Final rebuttal by prosecution and jury deliberations expected Tuesday
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MANISTIQUE -- The jury in the Thomas Richardson murder trial is expected to begin deliberations Tuesday. Richardson is accused of causing the fall and death of his wife Juanita at Picture Rocks.
Tuesday, the prosecution and defense gave their closing arguments. As Prosecutor Karen Bahrman finished up her closing arguments, she presented statistics she felt pointed the finger at Richardson for Juanita's death.
"What are the chances of this sighted, competent, sober woman becoming this already extremely rare statistic, while accompanied by her unhappily married husband, whose post incident behavior was grossly inappropriate, who lied about whether or not he saw her fall, who lied about why he lied, who fed anyone who would listen false information," said Bahrman.
However, Defense Attorney Karl Numinen argued that the evidence in the case pointed toward an accident such as the position of Juanita's sandal on a ledge near the top of the cliff.
Numinen stated both authorities and the prosecution only saw what they wanted to see in this case, asking Richardson leading questions after the incident and leaving out evidence, such as information regarding the phone calls between Richardson and alleged girlfriend, Kelli Brophy.
"More than 50% of the calls were less than 2 minutes," explained Numinen. "So of the 383 phone calls, over half of them were less than 2 minute phone calls. This is not evidence of some kind of romantic relationship."
Numinen also argued the will Richardson and Juanita inquired about before their trip was for the kids, and after learning it didn't need to be done beforehand and was going to be more complicated, he decided postpone it.
"They needed a trust," said Numinen. "They had real estate. They wanted to divide up separately between one kid and the other kid. This one was going to get cash, this one was going to get the house, this one was going to get real estate; when they told him that and explained that, he relaxed and said, 'Okay, I guess I don't need it.' Now, if he was going to kill his wife, he wouldn't have made the follow-up appointment in July."
Rebuttal by the prosecution will take place Tuesday at 9 a.m. After that, the judge will give out jury instructions and the jury will begin deliberations.
