Defense: State has theory, not proof

Closing statements in Anderson murder trial to wrap up today

Thursday, July 12, 2007

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

GASTONIA --Attorneys for Jerry Anderson, the Caldwell County dairy farmer on trial for killing his wife, argued Wednesday that prosecutors have failed to make a case and that investigators ignored evidence showing Anderson's innocence.

"If you accuse someone, you have to prove it," Anderson's attorney Lisa Dubs told the jury. "The state has a theory, a speculation about what happened ... and they're going to ask you to put it all together for them."

But Assistant District Attorney Eric Bellas said that's exactly what jurors should expect.

"The defense has told you that it is not your job to figure out the mystery," Bellas said. "But that is your job."

Dubs, in her nearly three-hour closing statement Wednesday, tried to discredit witnesses called by the prosecution, arguing that investigators "jumped to judgment" and didn't follow leads that would clear Anderson.

Investigators didn't go to South Carolina to talk to people who may have seen Emily Anderson alive in the days after her husband reported her missing, Dubs said.

And that they didn't look at Jerry Anderson's cell phone records to see if he had been making calls from Caldwell County the day his wife disappeared, she said.

Bellas argued that Emily Anderson was last seen alive Dec. 29, 2005, near the couple's Sawmills farm. Ten days later, her Chevrolet Silverado pickup was found in an S.C. restaurant parking lot, about 100 miles from Caldwell County. She had been shot twice and her body crammed into the truck bed's large toolbox.

Dubs recounted testimony from experts who said Emily Anderson had been dead two to four days when her body was found.

But Bellas argued that Emily Anderson was killed Dec. 29. Workers, he said, heard two gunshots after watching Emily and Jerry Anderson drive into the woods together. Prosecutors are expected to finish closing statements this morning.

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