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American Morning

Closing Arguments Expected This Morning in Junta Trial

Aired January 10, 2002 - 09:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning, as we just mentioned, closing arguments are expected to begin sometime in this hour, the emotional trial of Thomas Junta, the father charged with beating another father to death at their children's hockey practice.

CNN's Michael Okwu has been at the courthouse following the trial. He joins us now from Cambridge, Massachusetts this morning. Good morning, Michael. For starters, walk us through some of the options the jurors have, once they hear final arguments.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you first, that the courtroom is already packed. People want to hear about this testimony and, in fact, you can see just over my shoulder that there are people lining up outside the courthouse. We haven't seen that all week.

Now, some of the options that the jury has, Paula, are basically they could find him guilty of manslaughter. They could find him guilty of involuntary manslaughter, or excessive use of force, or of course, they could just find him not guilty -- Paula.

ZAHN: Okay Michael, I think you're not hearing me. Before we go into how the witnesses have been reacting to what's going on in the courtroom, why don't you describe to us what the reaction was to Mr. Junta's demeanor, yesterday.

OKWU: Well, I can tell you this, that Mr. Junta walked into the courtroom -- he is a very imposing figure there. He looks like man who is not really made for suits. He is 6-foot-1. He is some 270- plus pounds. His neck sprouts out of his collared shirt like a tree trunk, and yesterday, when he got on the witness stand, you could make the case that he actually looked a little bit more sympathetic.

During the course of testimony, he leaned forward with the left side of face, often times, because apparently he has a hearing problem in his right ear, and that perhaps made him look a little bit more sympathetic, maybe a little bit more vulnerable in the eyes of jurors.

During the course of most of his testimony, some 42 minutes earlier, when he being questioned by his defense lawyer, and then an additional 40 minutes in cross-examination, he bit his lips and oftentimes wiped his eyes. Now, were those sympathetic, was that actually a play for sympathy, or was really genuinely remorseful? We will have to see what the jury thinks about that today, possibly, and maybe later this week -- Paula.

ZAHN: Michael, we had both a former prosecutor on and a defense attorney this morning debating how the jury might react to some of the conflicting testimony of the medical examiners yesterday. The whole notion of whether Mr. Costin was killed, directly after the first blow, or after the repeated blows. How troubling might that conflicting information be to this jury?

OKWU: It is very, very important. We had one forensic pathologist, who was called on by the defense, who says that essentially, it took one hit to cause that fatal rupture to an artery that is located in the base of the brain, and in this case, in Mr. Costin's brain.

Now, all along, the defense has been making the argument that Costin -- that Junta, rather, acted in self-defense, and when he acted in self-defense, he acted swiftly. There were three quick punches to Costin's face. Why was he doing this? Because Costin was kicking him, and he was fighting back and he was the aggressor, and Junta wanted to stop him.

This is a very crucial aspect in this case, because the jury is going to have to decide whether, of course, Junta was simply acting in self-defense and did this quickly, did not use excessive force in doing it.

And of course, the prosecution is saying that this is not the case, that Junta hit Costin several times, many times and brought forward at least two witnesses who testified that Junta hit Costin repeatedly in the face, and around the neck. Some six to seven times, one person said, and in another case, more than 10 times. So many times, she said, that she pleaded for him to stop. That she said, "think of your children. You're going to kill him."

So, it's really now a question of he said, she said. The defense lawyer, of course, is a man, the prosecutor is a woman, so I say he said, she said, who is more convincing, and possibly, which one of the witnesses, and most notably Thomas Junta, which one of the witnesses really resonated with the jury. That is going to be the ultimate decision -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Michael, we know you need to stake out your position once -- for the closing arguments, which are about to get under way. We'll let you go do that. Thanks so much for the update, and then the preview. We also want to get another perspective on all of this from a former federal prosecutor, Cynthia Alksne, who joins us from Washington, D.C. this morning. Good to see you again, Cynthia.

CYNTHIA ALKSNE, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Good morning.

ZAHN: Give us your thoughts on what both attorneys will attempt to do in their closing arguments this morning.

ALKSNE: Well, you know, Mr. Junta is facing, basically, three charges: Two charges of volunteer manslaughter, and one of involuntary manslaughter. So, each of the lawyers will go through those specific instructions, and we are waiting, exactly, for the judge's wording on those. The other important thing that they will be talking about is the self-defense instruction. The judge will give the jury instructions about what a person has to have done in order to qualify for a self-defense exception, and that requires that he's in fear of imminent danger, and that there was no other option available to him in order -- before he uses deadly force, and that he uses no more force than is necessary.

That second prong is pretty interesting here, because yesterday in the cross-examination of Mr. Junta, he explained that he was unable to get away from the victim in this case, even though the victim was lying on his back, 110 or 15 pounds less than Mr. Junta, and was holding on to his wrist, and the prosecutor hit on that repeatedly, I think in an effective way.

So, my guess is there will be a lot of focus about that instruction on self-defense during the arguments.

ZAHN: So Cynthia, what else could the judge do to further clarify that, and make it easier for the jurors to make a judgment?

ALKSNE: Well, I --

ZAHN: I mean, you've just set -- you set it up very simply. Will he go beyond that?

ALKSNE: He will say it very simply too. There are basic instructions in Massachusetts that explain in a very simple way, and he will give that to them. If the jurors don't understand for some reason, they can ask him a question and he will clarify, although ordinarily judges stick to these model instructions, the basic form instructions, so they can't be reversed on appeal, but the instructions are pretty clear.

ZAHN: All right. Based on the instructions that you say are clear, and based on all the testimony you've heard, what kind of a judgment would you make if you were juror sitting on this case? Would you convict Thomas Junta?

ALKSNE: I would convict Thomas Junta. I don't think he qualifies under the self-defense instructions. One of the other interesting things that is going on here, for instance, is that the jury has a couple different choices to make in different levels of manslaughter. That happens a lot in trials. People -- especially when there is conflicting evidence from witnesses like this, there's a lot of negotiating and bartering that goes on in a jury room.

You may remember several years ago there was a case in the same D.A.'s office, and in the same county, the Nanny shaken baby case. In that case, the D.A.'s office was criticized for overcharging, and now we are hearing some criticism that this D.A.'s office has undercharged this, so the jury doesn't have an option of murder, only these choices of manslaughter. ZAHN: All right, Cynthia Alksne. Thanks so much for your insights. I know you are going to be standing by along with us, as these closing arguments get underway, and we'll be relying on your expertise to guide us through the process. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

ALKSNE: You are very welcome.

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