already in the store?  Why bring in one more?  How many weapons did he expect to need?

Zeigler faced two more choices on Christmas Eve, according to the state's theory.  He had to decide where to shoot himself, and he had to decide which gun he would use.  Even granting the prosecution's contention that he acquired some specialized knowledge in the Army (a charge for which no supporting evidence was ever offered), the decision to shoot himself in the abdomen was an act of extraordinary bravado, if it happened.

This is especially true in light of the fact that, if guilty, he chose to shoot himself with a .38 Special when two .22 pistols, much less powerful, were available.  The Beretta automatic in his desk drawer was loaded with .22 Short bullets, the least lethal of any common ammunition.  The .22 Short is the bullet used in carnival shooting galleries, and at close ranges is ballistically comparable to a slug from an air pellet rifle.  Zeigler might have shot himself several times with the Beretta without risking serious damage.

THE TIMING

Oddly, it was some of the state's own evidence, with Bob Eagan's closing arguments, that first lead me to doubt the state's case (and, by extension, the verdict and Zeigler's guilt).

The evidence was the "earwitness" testimony of Barbara Tinsley, who said she heard two distinct volleys of shots from the direction of the furniture store around the time of the murders.

Her testimony was this: three or four shots between 7:20 and 7:25, then six or seven more shots that came fifteen or twenty minutes after the first set, which is to say between 7:35 and 7:45.

The time she claimed to hear the shots is critical.  Precision is a rare commodity in this case, and Tinsley specified a narrow range of time in which these shots occurred.  Furthermore, she was able to place these times with some credibility, since she claimed to be watching the clock, waiting for her brother at their parents' home.

This testimony seems to have become part of the prosecution's case for two reasons.  It ties in nicely with the clock-stopping bullet at 7:24, and it strengthens the state's basic contention that the crime consisted of at least two separate acts of violence, separated by fifteen minutes or more.

But Mrs. Tinsley's testimony contained a huge defect as far as the prosecution was concerned.  By the state's theory, Tommy Zeigler could not have fired any shots in the store between 7:35 and 7:45. During that entire period he had to be with Felton Thomas and Charlie Mays, and Thomas accounted for all of Zeigler's movements and actions. According to Don Frye's grand jury testimony, Zeigler