Wang.
Superior Court Judge Roland D. Fasano has found that there is sufficient evidence to show that Dr. Lishan Wang pumped two bullets into the head and chest of Dr. Vanjinder Toor, a Yale doctor.
Fasano made that ruling in Superior Court in New Haven on Monday, on the eve of the first anniversary of the crime, which took place at the Meadows condominiums where Dr. Toor and his family lived. The prosecution says Dr. Wang, 45, blamed Dr. Toor for his dismissal from the medical profession and took revenge.
On Monday, Judge Fasano said: “At this juncture there is probable cause that the crime was committed and that Dr. Wang was the perpetrator.” Dr. Toor was a post doctoral fellow at the Yale School of Medicine when he was shot to death outside his condo. He was 34.
The judge acted after an hour-long hearing in which Senior State’s Attorney Gene R. Calistro, Jr., put on his final witness, James Stephenson, a state ballistics expert. Stephenson testified that the bullets removed from Dr. Toor’s chest and brain were fired from the gun found in Dr. Toor’s van. Stephenson, a forensic expert, tied the bullets and their fragments to the murder weapon, a semi-automatic 9 mm Ruger pistol.
As he had during the prior hearing last week, Dr. Wang followed the testimony closely, observing Stephenson as he spoke directly to the judge from the witness box.
The unusual probable cause hearing was requested by Dr. Wang, but not by his public defenders. Dr. Wang has asked for and received permission to represent himself but he permitted his court-appointed attorneys, Scott Jones and Tejas Bhatt, to act on his behalf at the hearing that concluded Monday.
The public defenders attempted to deal with the overwhelming ballistics and other evidence found in the van by trying to show that the witnesses at the condo were unable to identify Dr. Wang that morning did not actually see him shoot Dr. Toor. But all three witnesses said the person they saw on the morning of April 26, 2010 wore a towel over his head and police later found the towel in the Wang van.
In his overview of the evidence, Judge Fasano said the three female witnesses identified a “rather distinctive vehicle” that placed the Wang van at the scene. The judge also observed that one of the witnesses said she saw a man shooting at Dr. Toor’s wife, Parneeta Sidhu.
The judge said the witnesses provided a “good description” of Wang’s maroon minivan with a temporary license plate. Their descriptions led a Branford police officer to stop the van soon after it left the condo complex. A subsequent search of van turned up guns, ammunition, a Google map to the Toor residence, a photograph of Dr. Toor and the lone occupant, Dr. Wang who was arrested that morning.
Attorney Scott Jones told the judge, “there is no direct evidence that Dr. Wang committed the crime.” He said there was no direct evidence that Dr. Wang was the shooter. He asked the court not to find probable cause. But there was little hope for his client. The evidence linking Dr. Wang to the crime was overwhelming and the judge stated as much. Soon after the murder, Dr. Wang placed himself at the condo and told police he spoke to the victim moments before the shooting.
Stephenson, who holds a doctorate in forensic science and spends his days matching bullets to guns, described the protocol used in his examinations.
Shown exhibits 14 and 15, the bullets taken from Dr. Toor’s body, Calistro asked Stephenson if he had come to a conclusion.
“Yes. I made a positive identification of 14 and 15 being fired from the barrel of state’s exhibit#21 “. State’s exhibit 21 is the semi-automatic 9 mm Ruger.
After he made the identification, he said another scientist verified his findings to determine “if they are correct.”
Calistro had the burden to prove that probable cause existed to arrest Dr. Wang in the Dr. Toor murder.
Bhatt, one of Dr. Wang’s public defenders, attempted to show under cross-examination that the bullets that landed inside Dr. Toor were too flattened to provide an identification to the Ruger.
But Stephenson would not be moved and said forensic scientists, especially those trained in modern testing, have the expertise to “make a judgment.”
Bhatt asked Stephenson if the bullets taken from Toor along with the discarded cartridges, “were consistent with being fired” from the gun.
Stephenson replied tersely: “They were fired” from the gun,” he said, emphasizing the word “were.”
The judge entered a pro-forma not-guilty plea for Dr. Wang and set June 1 as the next court date. At that time the attorneys will discuss the process of going forward. A trial is expected to take place by the end of this year. Whether Dr. Wang will conduct it remains to be seen.
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