Thirty-five

The third week of the trial began on Monday morning, June 21. Ray Ussery, the owner of Ray's Bait and Tackle in Winter Garden, testified that a clerk in his shop had sold Tommy Zeigler the Securities .38, the Smith & Wesson .38, and the Colt .357 magnum that now were in evidence.

Ussery first testified that the transactions took place on January 9, 1975.  He said that he himself was busy at the time—"I was in and out, but I did know the transaction was transpiring"—so a clerk made the sale to Zeigler.

Ussery also identified the two empty pistol cartons that were found bagged with bullets and empty cartridge hulls in the store-room cabinet.  They belonged to Zeigler, he said.  He could identify them because each gun carton was marked with the serial number of the firearm it originally held.  According to Ussery, the original pistols from those two boxes were sold to other customers in 1972 and December 1974.

Q (EAGAN):...On the day that Mr. Zeigler made his purchase, sir, do you recall any matter concerning gun boxes?

A (USSERY): Well, the best of my knowledge, when we sold the two guns in question [the Smith & Wesson and the Colt] there was no box available at the time in the case or near the case.

Q: Do you have a place where you accumulate these boxes?

A: And Mr. Zeigler wanted a box to put the gun in, so Mr. Walker, the guy working for me, produced two boxes at random that we had thrown back or put on a shelf someplace that the people-the other two parties did not care for when they bought the guns, they just threw them back, and he [Zeigler] did want the boxes to carry the guns in.

Hadley showed Ussery that the firearms transactions slips for Zeigler's purchases were dated October 31, 1974, beside Ussery's signature.  Ussery called the discrepancy a "clerk's error."

Hadley asked again about the empty cartons that Ussery connected to Zeigler.

Q: (HADLEY): As I also understand your testimony, although Mr. Zeigler did get some boxes, you cannot state positively that these are the boxes he got, can you?

A: (USSERY): Yes, I can, because I have a record of the people we sold—the gun was sold to.