Coroner: 1 Minute Enough Time To Murder Goldman -- Second Day Of Grisly Testimony For Jury

LOS ANGELES - Ronald Goldman's killer could have slashed him in less than a minute, trapping him in a small, gated area that left him nowhere to run, a coroner told O.J. Simpson's jury today.

"I felt that the injuries sustained could have been in rapid succession," Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran said after jurors returned for more testimony about the grisly wounds.

The coroner also said the element of surprise and motivation of the killer could have played a part in the Goldman slaying, which he has suggested happened while Nicole Brown Simpson lay unconscious nearby, at the gate of her condominium. He suggested the killer then went back to slash Nicole Simpson's throat.

"If Mr. Goldman was confronted by the assailant in this confined area, he has no place to escape, especially if he is cornered between that railing and the tree and that sapling," the coroner said. "He's stuck there." The coroner said he visited the murder scene and was surprised at how small the area was. Jurors have also been to the murder scene.

Goldman, a waiter, apparently went to Nicole Simpson's condominium to return a pair of glasses her mother had left at Mezzaluna restaurant that night.

Lakshmanan said the killings could have happened in about a minute, although he said it could have taken slightly less or more time.

"It doesn't take that long to do a sharp force injury with a sharp knife," he said.

Timing has been a key to the case presented by prosecutors, who contend Simpson had time to kill his ex-wife and her friend, rush back to his home two miles away and catch a limousine waiting to take him to the airport.

Simpson insists he is innocent. His lawyers have said he was at home at the time of the June 12 murders.

The coroner has said he believes the victims were killed by the same person and by the same 6-inch knife.

Ito warning

Before Lakshmanan's testimony resumed this morning, Superior Court Judge Lance Ito reminded jurors they must not be swayed by sympathy or passion they feel after viewing graphic autopsy photos of the victims.

"In evaluating the evidence that is presented to you in this case, I want to instruct you that you must not be influenced by mere sentiment, conjecture, sympathy, passion, prejudice, public opinion or public feeling," Ito said.

He added that both prosecution and defense "have a right to expect that you will conscientiously consider and weigh the evidence, apply the law and reach a just verdict in this case, regardless of the consequences."

An easel, used yesterday to hold pictures showing the fatal slash across Goldman's throat, was moved back from the jury box this morning.

The picture proved too much for the juror closest to it yesterday. She motioned to a bailiff, got up and rushed out of the courtroom, bracing herself on the backs of chairs.

When she returned five minutes later, Ito recessed the trial 90 minutes early.

But Ito refused today to cut any more time from the trial, turning down a defense request to suspend testimony Monday, the anniversary of the murders.

After the juror bolted from the courtroom, everyone expressed concern, especially defense attorneys, who didn't want the autopsy photos shown in the first place for fear jurors would become emotional to the point of unclear thinking.

"Threatening cuts"

Earlier yesterday, prosecutor Brian Kelberg suggested the assailant taunted Goldman with a knife before making the deadly slashes and stabs. Kelberg elicited from Lakshmanan descriptions of two parallel, superficial cuts on Goldman's neck.

"These look to be some threatening cuts," the coroner said. "You threaten you're going to do bodily harm to them."

Lakshmanan said he felt Goldman was immobilized early in the altercation and demonstrated on Kelberg how a killer could have grabbed the victim from behind and sliced a knife lightly across his throat.

"He was held so he couldn't move, so these controlled cuts could be made," the coroner said.

Eventually, he said, the killer sliced Goldman's jugular vein and inflicted two cuts to his aorta.

Fred Goldman, father of the 25-year-old victim, took off his glasses and wept at the description of the fatal slash. His wife, Patti, and daughter, Kim, also cried.