TROY - The jury has started deliberating in the nearly 18 year old murder case, in which George Mott is accused of killing Rosemary Crosier. Crosier was found dead in a Troy apartment back in March of 1994.
Closing arguments were held Friday morning.
Defense attorney Brian Donohue had a couple of key points he wanted to make during his hour-long closing statements. He sought to cast reasonable doubt and discredit the witnesses the prosecution called, saying they are people the jury should not trust and their testimony is unbelievable, including Mott's mother.
Donohue said Mott's mother, Tanya Mott, was no mother besides giving birth to her son, saying she abandoned her five children to do crack cocaine.
The prosecution wrapped up their closing arguments afterward and the jury is likely to get the case on Friday afternoon.
Mott's is the first of two trials connected to the beating death of Crosier. The trial for the other man accused, Scott Chaplin, is expected to start sometime in April.
The case of Crosier's murder went unsolved until both men were both arrested in early 2011 after a grand jury was empanelled to investigate Chaplin, who was a longtime suspect in the case. Authorities say the 47-year-old mother of six was working the overnight shift at a group home, Prout Avenue Association of Retarded Persons Care, when she was killed with a tire iron.
During the trial, Mott's mother told the jury that her son confessed to being involved in the murder of Rosemary Crosier. Mott's sister and brother-in-law took the stand, as well, admitting they lied to a grand jury years earlier. But that they are now telling the truth after a deal with the special prosecutor, about what Mott told them after Crosier's death.
In court on Thursday, George Mott's attorney called the defense's key witness to the stand, Crosier's brother, who the defense claims actually killed the victim. However her brother was not present and did not testify, compelling the defense to rest their case. The defense also called a forensic expert who testified that none of Mott's DNA was found at the scene.
Mott did not testify in his own defense. He faces second-degree murder charges if found guilty. The jury will continue deliberating Monday at 9am.
George Mott
Rosemary Ellsworth Crosier
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