January 25, 2007

Having completed the evidentiary portion of the trial yesterday, the attorneys presented closing arguments to the jury today; Howard Gundy went first.  He began by thanking the jury for their time & service, and then explained what was required of them.  He explained that to reach a verdict, they would all have to be in agreement, and if they had any reasonable doubts about the case he presented, they were obliged to vote “not guilty”.  Mr. Gundy then proceeded to go through all of the evidence presented to the jury; he did so with a Power Point presentation.  At each point in the presentation, Gundy compared how Moloi matched “whoever it was” that killed Gary; at each of these points, Gundy also offered a possible, innocent explanation in Moloi’s favor.  However, as the list of evidence went on and on, it became clear that there was only one rational explanation for what had happened: Moloi murdered Gary.  To think otherwise would require one to believe that Moloi was the victim of both the worst luck in history, and that everyone involved in the trial was lying – accept for Moloi, of course.

There was a brief break after Mr. Gundy concluded, and then the defense followed with their closing arguments.  As with Mr. Gundy, the defense attorney thanked the jury for their time & service, and reminded the jury that the burden was on the state to find his client guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the defense was under no obligation to prove anything.  He reminded the jury of the questions he raised about the state’s evidence and how it was irrational that his client would attack a man that’s two-inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than him.  According to the defense attorney, the DA’s case made no sense and that his client should be acquitted.  Personally, I think that defense attorney was doing the best tap-dance he could with what he had to work with, but that’s all it was – a tap-dance around the truth.

After lunch, Gundy was given a chance at rebuttal.  He agreed that the burden was on him to prove the government’s case beyond a reasonable doubt, but also reminded the jury that once anyone takes the stand to testify (including the defendant), they are to be held to the same standards of credibility as any other witness.  All of the witnesses and evidence for the state had been independently corroborated, none for the defense had.  For that matter, much of what the defense had presented lacked basic believability (especially Moloi himself).  As for the size difference between Gary and Moloi, the DA displayed a photo of Gary and showed quite a bit of that weight difference was around his “mid section” (what can I say, my friend loved his fast food and really hated to exercise).  Gundy also analogized what Moloi had done to being like the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, with same devastating results.  Mr. Gundy closed his rebuttal by giving that old adage that “it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but it’s the size of the fight in the dog that matters”; as he did this, he pulled from Gary wallet his membership in the “10,000 Piece Puzzle Club” and reminded the jury of the Disney Passport found in his possession.  No, it was Moloi that had all the fight in him, and it was the duty of the jury to hold Moloi accountable for the vicious, brutal murder he carried out.

There was another brief break, after which the jury was given instructions by Judge Toohey; this took the judge about 45 minutes.  The jury then went into deliberations, at about 2:45PM.  They continued until a little after 4:30, at which time they called it a day.  The jury is set to meet again at 9:30AM tomorrow.