Defense says police pursued other confessions

BARNSTABLE -- The lawyer representing the man accused of killing Cape Cod fashion writer Christa Worthington began his defense yesterday by suggesting that police had aggressively sought confessions from two other men before focusing on his client.

Robert George's first witness for the defense, Keith Amato, testified that Massachusetts state troopers accused him of having an affair with Worthington, questioned his sexuality, threatened him with prison, and applied so much pressure on him to confess to her brutal slaying that he vomited after investigators let him go.

Amato, a casual acquaintance of Worthington, is the second witness to testify during the trial of Christopher McCowen, who is charged with killing her, that police used overzealous tactics in an effort to gain confessions in the January 2002 slaying.

"It got very loud," Amato said of the questioning, which took place in June 2002. "Trooper [James] Mawn slammed his hands on the table and said: 'This is a murder investigation. If we so choose, we will turn your life inside out.' "

It grew so intense, Amato said, he told police he had lied to them in earlier interviews even though he believes he had not .

"I wasn't able to hold a thought together," he said. "I was becoming very confused. I was starting to sweat. My heart was starting to race. I was feeling a bit dizzy. . . . I would have told them anything at that point to end the interview."

Amato is the former son-in-law of Tony Jackett, a shellfish constable on Cape Cod who fathered Worthington's daughter, Ava.

Earlier in the Superior Court trial, Worthington's former boyfriend, Tim Arnold, told jurors that in 2003 investigators followed him to a psychiatric facility he had checked into on the Cape and repeatedly accused him of being the killer as he lay in his hospital bed in a suicidal depression.

McCowen, 34, has been charged with burglary, aggravated rape, and murder in the case and could face life in prison. Police have testified that McCowen told investigators that he helped beat Worthington, 46, in her Truro home after they had consensual sex. McCowen, however, accused another man of being the killer, police said.

George has been building a case that casts doubt on a six-hour statement that his client gave police, which investigators did not record. Though investigators say McCowen appeared sober, George said McCowen was high on marijuana and pain killers at the time of his arrest and interrogation.

Amato said police had questioned him twice before the June 2002 interview, the first time a couple of weeks after Worthington's death and again in February 2002. Both times, he said, the troopers were friendly and the 20-minute interviews concerned how many times he saw Worthington, the state of Amato's marriage, and where he was the weekend of Worthington's death.

Amato told police that he was at work at a Welfleet pizza shop all weekend and that his marriage was normal and had its ups and downs. He had bumped into Worthington about five times, he said he told police, and one of those times, in the summer of 2001, she allowed him to use her outdoor shower after a swim.

Weeks after the questioning, Amato said, his 19-year-old son called from his New York home.

"My son actually called me up crying," Amato said. "He was very upset, asking me what was going on and why were the police calling him asking questions about me."

The call from his son triggered an argument between Amato and his wife.

The pressures of his personal life, Amato said, caused him to attempt suicide.

On June 13, 2002, Amato was again interviewed by police. After spending 45 minutes reviewing his phone records, Amato said one of the troopers, Mawn, grew hostile, accusing him of lying about the state of his marriage and details surrounding the shower he took at Worthington's home.

"We went back and forth for a while," Amato said. "He was basically saying I was a liar, and I said, 'I am not a liar.' "

After Mawn slammed his hands on the table, Amato said, he knew his relationship with the police had changed.

"I was realizing I was turning into a suspect," he said. "They were trying to establish something about me that wasn't true."

Eventually, Amato said, he began agreeing with the investigators, saying he had lied about his personal life, even though he believed he hadn't.

"I did it to shut them up," Amato said.

Soon the troopers started asking him about his state of mind, Amato said. They called his suicide attempt suspicious, he said. And when questioned about the shower he took at Worthington's house, Amato mentioned that he wore a Speedo, prompting an officer to call him a derogatory name and to ask him whether he has sex with men.

The officers then tried to get Amato to confess to Worthington's slaying, he said.

He then told the officers, "You are not going to pin this murder on me," he said, and ended the interview.

Also testifying yesterday was Don Horton, the owner of Cape Cod Disposal Co. and McCowen's former boss. Horton said despite getting caught smoking marijuana on the job, McCowen was a good employee who was well liked by those on his route. Elderly women baked cookies for him and still ask about him to this day, Horton said.

"They loved the guy," he said.

Megan Tench can be reached at mtench@globe.com.