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McCowen murder trial: Day 1
Michael Iacuessa
Banner Correspondent
Tim Arnold testified what it was like to discover Christa Worthington’s body as the former fashion writer’s murder trial began Wednesday.
“I saw Ava’s head pop up but her mother didn’t answer,” he said, describing Worthington’s then two & one-half year-old daughter lying by her dead mother’s body.
Arnold said Worthington’s cheek was cold to the touch but he did not know she was stabbed until told later. Originally, he said he believed she might have fallen down, maybe the flight of stairs just around the corner.
Worthington was wearing a bathrobe opened in front. The robe was up over her body, her legs bare. (Trial photos later showed a blouse and not a robe. Arnold then said he must have been mistaken.)
Arnold was the first witness called in the trial, immediately following opening statements by Robert Welsh, the assistant district attorney, and Robert George, defense attorney for Christopher McCowen.
Welsh said the Commonwealth’s case would revolve around McCowen’s DNA matching a sample found on Worthington’s breast and that McCowen described the crime in detail during questioning the night he was arrested. Despite McCowen maintaining another man – Jeremy Frazier – committed the crime, Welsh said he will call a witness who will provide an alibi for him.
Welsh’s first reference to Worthington was as a “single mother.” He detailed abrasions found on her body and said the position of Worthington’s body indicated rape.
George, who delivered a booming opening in contrast to the soft-spoken but equally effective Welsh, countered that McCowen was on trial solely because of his race and economic background.
He described Worthington as a 46-year old Vassar educated, world-traveling heiress who authorities could not possibly believe had consensual sex with a black garbage man.
Had McCowen been given the same benefit of the doubt as several other former lovers, whom George said were well-respected people with college degrees, McCowen would never have been interrogated for six to seven hour after his arrest. George referred to Arnold’s own DNA being found on a brown blanket used by EMTs to cover Worthington’s body.
He said McCowen’s denials he knew Worthington over three years during the time the murder was unsolved were the best thing he ever did in the case.
“He did the only smart thing. He said he did not know her. Because when he did say he knew her, he got indicted,” said George.
The defense attorney said McCowen’s statement to police was faulty and he promised testimony from experts on the subject of false confessions.
On cross-examination of Arnold, George tried to portray the 48-year old former children’s book writer as someone who was still in love and frustrated with Worthington despite their sexual relationship ending a year earlier. George presented Arnold’s personal journals, which police took during the investigation.
As court concluded for the day, George was questioning Arnold as to what he observed and touched at the crime scene.
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In the News
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Oct 19th, 2006