Jurors Hear Closing Arguments in Pembroke Pines Condo Rape-Murder of White Woman, 93; Black Defendant’s Defense Team Uses "O.J. Defense"

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

Thanks to my partner in crime, David in TN, for this article. David writes,

I love this:

"Defense lawyers Betsy Benson and Caroline McCrae portrayed the murder investigation as a rush to judgment that ignored other possible suspects once the victim's belongings were discovered in Walters' Dodge pickup."

Yeah, must have been one of those Colombian drug gangs that are always running around butchering white women.
 

Elton Walters during closing arguements [sic] in his murder trial. Walters is… (Mike Stocker, Sun Sentinel )

Deliberations begin in Pembroke Pines condo murder
By Rafael Olmeda
November 7, 2013|
Sun Sentinel

Police caught the killer red-handed, a Broward prosecutor told a jury Wednesday.

And it wasn't just a figure of speech. As Elton Walters was being interrogated at the Pembroke Pines Police Department hours after the body of Evelyn Norell, 93, was discovered, a detective noticed red stains on Walters' fingers.

And when a detective told Walters he was going to be arrested and fingerprinted, Walters began chewing his fingernails. A nervous habit, defense lawyers said. An attempt to get rid of the evidence, said Assistant State Attorney Stephen Zaccor.

Jurors listened to closing arguments in Walters' murder trial Wednesday. Zaccor said police were on to Norell's killer soon after her body was found Oct. 6, 2009 in the bedroom of her condo at the Images community in Pembroke Pines.

Defense lawyers Betsy Benson and Caroline McCrae portrayed the murder investigation as a rush to judgment that ignored other possible suspects once the victim's belongings were discovered in Walters' Dodge pickup.

Among those belongings were a tablecloth from Norell's dining room, bloodstained linen and pillowcase, a lockbox and Norell's purse. Police also found the knife they believe Walters used to slash Norell's throat after sexually assaulting and strangling her.

Zaccor told the jury that the evidence leads to one reasonable conclusion — Walters, a maintenance man at the condo complex where Norell lived alone, was her killer.

"Why would her blood be on his shorts?" Zaccor said. "Why would her blood be on his hands?"

And why, he asked, would Norell's DNA — from a source that was not blood — be on the crotch of the underwear Walters was wearing when he was arrested? The only explanation, he said, was that Walters' boxers came in direct contact with the victim, who was naked from the breast area down to her socks when her body was found.

Walters faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder, armed sexual battery, armed robbery and armed burglary.
But Benson and McCrae said police had the wrong guy from the start. Walters, who did not testify during the trial, told Pembroke Pines Police detective Carl Heim that he had no idea how the victim's belongings got in his pickup, but police never considered the notion that someone else had stashed them in the vehicle, Benson said.

Benson focused largely on the absence of evidence of rape. Even Zaccor conceded that there was no evidence of penetration, Benson noted. There were no bruises on the elderly woman's body that would be expected if she had been raped. And there was no semen.

"There is no evidence whatsoever of any sexual battery," she said.

McCrae told jurors they should doubt the conclusions about DNA presented during the trial because the evidence was handled in a way that, she said, could easily have led to contamination. Samples collected from various sources were stored close together during testing, McCrae said, leaving open the possibility that some of the items may have been mixed up.

"You have to take every single reasonable step to ensure that contamination does not occur," she said. "You need to eliminate the conditions that allow for contamination."

Zaccor defended the Broward Sheriff's DNA analyst who handled the evidence, Christopher Sase Comar, saying he followed accepted protocols and that there's no indication any of it was mixed up or contaminated.

Jurors deliberated for about five hours Wednesday before retiring for the night. Because it's a death penalty case, the jury is being sequestered during deliberations, shielded from exposure to media accounts of the case and prevented from contacting their families except during brief, monitored conversations.

Deliberations will resume Thursday morning.

raolmeda@tribune.com, 954-356-4457 or Twitter @SSCourts

[Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that the jury deliberated for one hour Wednesday. Deliberations began shortly after 4 p.m. and ended for the night shortly before 9:30 p.m.]