheriff Jose Antonio Diaz on June 15, 2008. Diaz was fatally shot in the chest by one of seventeen .223 caliber rounds fired from an AR-15 assault rifle fired by Marco Topete. The .223 round pierced Diaz's Kevlar vest and struck the County Sherriff's vehicle that contained Topete's daughter who was abandoned in Topete's home. car when he fled the vehicle on foot. This crime was one of the first to use 3D imaging ballistic trajectory tracking as the primary source of evidence used in court. I chose this case although it is an American case because of its revolution in 3D imaging and ballistic trajectory which sparked interest and was briefly mentioned in my speech.Crime scene and evidenceThe scene where the shooting took place was a house on the side of a road where Topete was driven off the road. Topete began running around the house before shooting Diaz. Fig. 1 Seventeen .223 Remington cases and bullet hole sights on Sherriff County vehicle. Fig. Timing data derived from analysis of the audio frequency of the crime recorded by Diaz's dashboard camera. Fig. 4 Lecica ScanStation II scanning vehicle with trajectory rods. An AR-15 rifle similar to the one used by Topete Crime scene photograph of Topete and Diaz's cars. Solving the Crime The largest pieces of evidence from the crime scene included the .223 Remington shells (fired from Topete's AR-15 rifle), Topete's car, Diaz's County Sherriff's vehicle with impact points, Topete's daughter (still in Diaz's cruiser), Diaz's... ... middle of paper ...... violence and further fueled by his alcoholism. I believe Topete's actions deserved severe punishment, but due to his suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, alcohol addiction, poor upbringing, and complex trauma, I thinks his punishment should have been life imprisonment without parole rather than death. © 2014 Precision Simulations, Inc.. All rights reserved Fries, C. (2014). Precision Simulations, Inc. :: Topete Murder Trial. [online] Precisionsim.com. Available at: http://www.precisionsim.com/index.php/archive/topete-murder-trial/ [Accessed May 18. 2014].Keene, L. (2012). Topete is sentenced to death for the murder of a deputy. [online] Davis Company. Available at: http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/crime-fire-courts/topete-gets-death-sentence-for-deputys-murder/ [Accessed May 18. 2014].