SMETHPORT — Day three of the homicide trial of Stephen Stidd saw the prosecution’s penultimate witness, a jailhouse informant who said he talked about Melvin Bizzarro’s murder with Stidd while he was incarcerated across the hall in the county jail.

Stidd, 65, is accused of shooting his son-in-law Bizzarro one time in the chest during an altercation behind Togi’s Restaurant on Jan. 16, 2015.

Senior Judge John Cleland is hearing the case.

The jailhouse informant, Jared Smith, 31, of Kane, was wearing an orange jail jumpsuit from Jefferson County. He explained he is currently incarcerated for DUI and driving on a suspended license, and had served time in McKean County for theft.

Prosecuting attorney Todd Goodwin of the state attorney general’s office started off by asking, “There are no promises, consideration or benefits from your testimony, correct?”

“Yes, sir,” Smith responded.

He testified about what Stidd told him about the shooting. “He said he shot him and he didn’t (fall right away) and he cocked the gun again and the gentleman turned, walked a couple steps and fell backwards.”

He testified that Stidd told him he’d carved “Mel” into a bullet and “that’s what he used to do this,” Smith said.

Goodwin asked if Stidd had mentioned any injuries he’d suffered in an altercation with Bizzarro that day. Smith said no.

Under cross-examination, defense attorney Greg Henry asked Smith about a letter he’d written to authorities offering to collect evidence for them at the jail — specifically Stidd’s case, along with a few others — in exchange for help with his case. Henry then read the letter, and asked Smith to confirm he’d written it. He agreed that he had.

At the beginning of testimony Wednesday, retired state police weapons expert David Burlingame was questioned by co-defense attorney James P. Miller about his tests on the gun and bullets from the case. Specifically, Miller questioned whether markings on a live round remaining in Stidd’s derringer pistol meant it misfired, or was caused by a weapon malfunction.

Burlingame found no evidence of a misfire, he said, but explained a malfunction in the gun caused the firing pin to lightly strike the second chamber when the first chamber was fired. It wasn’t enough to fire the second bullet, but was enough to leave a small mark, Burlingame said.

Next to the stand was Dr. Edward Barbieri of NMS laboratories, a forensic toxicologist who explained he had tested two blood samples from Bizzarro — one from an autopsy performed by Dr. Eric Vey at the request of law enforcement and a second from an autopsy three weeks later performed by Dr. Cyril Wecht at the request of the family.

Barbieri’s lengthy testimony went into detail about substances found in blood tests from both autopsies, which he said were substantially similar despite different findings. Both tests showed Bizzarro had a high blood-alcohol content — 0.184 in the first test and 0.183 in the second. The legal limit for driving is .08 percent.

The first test showed no cocaine in Bizzarro’s blood. The second test did. There’s a scientific explanation for it, Barbieri said.

“There’s a process known as post mortem redistribution,” he said. “When we are alive drugs are circulating through our tissues. Our tissues tend to hold higher concentrations than the blood. When we die all that equilibrium stops. The tissues that have the high concentration give up the high concentration to the blood that’s nearby.”

He explained it would be like putting a drop of dye in a glass of water. Eventually, all the water will turn the color of the dye. In the same way, as decompensation happens, the concentration of the drugs in the tissue and surrounding blood will equalize, Barbieri explained.

On cross-examination, Miller asked Barbieri if he could use the data from the report to estimate what Bizzarro’s behavior might have been like prior to his death — aggressive and belligerent? No, the toxicologist said. There are calculations for figuring that out in living tissue, but not in a post mortem sample, he added.

Miller listed the substances found in the second sample, like cocaine, hydrocodone, methadone and alcohol.

“You have a person taking all these drugs, they are probably not in control of themselves,” Miller stated.

“You are predicating the answer on all of them being taken at once,” Barbieri cautioned. “Is it probable? No.”

Now-retired state police Cpl. Kurtis Rummel, who worked as a reconstructionist for the Troop C headquarters in Punxsutawney, explained the measurements he had taken at the scene, and testified that he was the officer who opened Stidd’s derringer for Trooper Theodore Horner.

“There’s a unique way to open it,” he said, explaining the gun has a hinge on the top for opening. “I helped him open it and he took possession of it.”

He was there when the letters “MEL” were discovered on a live round still in the pistol, he testified.

“Have you ever come across a bullet with a name carved in it?” asked  Bobbi Jo Wagner, co-prosecutor with the state attorney general’s office.

“Me, personally, no I have not,” Rummel said.

Miller cross-examined Rummel, asking about evidence located at the scene. Of particular note was a baseball hat, which photos show earlier in the day to have been in a different spot than it was later in the day. Rummel said it hadn’t been moved while he was there.

Wagner questioned him again. “It was an outside crime scene?”

“Correct.”

“Was it cold? Windy, snowing?”

“Yes,” Rummel replied.

“It was a crime scene, outside, in January, in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Could that hat have been blown or moved?” Wagner asked.

“Yes,” Rummel replied.

Horner was next on the witness stand, testifying about his role in taking photos and collecting evidence. During his testimony, photos of Bizzarro’s body at the crime scene were displayed, including close-up photos of the gunshot wound and the area under where his body had been.

Under cross-examination, Miller asked Horner to look at the photos again. “Do you see evidence there that Mr. Bizzarro did anything but fall straight back?” Miller asked.

“I can’t tell,” Horner said.

Horner’s partner that day, Trooper Shawn Compton, testified that he witnessed the autopsy done in Erie, and took custody of Bizzarro’s clothing and personal effects. A few photos of Bizzarro in the autopsy room were shown; his mother left the courtroom. His sisters and father left earlier in the day when photos were displayed repeatedly.

Last to testify was Smith. Following his testimony, Cleland explained the prosecution has one more witness to call, but he was unavailable until Friday morning. Therefore, the defense will begin to present its case at 9 a.m. today.