Jurors in Polchies trial hear from firearms specialist who examined shotgun shells

Jurors in the first-degree murder trial of a Kingsclear First Nation man heard testimony Tuesday from an expert who examined spent shotgun ammunition recovered by police in their investigation.

Robby Polchies is accused of shooting and killing Corey Sisson, 19, in a wooded area just east of Fredericton on July 29, 2019.

On Tuesday, James Elliott, a now-retired firearms specialist with the RCMP in Ottawa, said he received two spent shotgun shells, 106 pellets and two sets of two-piece shotgun wads from investigators on March 16, 2020.

He testified he examined the items over two days and wrote a report based on what he found on March 18, 2020.

Elliott testified the shotgun shells were made for use with 12-gauge shotguns, and that the shells contained "seven and a half shot" pellets. Writing on the shells indicated they were manufactured by a company named Federal, he testified.

Seven and a half shot shells are typically used for hunting birds, rodents and small game, he testified.

He also testified that the wads — a component contained in shotgun shells — had blood on them when he received them.

His testimony comes after Jahradd Williams, Polchies' former girlfriend, testified earlier in the trial that she witnessed Polchies shoot Sisson with a shotgun.

Court has also heard that a spent shotgun shell was recovered at the scene where Sisson's body was found, and that a second shell was recovered from an apartment where Jahradd Williams, Polchies' former girlfriend, lived.

Court also earlier heard that a shotgun ammunition box with "Federal" branding on it was found in a car that Polchies was a passenger in when he was arrested on Aug. 12, 2019.

In his testimony, Elliott said he determined the shells he received had been discharged, by the presence of black soot on them, and that the wads had also come from a discharged shell as there were impressions on them that are typically only seen after the shell is fired.

While he said he determined that both of the shells were of the same brand and classification, he could not determine whether they had both been fired by the same gun.

On cross examination, defence counsel Brian Munro brought up that in Elliott's report he wrote the pellets were consistent with either six, or seven and a half sized shot.

In response, Elliott testified the shells could have been either eight or six shot shells, but that they were most likely seven and a half shot based on testing he did on the pellets.