Lawyers for indicted FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita want a judge to bar the government's animated reconstructions of shots fired at Oregon refuge occupier Robert "LaVoy" Finicum from being presented at trial, calling them unreliable and riddled with errors.

Prosecutors had Kevin Turpen, a Deschutes County sheriff's deputy, and Toby Terpstra, a senior forensic animator with a private Colorado firm, reconstruct the moment that a shot struck the roof of Finicum's truck after he swerved into a snowbank on the side of U.S. 395 to avoid a police roadblock.

Astarita is accused of lying about firing two shots at Finicum as he emerged from his pickup on Jan. 26, 2016. Finicum was among an armed group that took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters about three weeks earlier. Astarita has pleaded not guilty to three counts of making a false statement and two counts of obstruction of justice.

Grand juror: 'I just look at that and this investigation is -- this is a big deal...would it have been such a big deal had he just said, yeah, in the heat of the moment, I shot my gun?'

A criminal investigation found that only Astarita could have fired two rounds shortly after Finicum stepped out of the truck, according to prosecutors. Astarita's first rifle shot missed Finicum's truck, but the second entered the truck through the roof and blew out the left rear passenger window, the government contends.

The government also hired audio/video expert Frank Piazza, who synchronized audio taken by Shawna Cox, a rear passenger in Finicum's truck, with an FBI aerial surveillance video.

Defense lawyers argue that the government has no photographic, video, ballistic or eyewitness proof that Astarita fired a shot, and Astarita, a member of the elite FBI Hostage Rescue Team, denies having done so.

Defense lawyers called the experts' estimations of the locations of the FBI agent, suspected bullet path and bullet trajectory imprecise and flawed, and suggested that the government's production of two separate scene reconstructions indicate a lack of reliability.

"The court cannot allow experts to present conclusions on such important issues in a criminal trial without ample assurances of reliability,'' defense lawyers wrote in a 50-page motion filed Wednesday.

Prosecutors have two weeks to respond. A hearing will be held May 21 to determine which experts' testimony will be allowed at trial.

Terpstra produced a 3D model of the roof shot relying on other government experts' trajectory analyses, video and audio synchronizations and his own computer analysis and photogrammetry, which uses coordinate measurements from photographs and videos.

"Defendant was the only person in a position consistent with having taken the shot,'' Terpstra concluded, according to a government summary of his findings.

Piazza created slow-motion copies of the enhanced FBI aerial surveillance video, placing circles around the individual FBI Hostage Rescue Team agents and Oregon State Police SWAT officers at the scene to help track their movements. These were presented to the grand jury as exhibits, according to court records.

Astarita's defense lawyers cite

who told jurors Piazza was able to hook the audio track from Cox's video to an audio spectrometer and confirm eight distinct gunshots.

Prosecutors contend "Round 5" came from Astarita's rifle, striking Finicum's truck.

Bruce Koenig, a defense expert, contends Piazza lacks expertise on gunshots and therefore his conclusions should be discounted. Koenig retired from the FBI in 1995 as a senior audio examiner and started his own consulting company.

Oregon State Police forensic lab analyst Victoria Dickerson is expected to testify, according to court documents, that the bullet Astarita is accused of firing was traveling at a 20-degree downward angle, from left to right. She used a method of estimating the path of the bullet called "Centering Cone.''

A defense expert contends the method isn't appropriate because the bullet impact to the truck's roof had unusual features, including a curved raised lip at one end.

Another government bullet trajectory analyst, Michael Haag, a senior forensic scientist with Albuquerque, New Mexico, police, reported that the bullet was intact when it struck the truck's roof, perforated a series of layers of the interior cab and continued to travel out of the truck through the left rear glass window.

Exhibit from government expert Michael Haag's bullet trajectory analysis.

Defense experts disagree, contending the bullet broke into multiple fragments.

Turpen, the Deschutes County sheriff's deputy, created diagrams of the scene to capture the precise time the shot into the roof was fired.

But defense experts say the measurements Turpen relied on were faulty, because the state crime lab forensic analyst didn't come to the scene until the following morning, when she measured the angle of Finicum's truck, it's passenger side lower than the driver's side resting in the snowbank. Defense experts contend the truck had settled further into the snowbank by then.

Defense experts and lawyers also take aim at the government's 3D model reconstruction of the shooting, arguing that the FBI aerial video images are taken from nearly a mile away, are of low resolution and blurry due to movement.

Piazza attempted to obtain a "flash or muzzle rise or recoil rise'' from the FBI aerial video but could not because the video was described as "too shaky,'' an agent testified at the grand jury, according to court records.

Finicum, 54, died at the scene when he was shot moments later by Oregon State Police as he reached into his jacket. Investigators said he had a loaded handgun in an inside jacket pocket. Finicum's widow Jeanette Finicum has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Oregon State Police, the FBI and others.

Among new documents filed:

-Defense motion

-Defense files exhibit of government expert Frank Piazza's notes

-Defense files part of Deschutes County Sheriff's Office report on measurements from shooting scene

-Defense files part of grand jury testimony by Deschutes County Sheriff's patrol deputy Kevin Turpen

-Defense files trajectory analysis report by government expert Michael Haag

Updated with more exhibits filed, Fri., April 13:

-Defense files grand jury testimony of federal Office of Inspector General's senior special agent Russ Cunningham (Cunningham testifies that the government's investigation showed FBI Agent Astarita moved into "a shooting position'' at the time of the gunshot was fired at the roof of Finicum's truck. He also testifies that, "We know the debris is in Ryan Bundy's shoulder from that.'')

-Defense files Deschutes County Sheriff's Office analysis of shooting scene

-Defense files Deschutes County Det. Ron Brown's narrative report on Finicum shooting scene

-Defense critique of government animation

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian