Dean v. Commonwealth, 32 Gratt. 912 (Va. 1879)

Defendant possessed a gun "of peculiar construction" much like the gun used in the murder. The gun "carried a ball of unusual size" and "had a square barrel" that could make the same impression as was found at the murder scene. "By actual experiment, made by some of the witnesses, the Francisco gun, when laid upon the same rail and drawn back, left a similar square impression and a similar notch." Furthermore, the bullet extracted from the dead body was the same weight as a bullet from the defendant's gun. "It was proved that upon the exmination of a large number of guns, within a radius of eight miles of the scene of the murder, none were found of the same bore. or which would carry precisely the same ball. Two or three only, out of a large number examined, were found which were nearly the same bore and might have carried the same ball as the Francisco gun. But these...were accounted for, and proved to be where it was impossible the murderer of Fugate could have used them."