Burlington, Vermont - May 20, 2011
"She went to the knife block, she took the knife out and she stabbed Shatavia Alford in the chest with it," Chittenden Deputy Prosecutor Bram Kranichfeld said in closing arguments Friday.
Latonia Congress was stoic as the prosecutor made his final appeal to the jury. He needs jurors to believe Congress stabbed 16-year-old Shatavia "CeCe" Alford and that she meant to do it. He says the hysterical words of Congress' niece on the 911 recording say it all.
From the 911 recording:
Dispatcher: Who threw the knife?
Helena Copeland: My aunt. My aunt threw the knife because they was fighting and she threw the knife.
Copeland was the only family member to testify for the prosecution. And they're basing their premeditated murder claim on Copeland's testimony that Congress announced she was going to kill the victim before picking up the knife.
"She has not only made the decision to kill Shatavia Alford, but she has formed the plan of how she is going to do it," Kranichfeld told jurors. "And ladies and gentleman that is premeditation. That is deliberation. And that's first-degree murder."
"This is a family tragedy," defense lawyer Peggy Jansch said.
The defense points out that Congress' family is also the victim's family. Tears and prayers flowed from the courtroom.
"But they don't blame her," Jansch said. "They blame other people."
Mainly they blame the defendant's abusive husband, Demetrius Reeves. A psychologist for the defense testified that Congress is not responsible for the killing because she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from abuse, and she snapped into a dreamlike state of unawareness, called dissociative amnesia, when she and her niece started fighting.
"She's upset and hysterical because she knows something's happened to her beloved CeCe but she doesn't know what," Jansch said.
The defense wants to plant reasonable doubt in the jurors, saying no one actually saw the defendant stab the victim, there's no physical evidence or DNA and the murder weapon is missing.
"We don't know what happened," Jansch told jurors. "There was an inadequate investigation to determine what happened."
The jury started deliberating at about 2:30 p.m. And it's anyone's guess how long it will take for them to reach a verdict. We got word this evening the jury is split 50-50 on whether to convict Latonia Congress of first-degree murder. They sent a note to the judge asking how they should proceed. The judge instructed them to start considering the lesser charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter before they start evaluating the defense's insanity claim.
This doesn't necessarily mean first-degree murder is off the table. The jury just wanted to make sure they were following the rules. Further deliberations of all the elements of those lesser charges could change sway their decision either way.
If they can't reach a verdict Friday night, the judge has instructed them to continue deliberating over the weekend.
Jennifer Reading - WCAX News
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Latonia Congress
Shatavia "Cece" Alford
