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McCowen won’t get new trial
Marilyn Miller
Banner Staff
BARNSTABLE — Christopher McCowen, the black trash collector who was convicted two years ago in the 2002 rape and murder of Truro fashion writer Christa Worthington, will not get a new trial on the basis that racial bias was displayed by several jurors during their deliberations.
So ruled Superior Court Judge Gary A. Nickerson on April 4. Nickerson presided over the murder trial in 2006 and heard earlier this year a motion for a retrial filed by Robert A. George, McCowen's attorney.
Nickerson concluded his 40-page decision with the observation that he has witnessed jurors returning verdicts in serious criminal cases for 30 years. “Watching jurors being polled has shown, in many instances, a trembling hand, a tear trickling down or the word ‘guilty’ being caught in a juror’s throat. The polling of the jury in this case was extraordinary. After eight days of deliberations, not one juror trembled or shed a tear or choked on his or her words. Unfettered unanimity was obvious from the conduct of the jurors as well as from the words they spoke as they were polled.”
George could not be reached for comment.
Michael O'Keefe, Cape and Islands district attorney, reached by phone last Friday, said he thought Nickerson's decision "was consistent with the evidence."
Nickerson also denied another of George’s motions, regarding suppressed evidence. McCowen’s attorney had claimed that evidence about other possible suspects in the murder was not made available to him.
McCowen, when arrested for Worthington's murder, after it was determined his DNA was on Worthington's body, alleged that a young friend, Jeremy Frazier of Wellfleet, stabbed Worthington to death in January 2002. But Frazier had an alibi and there was no evidence to link him to the murder.
This motion, regarding suppressed evidence, was presented by George based on investigative research done by Peter Manso, a Truro writer who is writing a book about the murder. The motion notes that Frazier allegedly pulled a knife and threatened two tourists from Great Britain. He was never prosecuted.
O'Keefe said Nickerson denied this motion based on a technicality, but he denied without prejudice, which means George can submit it again.
O'Keefe said McCowen's routine appeal of his murder conviction will still take place, "but there will be no new trial" based on the racial bias motion.
Nickerson, two months ago, recalled all of the jurors who heard McCowen's trial and questioned them individually to probe their recollections of any racially biased comments made during the deliberations. Following these interviews, he heard from Delainda Miranda, great aunt of Eric Gomes, the only black man on the jury, who said Gomes considered himself Cape Verdean, not black, and was prejudiced against blacks.
Nickerson said he did not find Miranda a credible witness, and found it improbable that she would “spontaneously reach out to Mr. Manso,” as she testified she did, instead of contacting George regarding alleged racial bias of Gomes.
Nickerson said he found Gomes to be an “impartial juror who did not express prejudice against blacks.”
As for Rachel Huffman, the juror who was removed from deliberations and who claimed that Gomes expressed a bias towards blacks to her, Nickerson said, “There is no credible corroboration of her claim that Gomes is biased. In short, this juror was meddlesome, had a motive to lie” and he did not find her credible.
Nickerson, in his decision, said Worthington was an attractive, well-educated, single, middle-aged woman living with her two-year old daughter in an isolated home in Truro.”
McCowen, Nickerson said, “was a handsome, well-built black man of limited intelligence who worked as a trash collector” and stopped weekly at Worthington’s house.
McCowen is serving three life terms in prison without the chance of parole.
Following Nickerson's questioning of Miranda, George said, "We can’t expect all jurors to be perfect. We know these jurors were not perfect. We know they were racially biased."
But O'Keefe disagreed, saying he did not think the claim of racial bias was enough to overturn the jury’s verdict and lead to a new trial.
"The defendant is entitled to a fair, not a perfect trial," O'Keefe said.
He said race was not mentioned at all in the trial until George brought it up, telling jurors during his opening and closing statements that the trial resulted from the "false assumption that a Vassar-educated, world-traveled woman could not possibly have had sex with a black, uneducated garbage man."
O’Keefe said George, during questioning of a police officer, asked him if he thought it plausible that "Christa Worthington, at 1 a.m. would come out of her house to confront a 200-pound drunk black man and his associate."
O’Keefe said, "I’d suggest that the jury did exactly what Mr. George asked them to do. They pondered the very nettlesome questions about race that were driven home to them by the defense counsel. There was not a scintilla of race in this case until Mr. George used it in his defense."
George has vowed to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Judicial Court.
mmiller@cnc.com
Miller joins Banner staff
The Banner announces that beginning with this week’s issue, longtime local reporter Marilyn Miller will cover the towns of Wellfleet and Eastham for the Banner as well as for its sister paper, The Cape Codder. Former Wellfleet and Eastham reporter Derek Burritt will now cover the towns of Harwich and Chatham for The Cape Codder. Former Cape Codder Provincetown reporter Steve Desroches will cover Orleans for the Cape Codder and will report on regional stories for both papers.
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Apr 10th, 2008