MIAMI – The defense started its case Wednesday in the trial of a woman accused of killing the man she believed killed her husband.
Janepsy Carballo is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ilam Nissim, her husband's business partner.
The defense's first witness called to the stand was Dr. Ronald Wright, the former Broward County medical examiner.
Wright was under fire by the state all morning as prosecutor Abbe Rifkin discredited Wright's background as a forensic pathologist, specifically over accusations that he botched a cause-of-death case and his interpretation of the six-bullet sequence that killed the victim in this case.
"I didn't become an orthopedic surgeon because I sometimes have left and right confused," Wright testified.
"I'm sorry. You sometimes have left and right confused?" asked Rifkin.
"Yes," said Wright.
"OK, so do you also have back and front confused sometimes?" asked Rifkin.
"Rarely," said Wright. "But I've been really beat upon by defense attorneys when I testified it went in the right side and it really went in the left side."
The shooting happened just a month after Carballo's husband, Orlando Mesa, and the couple's 20-month-old son were shot outside their home in North Miami in 2008.
Mesa died at the scene. Their son was grazed by a bullet and survived.
Carballo told police she shot Nissim, suspecting he killed her husband following a failed business deal.
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