Deputy Christopher Long stood so close to Peyton Strickland when he fired his submachine gun through a door at the unarmed teenager that gunpowder peppered Strickland's chest, according to an autopsy report released this week.

That sort of marking with a submachine gun indicates Long was probably no more than 2 feet from Strickland when he fired, said David Klinger, a criminology professor at the University of Missouri and an expert in police shootings.

Strickland, an 18-year-old Durham native who was taking community college classes in Wilmington, died Dec. 1 after being struck in the head and chest in the foyer of his rental home.

Long fired his gun at Strickland through an unlocked door after mistaking the hammering of a battering ram for a gunshot blast, a prosecutor has said. Long and a crew of heavily armed deputies swarmed Strickland's home that night to search for a video-game console that UNC-Wilmington campus police thought he and two friends had stolen from a student.

Long, who was subsequently fired by the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, could face charges for his split-second decision that night. District Attorney Ben David has vowed to pursue the case even though a grand jury last year wouldn't indict Long for second-degree murder.

Second instance

If David seeks an indictment from a new grand jury, one member of the panel would be a former co-worker of Long's. Timothy D. Lougher, randomly selected this month to sit on the grand jury for a year, has worked as a detention officer at the county jail for two years. Lougher did not return calls Wednesday.

It would be the second potential conflict on a grand jury in the case. In December, the wife of a New Hanover sheriff's detective sat on the grand jury and voted on Long's indictment. That grand jury returned a true bill of indictment, but the grand jury foreman swore he had checked the wrong box and told a judge that the grand jury didn't have enough votes to indict Long.

If David takes the case to the new grand jury that includes Lougher, a Superior Court judge could dismiss the juror for "good cause." The law doesn't define that.

Otherwise, there is no way to control how grand jurors behave once they step into a closed room to deliberate. They are bound under state law to keep everything that happens there secret. No one records conversations or keeps track of how they vote.

"It's just 12 citizens in there with an oath of office," said James Drennan, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Government. "It's a black box in some ways."

The law doesn't advise prosecutors on whether they can turn to a grand jury outside the county where the alleged crime occurred. Such an attempt would likely draw a challenge to higher courts that could undermine the case later.

Neither David nor New Hanover Senior Superior Court Judge W.A. Cobb returned calls seeking comment.

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.