Forensic pathologist testifies Peter Khill fired his fatal shots at Jon Styres on a downward angle

Where were Peter Khill and Jon Styres standing and what position were both men in when Khill fired two fatal shots at Styres in almost pitch-black conditions?

The forensic pathologist who examined Jon Styres's body after Peter Khill shot him to death testified Thursday she couldn't say for sure — but what she could say is Khill shot on a slightly downward angle.

"We have endless possibilities … so many variables in this situation, it's difficult to say what position Mr. Styres would have or could have been in at the time of the shots?" Defence lawyer Jeffrey Manishen said in a question posed to forensic pathologist Dr. Allison Edgecombe.

"That's my opinion, yes," Edgecombe responded.

Crown prosecutors brought in Edgecombe as an expert witness on the fourth day of Khill's second-degree murder trial.

Khill is facing the murder charge after shooting Styres in February 2016, when Styres was trying to steal his truck at his home in a rural part of Hamilton.

The crown has argued Khill unjustly slayed Styres over an old pickup truck, but over the past few days, jurors have heard Khill, who had military training, thought Styres was armed and could have killed him.

Expert says either gunshot would have killed Styres

Edgecombe said she first saw Styres at the crime scene, on his back in the mud before performing an autopsy.

She said the 28-year-old Six Nations of the Grand River man was roughly five feet 10 inches tall and weighed 145 pounds.

Edgecombe described the two gunshot wounds on Styres — a hole in his chest and another on his upper right arm and armpit.

"Either one would have caused his death," she said.

She didn't say which shot came first.

Edgecombe said the shape of the hole in Styres's chest indicated that shot came from the left side, travelling downward and toward the right.

"Perhaps the shooter … his height was higher, perhaps the shooter was standing on steps or something or perhaps the [Styres] was just lower to the ground," she told Crown prosecutor Paul McDermott.

The shot led to blood and air entering Styres's chest cavity. It also caused his right lung to collapse.

Expert offers 'likely' scenario about one gunshot

A shot also hit Styres in the back of his upper right arm, travelled through his armpit and into his right chest.

This shot, Edgecombe said, came from the right side and, like the other gunshot, from above.

"The more likely scenario would be [Styres] would be closer to the ground, perhaps sitting or kneeling or some other scenario," she said.

The shotgun shell and the pellets within it travelled through the tissue and muscle in the upper arm and through the armpit before reaching the chest and organs.

She said the shot damaged Styres's right lung, his spine and spinal cord, his aorta — the largest blood vessel in the body — his diaphragm, the right lobe of his liver and the top-right part of the kidney.

Edgecombe said she found birdshot pellets and bits of plastic and cardboard from the shotgun shell in Styres's body.

The trial resumes Friday and is expected to last two more weeks.