SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A defense expert called in the Woodburn bank bombing trial says mistakes by an Oregon State Police trooper led to the explosion that killed him and another officer.
The Statesman Journal reports the expert, Patrick Kennedy, testified that William Hakim was banging on the bomb with a crowbar and a hammer because he wrongly believed it was a hoax device.
Kennedy said Hakim based that judgment on a single damaged X-ray and disregarded danger signs, such as the presence of a wired battery.
Kennedy also dismissed the prosecution theory the bomb could have been set off accidentally by a passing trucker’s CB radio.
