Defense, Prosecutors Offer Closing Arguments In Joseph Thomas Trial

Prosecutors and Joseph Thomas' defense attorneys made their closing arguments in Thomas' capital murder trial Wednesday afternoon.

Thomas, 28, is accused of murdering Mentor woman Annie McSween.

McSween, 49, was tending bar at Mario's Lakeway Lounge in Mentor-on-the-Lake on Nov. 26, 2010 and closed the bar by herself.

But she did not make it home that night. Instead, her body was found in a wooded area behind a house that is next door to the bar. She had been beaten and stabbed repeatedly, the medical examiner said.

Charles Grieshammer, the Lake County chief assistant public defender, suggested different scenarios in which McSween could have been murdered by someone other than Thomas.

Grieshammer said that McSween had sent a text message to her ex-boyfriend, seeing if he could get her methamphetamine for her birthday, which happened to be that day.

Grieshammer also noted that McSween had amphetamine and hydrocodone in her body when she died.

"Did she meet up with someone that night and that's why she has drugs in her system?" he said to the jury.

Grieshammer also posited that someone trying to steal scrap metal from the bar and nearby boat yard could have murdered McSween when she caught him. He suggested that the person, or persons, might have cut the cable and power wires at the bar because he intended to sell them.

However, Lake County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Charles Cichocki said Grieshammer was just offering "boogeymen" as alternatives to Thomas.

Cichocki told the jury that Thomas' denials and the inconsistencies between his recollection of what happened that night and everyone else's point to his guilt.

Cichock said that Thomas made several denials when he was interviewed by police.

Thomas told police that he didn't have a clip-on knife with him the night McSween was murdered. However, Matt Miller -- another bar patron who played pool with Thomas that evening -- claimed he did. Additionally, two of his ex-girlfriends testified that he had a clip-on knife like the one Miller described.

Thomas also told police that he didn't ask McSween -- or any other woman at the bar that night -- if she wanted to dance, though Miller again said she did. Another woman at the bar that night, Lynette Brown-Keba, also testified that Thomas asked her to dance.

"If you're not the guilty person, why would you lie?" Cichocki said to the jury.

Cichocki also said there was no other explanation as to why some of McSween's scorched clothes were found in a burn barrel in the backyard of the Mentor-on-the-Lake home where Thomas was staying at the time of her death.

The clothes were found in April, five months after McSween was murdered. Grieshammer said the clothes could have been planted there by the actual killer after Thomas became a suspect.

Grieshammer asked, if Thomas put the clothes in the barrel and burned them, then why would he leave them there when police started to investigate him.

"You think he's going to leave it there after all that time?" he said.

Thomas has been indicted on charges of rape, tampering with evidence, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and aggravated murder.

The jury will begin deliberating this morning.

More trial coverage:

Jury Begins Hearing Evidence in Joseph Thomas Murder Trial

Prosecutor: Clothes of Murder Victim Annie McSween Found in Suspect's Backyard

Patrons of Mario's Lakeway Lounge Testify About the Night Annie McSween was Murdered

Suspect's Neighbor Recalls Burn Barrel Incident Hours After Annie McSween Was Murdered

Jury Sees Police Interviews Of Murder Suspect Joseph Thomas

Ex-Girlfriends Of Suspect Testify At Trial

Defense Presents Its Witnesses At Joseph Thomas Trial