Jury views gruesome crime-scene photos of office massacre that left four people dead By Emanuella Grinberg, Court

(Court TV) — Jurors in the death-penalty trial of a Florida executive accused of gunning down four people in a bloody office massacre viewed gritty crime-scene photos depicting the victims' lifeless bodies Friday.

The panelists flinched at times but focused intently on the images that ranged from the entrance of Erie Manufacturing's industrial warehouse to the office where the bodies of George Gonsalves, 68, George Patisso, 26 and Frank Dosso, 35, lay dead from multiple gunshot wounds to the head.

The victims lay in thick pools of blood among the office cabinets and desks.

In a separate doorway outside the office, the body of 35-year-old Diane Patisso, wife and sister of two of the victims, also lay in a pool of blood.

Polk County prosecutors claim 67-year-old Nelson Serrano went to Erie's offices on Dec. 3, 1997, with the goal of killing Gonsalves, his former business partner, as revenge for having been ousted from the company six months earlier.

He faces the death penalty if convicted of four counts of first-degree murder.

Among the dozens of photos the panel viewed Friday were images of the shoe impression that prosecutors say is the only piece of forensic evidence linking Serrano to the crime.

Crime-scene analyst Lynn Ernst testified that she found the dusty shoe impression in a vinyl chair seat cushion located in the office where the three men were shot.

Prosecutors claim that the impression matches shoes owned by Nelson Serrano, who was the previous occupant of the office before he left the company and Frank Dosso moved in.

Ernst also pointed out a displaced ceiling tile directly above the chair to support the prosecution's theory that Serrano stepped onto the chair and moved the tile to access a gun that he hid in the ceiling when he still worked there.

In his opening statement Tuesday, prosecutor John Aguero theorized that Serrano ordered the men to the ground with a .22-caliber weapon and shot them execution-style.

Aguero suggested Serrano then removed a .32-caliber gun from the ceiling when Diane Patisso entered the office looking for her husband and brother, so she could drive them to a birthday party for Dosso's 10-year-old twins. Serrano chased her down the hallway and shot her with both guns to maintain consistency, according to Aguero.

Blood spatter on the walls of Frank Dosso's office seemed to support the prosecution's theory regarding the execution-style shootings. No blood was found higher than a foot off the ground.

"Did you observe any blood in the upper portions of the walls — at desktop level, even — anywhere in the office?" Aguero asked.

"No, I did not," Ernst said, as the father of George Patisso and Anna Dosso, the sister of Frank Dosso and Diane Patisso, listened with sullen expressions.

At the strict urging of the judge beforehand, the relatives maintained stoic composure, even as the prosecutor displayed gruesome photos of their loved ones, limbs contorted from rigor mortis and their faces ashen.

Under cross-examination, the witness testified that she found no fingerprint or DNA evidence linking the defendant to the scene — not even on a mysterious plastic glove that was found under Diane Patisso's body.

In the defense opening statement, lawyer Cheney Mason insisted that documentary evidence would prove his client was in Atlanta on the day of the slayings and suggested that a robber or robbers were responsible.

But while a wristwatch appeared to be missing from Frank Dosso and a gold chain from George Gonsalves, Diane Patisso had all of her jewelry, including two rings, a necklace and a bracelet.

The parents of Frank Dosso and Diane Patisso, who were the first to discover the bodies, are expected to take the stand Monday. The testimony will be streamed live on Court TV Extra.