Friday, May 31, 2013
 
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Wright delivers rebuttal, jury goes home for night

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(Originally posted Thursday evening)

[May 31, 2013]  PEORIA -- Thursday afternoon in Peoria, jurors had a lot to absorb in a matter of a few hours as the prosecution and defense presented their rebuttals to the closing arguments in the trial of Christopher Harris.

Assistant Attorney General Michael Atterberry was first up, speaking on behalf of the prosecution. In a period of slightly less than 2½ hours, he delivered a synopsis of what occurred in the home of Rick and Ruth Gee in Beason on Sept. 21, 2009.

Harris is accused of the beating deaths of Rick and Ruth Gee and their children Justina Constant, Dillen Constant and Austin Gee. A fourth child, Tabitha, was severely injured in the beatings but survived.

When the prosecution finished, Dan Fultz, defense attorney for Harris, took the floor and refuted everything that Atterberry claimed against his client. Fultz told the jury the prosecution was working with a case based on the testimony of a liar, Jason Harris, and a convicted child killer, Ty Cline.

Fultz then delivered his version of what happened on the night of the murders, pointing fingers directly at 14-year-old Dillen Constant and claiming that while Harris made mistakes in the days that followed the incident, he was still innocent of killing everyone but Dillen.

When Fultz was finished with his closing statements, the jury was allowed a 30-minute break. They then returned to the courtroom to hear the prosecution's rebuttal.

Attorneys for both sides had originally been instructed by Judge Scott Drazewski that each side would have three hours to state their case. For the prosecution, this meant three hours for the initial close and the rebuttal. With Atterberry taking nearly 2½ hours, Wright was going to be left with only 30 minutes. However, when court resumed, Wright was told that he could have a full hour to present the state's position.

During his presentation, Wright took up the full space of the room, walking about, at times pointing fingers at Chris Harris and raising his voice as he emphasized his message.

He opened by taking a jab at defense attorney Fultz, telling the jury he was not going to come at them with Johnny Cash songs. He said the trial was about Rick Gee, Ruth Gee, Justina, Dillen, Austin and Tabitha.

He drove home the prosecution's position, saying that Christopher Harris' own actions in the hours and days after the murders were the state's best evidence of what had happened. He told the jury Harris made no mistakes; he made decisions, well-thought-out decisions to deceive investigators. He lied again and again, and even lied to the person who knew him best, Nicole Gee, his ex-wife and daughter of Rick Gee.

Wright pointed out that in his own testimony Harris provided a timeline of arriving in Beason that didn't add up, and that was just the first gap in the story.

Wright questioned how it could be that Harris was backed into the master bathroom by an aggressive Dillen, yet managed to grab a tire iron lying beside Rick Gee, several feet in the other direction. He wondered what made Chris Harris believe Rick Gee was asleep on the floor in the hallway.

Wright also reminded the jury that Dillen was the alleged aggressor, yet evidence shows he was backing away from Harris. He wondered how the aggressor could be an aggressor in retreat.

He reminded the jury that once Dillen was outside the house, Harris backed him against a gate while continuing to beat him in the head. Wright asked the jury: "What about that is self-defense?"

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Wright took a line from Fultz, saying the "bodies were crying out from the grave." Wright said indeed they were, and Dillen Constant was crying, "I was hit 52 times."

He said Harris himself even attested to this, saying he continued to hit Constant because he didn't want him to get up. Wright told the jury that in itself constituted intent to kill. Harris intended to kill Dillen Constant.

Wright also repeated that Harris returned to the home after exiting with Constant, not to check on the family as he claimed, but to "finish them off."

He said Harris knew that if the laptop was recording, it would incriminate him. So he had to get rid of it. Wright said Harris did what any guilty person would do.

Again, the prosecution refuted the statements about Dillen Constant's violent behavior. Wright said the expert witness called by the defense saw only the reports he was given. He didn't meet or know Constant personally. Wright also said that the statistics regarding gaming and violence, the risk factors identified by the expert, were population-based numbers and very low percentages.

In addition, Wright told the jury that the prosecution had refuted the expert testimony with real people who knew Dillen and saw him on a regular basis.

In the battle that supposedly occurred between Constant and Harris, Constant was the aggressor, according to Harris. Yet Harris left the scene of the crime with no serious injuries, and Constant was brutally beaten. Again, Wright mentioned 52 blows to the youth.

Wright pounced on the defense's claim that there was no motive for Harris murdering the family. He said there was a motive; it was the same motive that had driven Chris Harris' actions throughout much of the evening and even the morning after. He wanted a woman.

Wright also told the jurors that Ty Cline was not moved as a reward for his testimony. He said that Cline offered his story months before the move came about.

When Wright finished his arguments, the jurors were given instructions from Drazewski and began their deliberations.

Shortly afterward, they sent a message to the judge that they did not have the exhibits that they needed in order to deliberate.

That situation was corrected and the jury remained behind closed doors until 5 p.m.

At 5 p.m. they were brought back into the courtroom and reminded not to talk about the case or read or listen to media accounts. They are to resume their deliberations Friday morning at 8:30.

[LDN]

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