Expert witness · Florida Department of Law Enforcement

Elizabeth Richey

Florida Department of Law Enforcement firearms analyst who testified for the State as an expert witness in both the 2019 Garcia–Magbanua trial and the 2022 Magbanua retrial.

Appeared Garcia–Magbanua Magbanua Retrial

118 lines · 5 appearances · 2 trials

About

Richey's testimony is the technical foundation for what is known about the weapon used to kill Dan Markel. She is the source for the finding that both recovered projectiles came from a single firearm, for the .38 Special or .357 Magnum caliber range and revolver classification, and for the physical explanation of why no shell casings were found at the scene. She is also the source for the documented exclusion of the 2016 candidate firearm, which is why that gun does not appear in the case as the murder weapon. Because she testified consistently in both trials, her account provides a stable technical reference point for readers tracing how the ballistics evidence was presented over the course of the prosecutions.

Across Trials

Richey's role was essentially unchanged across the two trials — prosecution firearms expert, same methodology, same core conclusion about the projectiles — but the scope of her examination narrowed considerably the second time. In the 2019 Garcia–Magbanua trial she was on the stand for direct, cross, and redirect, and the defense spent most of its cross, conducted by Magbanua co-counsel Christopher DeCoste, on the September 2016 firearm that had been delivered to the laboratory and excluded, walking her document by document through the reports, worksheets, photographs, case notes, and head stamp records that examination produced, including why the gun was never entered into the NIBIN database. Redirect closed that thread by reconfirming the exclusion. By the 2022 Magbanua retrial, that entire line was gone: cross-examination by Tara Kawass ran to two questions, both establishing only that if the murder weapon were ever found she could potentially match it to the recovered bullets, and possibly link it to other crimes, to which she twice answered "It is possible." Neither trial produced a challenge to her methodology, her qualifications, or her conclusions, so the difference is one of emphasis rather than credibility — the earlier trial tested the completeness of her laboratory work, while the later one left her findings essentially unexamined and instead surfaced the fact that the weapon was never recovered.

Trial Record (5)

GM Garcia–Magbanua Sep 26, 2019 – Oct 11, 2019

Trial Summary

Testified on trial day four as an FDLE firearms analyst, tendered and accepted as an expert in firearms identification and examined about projectiles collected in the Markel homicide, then cross-examined about a separate 2016 firearm that was excluded as the murder weapon.

Testimony (3)

Direct

Elizabeth Richey - Direct

Day 4 Cross

Elizabeth Richey - Cross

Day 4 Redirect

Elizabeth Richey - Redirect

Day 4

KM Magbanua Retrial May 18, 2022 – May 27, 2022

Trial Summary

FDLE firearms analyst who testified that the two recovered projectiles were fired from the same firearm and were most consistent with .38 Special or .357 Magnum cartridges; she said the absence of casings was consistent with a revolver.

Testimony (2)

Direct

Elizabeth Richey - Direct

Day 5 Cross

Elizabeth Richey - Cross

Day 5