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Joseph Monti slowly lifted his black collared shirt and revealed the reddish-purple scars to those seated in Courtroom 304.
The 16-year-old, who shuffled up to the Douglas County Circuit Court witness stand Tuesday with a slight limp, pointed to his arm, abdomen and back where bullets and surgeons’ scalpels had sliced through his skin.
After the first gunshot, as his body began to collapse that February morning when a fellow student gunned him down on the Roseburg High School campus, Monti said he felt “numb, shocked.”
“I felt like I was gonna die,” the teen testified before Judge Robert Millikan on the opening day of the shooting suspect’s trial.
Fourteen-year-old Vincent Wayne Leodoro sat in the defendant’s seat beside his attorneys, still and quiet. Leodoro is accused of attempted murder, first-degree assault and several weapons charges in the Feb. 23 shooting of Monti.
Deputy District Attorney Ann Marie Simmons will try to convince the judge that Leodoro, an RHS freshman at the time, intentionally attempted to kill Monti, a sophomore, when the younger boy brought his stepfather’s gun to school that day.
“Some of those shots were fired into Joseph Monti while he lay injured on the ground,” the prosecutor said.
Monti suffered serious injuries, including nerve damage causing numbness to his foot, a Mercy Medical Center surgeon testified. The 10 mm hollow-point bullets Leodoro allegedly used are made for wreaking maximum tissue damage, police have said.
A motive has yet to be revealed.
With Monti and his family on one side of the courtroom and Leodoro’s family on the other, Simmons spent the day calling witnesses to the stand.
Testimony revealed the two teenage boys ran with the same group of teens, some of whom rode the school bus together from the Melrose area and met up in the cafeteria each morning. Most witnesses said the day began as usual, with no indication of what was to come.
RHS student Leah Sheppard, 16, said she’d met with fellow students, including Monti and Leodoro, in a group in the cafeteria before first period, though she didn’t talk with the suspect.
When the bell rang for first period, Sheppard said she, Monti and fellow student Kristina Sklenar, walked toward class talking and giggling. She was vaguely aware of Leodoro following them.
When she heard the first shot, like every other student who testified, Sheppard said she thought it was a prank, someone setting off firecrackers.
“I heard Joe screaming,” she said. “… I didn’t know he was serious and I just kept walking.”
She continued toward the school’s Main Building, leaving Monti behind. When the final three shots rang out seconds later and panic ensued in the crowded courtyard, Sheppard realized something was terribly wrong.
She instinctively took off running toward the parking lot, where she saw Leodoro. The teen, she said, reached into the pocket of his gray-hooded sweatshirt.
“He showed me the gun,” she said, adding that at that point, “I ran back to Joe.”
A Fremont Middle School student on the same bus as Leodoro that day said she overheard the suspect talking on a cell phone, saying, “I’ll meet you at school with the bullets.”
Police officers testified that Leodoro had a cache of ammunition, gun paraphernalia and detailed writings on various weapons, bullets and body armor in his bedroom.
Several other witnesses gave their accounts of hearing the gunshots and seeing Monti injured on the ground with Leodoro standing over his body.
Sklenar, 17, spoke of a conversation she had with Leodoro a week or two before the shooting.
“(Leodoro) said ‘You better give me a hug because it’s my last day today,’” she testified. “He said ‘I’m going hunting.’”
When Sklenar asked if he meant hunting for animals, Leodoro said “No.”
“I just laughed it off,” Sklenar said. “I didn’t think he meant anything by it.”
The trial was continued today.
• You can reach reporter Chelsea Duncan at 957-4246 or by e-mail at cduncan@newsreview.info.
The 16-year-old, who shuffled up to the Douglas County Circuit Court witness stand Tuesday with a slight limp, pointed to his arm, abdomen and back where bullets and surgeons’ scalpels had sliced through his skin.
After the first gunshot, as his body began to collapse that February morning when a fellow student gunned him down on the Roseburg High School campus, Monti said he felt “numb, shocked.”
“I felt like I was gonna die,” the teen testified before Judge Robert Millikan on the opening day of the shooting suspect’s trial.
Fourteen-year-old Vincent Wayne Leodoro sat in the defendant’s seat beside his attorneys, still and quiet. Leodoro is accused of attempted murder, first-degree assault and several weapons charges in the Feb. 23 shooting of Monti.
Deputy District Attorney Ann Marie Simmons will try to convince the judge that Leodoro, an RHS freshman at the time, intentionally attempted to kill Monti, a sophomore, when the younger boy brought his stepfather’s gun to school that day.
“Some of those shots were fired into Joseph Monti while he lay injured on the ground,” the prosecutor said.
Monti suffered serious injuries, including nerve damage causing numbness to his foot, a Mercy Medical Center surgeon testified. The 10 mm hollow-point bullets Leodoro allegedly used are made for wreaking maximum tissue damage, police have said.
A motive has yet to be revealed.
With Monti and his family on one side of the courtroom and Leodoro’s family on the other, Simmons spent the day calling witnesses to the stand.
Testimony revealed the two teenage boys ran with the same group of teens, some of whom rode the school bus together from the Melrose area and met up in the cafeteria each morning. Most witnesses said the day began as usual, with no indication of what was to come.
RHS student Leah Sheppard, 16, said she’d met with fellow students, including Monti and Leodoro, in a group in the cafeteria before first period, though she didn’t talk with the suspect.
When the bell rang for first period, Sheppard said she, Monti and fellow student Kristina Sklenar, walked toward class talking and giggling. She was vaguely aware of Leodoro following them.
When she heard the first shot, like every other student who testified, Sheppard said she thought it was a prank, someone setting off firecrackers.
“I heard Joe screaming,” she said. “… I didn’t know he was serious and I just kept walking.”
She continued toward the school’s Main Building, leaving Monti behind. When the final three shots rang out seconds later and panic ensued in the crowded courtyard, Sheppard realized something was terribly wrong.
She instinctively took off running toward the parking lot, where she saw Leodoro. The teen, she said, reached into the pocket of his gray-hooded sweatshirt.
“He showed me the gun,” she said, adding that at that point, “I ran back to Joe.”
A Fremont Middle School student on the same bus as Leodoro that day said she overheard the suspect talking on a cell phone, saying, “I’ll meet you at school with the bullets.”
Police officers testified that Leodoro had a cache of ammunition, gun paraphernalia and detailed writings on various weapons, bullets and body armor in his bedroom.
Several other witnesses gave their accounts of hearing the gunshots and seeing Monti injured on the ground with Leodoro standing over his body.
Sklenar, 17, spoke of a conversation she had with Leodoro a week or two before the shooting.
“(Leodoro) said ‘You better give me a hug because it’s my last day today,’” she testified. “He said ‘I’m going hunting.’”
When Sklenar asked if he meant hunting for animals, Leodoro said “No.”
“I just laughed it off,” Sklenar said. “I didn’t think he meant anything by it.”
The trial was continued today.
• You can reach reporter Chelsea Duncan at 957-4246 or by e-mail at cduncan@newsreview.info.
