After several days of witness and expert testimony, the murder trial of Lamel Fabers and Bobby Pressley is drawing to a close. Tomorrow Judge Neil Firetog of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn will deliver sentencing instructions to the jury.
During closing arguments this afternoon, Pressley’s attorney, Kleon Andreadis, urged jurors to “think of what you did not hear and consider the lack of evidence.” Assistant District Attorney Mellissa Caravaje argued that “the evidence was beyond a reasonable doubt.”
On Jan. 10, 2011 at 1:15 a.m., police found Ayodele Phillip lying dead on the floor of a living room at 287 Montauk St. in East New York. Seven bullets were found in his body. Earlier that evening, between 10 and 15 people, including Monica Murray, a stripper and Phillip’s girlfriend, were partying at the home.
Murray testified that she saw Fabers and Pressley kill Phillip. She said there was a confrontation after the defendants made sexual advances towards. At one point she said she heard Phillip ask the two men, “Do you know who I am?”
Pressley responded by saying, “shoot him, shoot him,” according to Murray. From the inside of a bathroom, Murray said she saw Fabers shoot Phillip in the leg before fixing his gun and firing seven more rounds.
Today jurors heard from Detective Alan Kalisky, who was first assigned to the case. Caravaje introduced into evidence two photos of Fabers and Pressley in a police line up. The men were positively identified by Murray and another woman as the two people responsible for Phillip’s murder. Andreadis argued that the lineup was unfair because the other men in it were not similar to the accused in age or body type.
While Andreadis was prodding the witness about those physical differences, Judge Firetog interjected several times, saying, “The lineup photos speak for themselves.”
During closing arguments, the lawyers for Fabers and Pressley questioned Murray’s credibility and argued that photographic evidence suggests that it would have been too dark in the room for her to see anything. They also reminded jurors that three different kinds of DNA were found on the murder weapon, and that a DNA expert said that conclusive evidence was lacking.
In her closing argument, Caravaje insisted that Murray had no motive to lie. She also said she found it difficult to imagine that the home would have been pitch black if two exotic dancers were the event’s main attraction. Murray is a reliable source, Caravaje said, because her statements were corroborated by other evidence.
“They’re asking you to look at evidence in a vacuum,” said the prosecutor. “Try to see how it fits together.”
Jurors will reconvene tomorrow at 10 a.m.
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