Prosecutor makes convincing case that George's hands were bound

Among the strongest parts of Anna Sigga-Nicolazzi’s closing yesterday was her analysis of the duct tape and the strong likelihood that George’s hands were bound, as well as his feet during the attack. 

In his videotaped “admission” following his arrest, Katehis said that only George’s feet were bound with duct tape and that his hands were free.  It was with one of these free hands that Katehis claimed George pulled out a knife, which preceded to make a paranoid Katehis nervous and fly into a rage.  Several of the lies that Katehis told in this video have already been disproved, including the fact that George had plied Katehis with cocaine.  This story about George’s hands being free appears to be just another lie.

Katehis told police that since George’s hands were free (which would bolster Katehis’s self-defense claim) that “if you found duct tape around his hands it might’ve been because he was trying to remove the duct tape from his legs…”.  As Nicolazzi pointed out yesterday, this just defies common sense. 

There was duct tape found on one of George’s hands when police found his body.  Katehis’s defense attorney said in his closing that because the duct tape was found on only one hand and that the tape was fairly loose, it’s probably unlikely that George’s hands were bound.  Nicolazzi though contended though that George’s hands were indeed bound. 

She didn’t just speculate as her adversary did though but provided some supporting evidence for her suggestion.  First she discussed George’s injuries, particularly those to his hands, pointing out that the injuries to George’s hands were far more consistent with someone flailing around trying to ward off his attacker, while his hands were bound- including stab wounds and incised wounds on the webs of his hands.  She then suggested to the members of the jury that if George had both hands free, wouldn’t he have gone after not only the knife with both hands but after his attacker??

But the most compelling part of Nicolazzi’s presentation though was her use of the defendant himself.  She replayed a portion of the video in which Katehis is describing how he and Weber are fighting over the knife.  In doing so, Katehis was holding his hands together (as if they were bound) saying “….he was going like this…”.  It was remarkably convincing and Nicolazzi reminded the jurors that they would be able to review the video tape should they need to.  As she spoke to the jury, the video of Katehis’s confession was freeze framed on this killer holding his hands together, just as he said that George did. 

I can’t imagine a more convincing or compelling image.  Katehis didn’t commit this murder in self-defense as his lawyer says.  He did so in cold blood.  Hopefully the jury will come back today with a quick conviction.