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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

MacKenzie Trial Hears Closing Arguments

Closing statements were read in the second degree murder trial of 29-year-old Crystal Dawn MacKenzie, charged in the death of her common law partner, 29-year-old Patrick Thomas, who was stabbed on Alma Street in March of 2010. 

Defense lawyer David Kelly was first to address the jury.

He painted a picture of Thomas as an abusive alcoholic, calling him one of the meanest drunks he's seen in his career. He says that MacKenzie had the right to defend herself that night, and she did. Prosecutor Jill Knee addressing the courtoom saying this is not a case of self-defense, and that MacKenzie had other options available to save herself or anyone else that night; she didn't have to stab him.

Kelly says the knife used went in about four inches, which to him doesn't sound like someone who was intentionally trying to kill somebody. Knee telling the courtroom it doesn't matter how deep the stab wound was, because it was deep enough to kill Thomas. She says the butcher knife severed a vein and punctured a lung.