Coroner describes how Nicole Simpson died

Nicole Brown Simpson probably faced her killer for several moments, hit her face on a wall in the struggle and died swiftly after her throat was slashed, a coroner told O.J. Simpson's jurors Wednesday.

Using black-and-white drawings and color autopsy photographs, Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran told jurors that once Ms. Simpson was on the ground, probably knocked senseless, her attacker could have turned his attention to victim Ronald Goldman and then returned to cut Ms. Simpson's throat.

Death, he said, came quickly once the final stab wound was inflicted.

"I would say she died within a few minutes, probably much less than a minute," he said. "She would have gone into rapid shock with this massive injury."

Lakshmanan returned again and again to the question of how long it took Ms. Simpson to die, saying the suddenness of the attack explained why her hands showed few defensive wounds.

"She was probably rapidly incapacitated and wasn't able to offer much resistance," he said.

Timing has been a focal point of the prosecution case, which suggests that Simpson had adequate time to kill two people, rush to his home two miles away and meet a limo waiting to take him to the airport.

Lakshmanan showed a photo of four slash marks on her neck. Three could each have been fatal if untreated, he said, but the coup de grace was most likely a long slash that severed one jugular vein and both carotid arteries.

Lakshmanan said Ms. Simpson was on the ground when her assailant pulled up her head by the hair and cut her throat. The cut, starting at the left side of her neck and curving up to her right ear, almost certainly was made by someone wielding a knife in the right hand. Simpson is right-handed.

"A right-handed person inflicts this injury _ at least, a person used his right hand to inflict this injury," Lakshmanan said.