Eau Claire firefighter murder trial: Bodycam footage and physical evidence 

The prosecution called up the first responding officer to the scene after Medlin was shot just before 1 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2024, outside the Hometown Bar and Grill. The officer's body camera footage was played for the jury, which was very emotional for those in the gallery who knew and loved Medlin. 

Next was the bodycam video from Gomez’s arrest. Police approached the house silently and "blacked out," meaning their police lights were off. Gomez meets them outside. Then-Sheriff’s Deputy Gregory Siuda testified that Gomez told officers, “I'm the one you guys are looking for,” but it can't be heard in the video. Later, in the back of the squad car, Gomez asks for an update on the “guy in the hospital,” Siuda said. 

Gomez allegedly stashed his gun in its black plastic gun case, outside the home of a friend, Elizabeth Harper, who gave him a ride from a mutual friend's house after the shooting. Deputies questioned Harper the morning after Gomez fled, but they say she did not cooperate.

On the stand Friday, Harper said she found the gun case on her property later found the gun case, still on the morning of Nov. 2. Panicking, she drove toward Rocky Gap Road and threw the case into the woods.

“So selfishly, I panicked," she said on the stand. "I was upset, and all I could think about was my family, and I just wanted that off of the property.”

She testified she couldn't live with herself and said she turned herself in to the police days later, eventually pleading guilty to her involvement in this case.

Physical evidence admitted into evidence Friday includes the gun argued to be the murder weapon, held by the South Bend Police Department Crime Lab Technician, Sierra Halstead, who tested that gun for fingerprints. Berrien County Judge Gary Bruce qualified her as an expert witness in this matter at the prosecution's request. She found one latent print, shown in photos to the jury. It was deemed sufficient for comparison and searched in the AFIS database. 

"I found a hit from the FBI search," Halstead said on the stand. "I identified the print on the right side of the magazine to the right thumb of Rigoberto Gomez." 

Other physical evidence admitted included the black plastic gun case, argued to be Gomez's, a copper shell casing retrieved from the crime scene, and a bullet projectile said to have come from the second gunshot victim's arm. 

Trial resumes Monday at 8:30 a.m. At the Berrien County Courthouse.