Expertise

James Wagster, who testified for the state about ballistics evidence, was never qualified by the state as an expert.

We spoke to ballistics experts that questioned how it was possible to test for extractor marks, a microscopic piece of forensic evidence, with shell casings that had been severely damaged after being fired from a weapon. 

extractor marks

There was no murder weapon ever found. The evidence used against Kenneth was based on matching extractor marks of expelled shell casings found at the crime scene on Nov. 27 to cartridges found in Kenneth's room on Dec. 5. Wagster testified at trial that this matching process indicated that the bullets had been inside the same gun at one moment, but without a murder weapon, he was unable to demonstrate that the bullets had been fired from the same gun. In the 2008 case Brown v. State, Wagster testified that he had not tested cartridges (live or casings) for extraction marks, because he did not have a gun to match them. "As a rule we don't put them in," he said of extractor marks in this context. This suggests that the type of extractor mark analysis he performed in Kenneth's case is in fact unreliable. 

Timing

At trial, Monfried called Tonya Fields to the stand, who testified that the bullets found in Kenneth's room hadn't been moved there until after the crime. The loose bullets came from Kenneth's uncle, in a box of other items.