Army Capt. Lawrence Martin showed jurors the jagged scars on his wrist from five operations after the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building left his arm looking like "spaghetti."
"I felt like I'd been in a boxing match and gotten beaten up real badly," he testified Wednesday at the trial of Timothy McVeigh. The injuries forced him to take a medical discharge from the Army.As prosecutors sought to underscore the tragic results of the 1995 bombing that killed 168 people and injured more than 500, Martin took the stand and recalled how the blast knocked him through a wall on the fourth floor. Seven employees in the Army recruiting office were killed.
Prosecutor Pat Ryan cried when Martin talked about a 3-year-old girl who was killed in the explosion as she visited her father's office.
Kayla Marie Titsworth and her 4-year-old sister, Katie, had accompanied their father, Army Sgt. William Titsworth, and mother, Gloria, to Titsworth's office that morning.
"In addition to those seven men and women, Sgt. Titsworth's daughter died that morning on the floor?" asked Ryan, his voice breaking.
"Yes," said Martin.
"I'm sorry, your honor," Ryan said as tears flowed down his reddened face. The father of three walked back to the counsel table and buried his head in his hands.
The emotional moment followed an otherwise tedious day of testimony on hundreds of pages of phone card records.