Day Ten - Prosecution's Closing Argument

The day began with Judge J. David Mazurek giving the jury deliberation instructions. When he was finished, it was time for ADA Sean Daugherty to begin his closing arguments.

Jon and Erin Corwin

As he did with his opening statement, Daugherty used a Power Point presentation to illustrate his closing arguments to the jury. He began with a photo of Erin Corwin, to remind everyone who this trial is really about. He said of Erin that she was a young lady from Tennessee who loved horses. And that the case is about, "...the brutality that was inflicted upon her."

Daugherty said the perpetrator of that brutality was Christopher Brandon Lee, and he killed her because he wanted to remove her from his life:

"She was a secret who didn't want to be a secret anymore."

Daugherty then put Lee's mugshot up on the screen, showing him as the overweight, slovenly, bearded, wife-beater wearing ex-Marine he was when he was arrested for murdering Erin. Quite the contrast from the slim, clean-cut, well-dressed young man seated at the defendant's table.

Daugherty laid out the chronology of what he believes happened:

• On June 22, 2014, Erin Corwin discovered she was pregnant after a trip to the ER.
• That same day, Christopher Lee visited the mine where he would eventually abandon Erin's body, and took a photograph of that mine. (Daugherty would later surmise in his rebuttal that Erin had already told Lee she suspected she was pregnant with his baby.)
• That following week, Christopher Lee began Googling "how to dispose of a dead body" and even went as far as asking fellow Marine Andrew Johnson about the possibility of getting rid of a dead body at the Amboy salt pools.
• Johnson testified he saw Lee make a list of materials like a shovel and the chemical "Lye" that same day. 
• Lee began planning a hunting trip and invited friends he knew in advance wouldn't be able to come with him. "This was a ruse," Daugherty told the jury.
• He told Erin he was taking her on a surprise getaway to celebrate her pregnancy.
• He took Erin on this trip June 28, 2014, with everything he would need to commit a murder (the garrote) and dispose of a body (the propane tank, the water jugs filled with gasoline, tires).

Daugherty told the jury the defendant's testimony was all about attempting to reduce the charge against him from first degree murder to second degree murder. He called Lee a conman:

"It (his testimony) was scripted, it was rehearsed, it was meant to con you."

Daugherty again ripped to shreds Lee's ludicrous claim that Erin confessed to molesting his daughter. When Nichole Lee supposedly suspected her daughter had been molested, NEITHER parent:

• Called the police
• Visited a pediatrician
• Discussed concerns of abuse with Lee's military superiors.

Daugherty called Lee's molestation accusation "asinine garbage." And Erin's so-called "confession" to Lee?

"This NEVER happened."

He then asked the jury the rhetorical question:

"If a man who crafts lies to suit his own needs and to everyone important in his life, what do you think he's going to do to you?"

I'll post the defense's closing statement and the prosecution's rebuttal later this evening...