The Bullet Never Left Her Body

Tammy Sue King was 61 years old. She lived in Bacliff, Texas. And according to the medical examiner who performed her autopsy, she died from a gunshot wound that traveled through her throat, her windpipe, her carotid artery, and her lung before lodging in the muscles of her right back.

The bullet never left her body.

Today, Dr. Monica Patel took the stand in Texas v. Uriah Urick and walked the jury through exactly what she found when she examined Tammy King's remains. This is the kind of testimony that makes trials real. Not the legal arguments. Not the motions. The moment when a doctor describes, in clinical detail, what a bullet does to a human body.

What the Autopsy Report Shows

The official autopsy report from the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office lays it out in black and white:

Cause of Death: Penetrating gunshot wound of the head.

Manner of Death: Homicide.

Dr. Patel explained the difference between "penetrating" and "perforating" gunshot wounds. Penetrating means the bullet entered but never exited. It stayed inside Tammy King's body. The prosecution showed the jury an X-ray, and there it was: a white shape against the gray of her skeleton. The projectile that killed her.

The Path of the Bullet

The bullet entered in front of Tammy's left ear. From there, it traveled through her oral cavity, into the soft tissues of her throat, through her trachea, through her right carotid artery, into her right chest cavity, through the upper lobe of her right lung, and finally came to rest between her 10th and 11th ribs in the muscles of her back.

Along the way, it fractured her 2nd through 7th cervical vertebrae. It fractured bones in her neck and throat. It left at least 500 milliliters of blood in her right chest cavity.

The prosecutor asked Dr. Patel: "How much blood should be in your right chest cavity?"

Her answer: "None."

What the Defense Focused On

Here's what's interesting. The defense didn't challenge the cause of death. They didn't argue that Tammy King died from something other than a gunshot wound. They didn't dispute that this was a homicide.

Instead, they focused on what was in Tammy's system.

Toxicology showed THC, hydrocodone, and a trace amount of ethanol (which Dr. Patel said could be from decomposition). None of it was at fatal levels. None of it contributed to her death. The gunshot wound did that.

But the defense wanted the jury to know what substances were present. Dr. Patel acknowledged that drugs can affect behavior in various ways, though she couldn't testify about how they specifically affected Tammy.

Why does the defense care what was in the victim's system if it didn't kill her?

That's a question worth watching as this trial continues.

What This Means

Medical examiner testimony establishes the foundation of any murder case. Someone has to tell the jury: this person is dead, this is what killed them, and another human being caused it.

Dr. Patel did that today. Tammy King died from a gunshot wound to the head. The manner of death is homicide, meaning it was caused by another person. The State of Texas now has the official ruling they need.

What they still need to prove is who pulled the trigger and why. That's where the rest of this trial comes in.

Two teenagers are charged with capital murder: Uriah Urick, who was 18 at the time, and Tara King, who was 17 and is allegedly Tammy's own granddaughter. The State claims they killed her during a robbery, which elevates the charge from murder to capital murder under Texas law.

Both defendants are presumed innocent. The State has to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. We're watching to see if they can.

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The bullet that killed Tammy King is now in evidence. It was recovered from her back, sealed in an envelope with Dr. Patel's initials. The jury has seen it. They've seen the X-ray. They've heard where it traveled through her body.

Now they wait to hear who fired it.