Published 2006-11-11T00:00:00Z”/>

Ashley Gebb

Nine witnesses gave testimonies for the prosecution today after the opening statements in a trial in the case of the death of a Chico State student.

Lloyd Murray faces 12 years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter, assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury and dissuading a witness.

Murray is accused of punching Chico State student Travis Williams in the head during a fight outside the Holiday Inn in December. Williams fell backward and hit his head, police said.

Williams went into a coma and died five days later.

Two doctors, the Holiday Inn manager, a security guard who worked at the Holiday Inn with Williams, a man and three women who were present at the fight and the officer who first responded to the call testified today.

Jeffrey Lobosky, a neurosurgeon at Enloe Medical Center, treated Williams for the injuries to his head as a result of the fall, he said.

Lobosky compared brain consistency to Jello to explain how a person’s brain can be damaged in a fall. In a fall the brain moves rapidly back and forth and hits the walls of the skull. He also testified that Williams had a skull fracture and the pressure in his skull became so high it resulted in death.

Thomas Resk, a forensic pathologist, used the same skull model as Lobosky to show the skull fracture and bruising and swelling of the brain he witnessed while conducting Williams’ autopsy, he said.

The manager, security guard and other witnesses who were at the Holiday Inn the night of the fight had to illustrate on large diagrams of the parking lot outside the hotel where each part of the fight happened.

They began by stating where they were when they first noticed a fight and then said where they were when Williams fell. Each witness gave a detailed account of what they saw, who was involved and how they reacted.

It was not an easy day for Williams’ family to sit through, his cousin Katrina Bauer said.

She sat near Williams’ mother during. Sometimes throughout the trial the women held each other and rubbed each other’s backs.

“It was difficult to picture Travis in that situation over and over again,” Bauer said.

Williams’ girlfriend Lindsey Needles said it was especially difficult to listen to testimony about Williams’ breathing as he lie on the ground after the punch, which was described by one witness as a “death rattle.” Needles hadn’t heard the details before, she said.

Defense attorney Jodea Foster wanted to prove two things during his cross-examination of the witnesses today, he said.

“One was to show this was a barroom brawl in the classic sense of the word,” Foster said.

He believes the three women were excellent in proving the fight was like a barroom brawl, he said. They each testified how much they drank that night and how it first appeared the group that was fighting was rough-housing.

Nobody gave explanation for the injuries Murray’s brother Michael received during the fight. Several witnesses said they noticed he was bleeding, but no one said why, Foster said.

Another issue Foster thinks is important is that many witnesses identified Murray by the white T-shirt he wore that night, and there were other people involved wearing white T-shirts, he said.

The defense is planning to begin its witness testimony when the trial resumes Monday, Foster said. Michael Murray, the toxicologist who can testify to Lloyd Murray’s blood alcohol content and officers who took statements that night will all be called as witnesses.

Ashley Gebb can be reached at

<a href=”mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]</a>