Thursday, 4:30 PM
Jurors on Cape Cod begin deliberations in Worthington murder trial
By Megan Tench, Globe Staff, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
A 12-member jury began deliberating in the Christa Worthington murder trial today after listening to nearly two hours of instructions from Barnstable Superior Court Judge Gary Nickerson.
Testimony lasted almost three weeks in the case concerning the death of the 46-year-old fashion writer who was found slain in her Truro home in January 2002. Her trash collector, Christopher McCowen, 34, could face life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.
"You are the judge of the facts," Nickerson told the jury, urging them not to let bias, prejudice, or sympathy influence their decision.
The jury can choose to convict McCowen of a variety of charges, including aggravated rape and aggravated burglary. For Worthington's death, the jury could convict McCowen of first- or second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, or battery manslaughter.
The judge outlined the difference between direct and circumstantial evidence and urged jurors to confine their deliberations to testimony and evidence presented in court.
"By doing that you will ensure a verdict that is just and true," Nickerson said.
The judge also reminded jurors that nothing should be inferred from McCowen not taking the stand in his own defense.
"The defendant has an absolute right not to testify, since the entire burdened of proof in the case is on the Commonwealth," Nickerson said.
Prosecutors allege that DNA led them to McCowen. Prosecutor Robert Welsh presented testimony from investigators who said that McCowen, who first denied knowing the victim, later claimed he and Worthington had consensual sex the night she died after he was presented with DNA evidence.
In a six-hour interrogation that the defense disputed, McCowen, according to police, said he punched Worthington in the face, stomped on her, and wiped down her body after she died, according to investigators.
But police said McCowen never admitted to Worthington's murder and claimed that his friend, Jeremy Frazier, was the real killer. On the stand, Frazier denied having anything to do with Worthington's death.
Defense attorney Robert George disputed McCowen's statements from the six-hour interview, which was not recorded. George told jurors that his client was the victim of desperate and overzealous detectives. The police botched the investigation, George said, and then manipulated the evidence to fit their theory that McCowen stabbed her after drinking that Friday night in January 2002.
In closing arguments, George said Worthington was alive and well Saturday morning until someone else, a white man driving a dark car, killed her. Worthington's body was discovered in her Truro home on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2002.
He said that police had failed to investigate a report by an eyewitness who said he saw a white man in a dark-colored car speed away from Worthington's driveway the day before her body was discovered.
Detectives testified that they did investigate the account, by Girard Smith, 76, but nothing came of it.
