|
|
McCowen murder trial: Day 3
Michael Iacuessa
Banner Correspondent
As a videotape of the crime scene played out in court Friday, jurors watched intently as they viewed evidence of how 2 1/2-year old Ava Worthington tried to clean up her dead mother's body.
A blood-soaked wash cloth lay on the bathroom floor. Just a couple feet away, a children's stepstool rested in front of the sink. There were blood stains inside the sink. On Christa Worthington's body were parallel blood streaks as if, as EMT Jeff Francis testified, they were made by small hands.
Also entered into evidence was a children's broom found near the hallway where the body was found.
The video was followed by testimony by state police officer Kimberly Squier who asked Ava, the night the body was found, who else lived with them at her home.
"Mummy lying down. Mummy won't get up. Mummy lying down," Ava repeated over and over along with,"tried to clean mummy. Those are my paints, not Mummy's paints."
That was all authorities ever got out of the young girl, who was in the house when her mother was killed and for two days until being found.
Asst. District Attorney Robert Welsh also showed autopsy photos, and with each one allowed State Trooper Carol Harding the opportunity to describe the wounds.
With the video, photos and Ava, the prosecution was able to put a real face to the crime. It may have been the first thing that has gone the Commonwealth's way since the trial started.
Earlier in the day, defense attorney Robert George got Jan Worthington to admit she told two different versions of what happened when she was the first EMT to arrive on the scene.
Jan Worthington testified she checked her cousin's pulse, immediately determined she was dead and then calmly called police believing it was then a crime scene. That also was what she wrote in the screenplay she sold to Grossbart Barnett and what she told Eric Williams on his WOMR radio show. The latter was filmed by HBO, which she was doing a documentary with.
Four hours after the crime, however, State Trooper Christopher Mason wrote that Jan Worthington told him she had never entered the house, got "freaked out" and ran in shock. Three days later, according to Mason's report, she repeated the story, saying she took, at most, just one or two steps into the house and left.
George then got her to admit HBO had tapped into the Court TV feed for the day to film her testimony for the documentary. On Thursday, Jan Worthington admitted making $80,000 for the two deals.
"You're profiting off your cousin's murder right now aren't you," George boomed, to which she had to answer 'yes.'
In the three days the trial has run, George has cast suspicion on the Commonwealth's first witness, Tim Arnold, and discredited the third. Using the disabled and broken-hearted Arnold as a sympathetic figure, he also gave jurors a first impression of State Troopers Christopher Mason and Bill Burke, who will provide the Commonwealth’s most damaging evidence when they testify.
Mason and Burke went to Arnold's bedside while he was in a mental hospital and interrogated him for three hours. As a result, Arnold was transferred to another hospital on a suicide watch.
George then got the fourth witness, Francis, then a paramedic at Lower Cape Ambulance, to offer a professional opinion that rigor mortis can not easily be dated. George promised in his opening statements he would cast doubt as to the time of the murder.
That may have led to Welsh calling Harding, who simply observed the autopsy as a representative of the state police, instead of the medical examiner who is on the witness list.
Francis also is the EMT who recommended a blanket be put over Worthington's body. While he did it for decency, even he admitted he would not do it again. That blanket had a semen stain that matched to Tim Arnold's DNA.
Thus far, George has shown that nine people entered the home, starting with Arnold, before State Trooper Joe Condon arrived to secure the scene.
As has been the case since the murder occurred, new mysteries also surfaced Friday. Two matching socks were found in the yard, one in a flowerbed, another near the car. However, photos of Worthington's bare feet appear clean — no dirt, grass, gravel or seashells. Welsh is trying to use marks found in the driveway to eventually show Worthington's body was dragged into the house.
Still, Welsh has yet to provide evidence linking defendant Christopher McCowen to the crime. That includes the DNA match found on Worthington's breast and his statement to police he was there when she was killed. McCowen said another man — Jeremy Frazier — murdered her. Welsh has stated Frazier and a friend whose house he spent the night at will testify to provide an alibi.
Squier was still on the stand as court adjourned for the weekend.
|
McCowen murder trial: day 4
Eastham shooter killed by police
McCowen murder trial Day 2
McCowen murder trial: Day 1
Jury selection bogs down
30-year anniversary of the Patricia Marie disaster
In the News
|
|
|
|
|
Oct 19th, 2006