Thursday, 4:30 PM
Prosecution, defense paint two different pictures in Worthington trial
By Megan Tench, Globe Staff, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
A prosecutor's grisly description today of the brutal rape and murder of a Cape Cod fashion writer in her Truro home in 2002 almost moved a juror to tears.
The face of a female juror reddened and she dabbed her watery eyes with a tissue as assistant district attorney Robert Welsh described how Christa Worthington was violated and stabbed and stomped.
"There were a large number of blows and kicks to her body," Welsh said in his opening statement. "The defendant was completely indifferent to her suffering."
Christopher M. McCowen, 34, is charged with murder, armed burglary, and aggravated rape. Prosecutors alleged he beat her outside her house, dragged her into her kitchen, raped her stabbed and left her dead. The trash collector could face life in prison if convicted.
Defense attorney Robert A. George asked the 12-member jury to put aside their natural feelings of horror and keep an open mind.
"It's not that simple," he said.
Worthington, George said, had DNA from three different men under her fingernails when she was found dead. She had multiple lovers on the Cape, the defense attorney said, "But the black garbage man was out of line."
Police assumed that Worthington was raped because McCowen is black and uneducated, George said.
"It's based on an assumption-- a false assumption that a Vassar educated 46 year-old .. white heiress ... couldn't possibly have consensual sex with a black uneducated and troubled garbage man " George said.
Investigators dismissed McCowen's statements that implicated another killer and instead tried to coerce a confession out of him, George said. McCowen told police he had sex with Worthington, but his friend killed her, George said. The also lawyer questioned the veracity of McCowen's confession to police, which George said was not recorded.
"Christopher McCowen did not kill Christa Worthington," George said. "The wrong person is here."
Welsh, the prosecutor, deflected the defense's charges of racism.
"This case has nothing to do with race," Welsh said. "This case has to do with a horrendous crime. The color of his skin has nothing to do with it."
The prosecutor said that McCowen told inconsistent stories to police, claiming first to not have known Worthington. Then, after police presenting him with DNA evidence, the trash collector said he had had a sexual relationship with her.
The opening statements came after lawyers spent more than two days picking a jury. The 12 jurors and four alternates include six white men, eight white women, one black man and one black woman. The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.
