Defense Presents Closing Argument in West Phila. Kidnap-Rape Case
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The defense has completed its closing argument in the kidnap case involving a Philadelphia kindergartener, and the prosecution gets its chance this afternoon.
The five-year-old victim was kidnapped from her West Philadelphia school by a woman posing as her mother, then sexually assaulted. The girl was found the next day on an Upper Darby playground, shivering and clad only in a t-shirt.
Defense attorney Fred Harrison pointed out that the prosecution has the burden of proof in criminal cases and argued that it had not met that burden here.
The child was allegedly in the defendant's residence for some 19 hours, and Harrison has emphasized that police did not find any of the victim's DNA there.
Also, the defendant's aunt and her boyfriend were in the house most of that time and, Harrison continued, the child was in the house too, under a bed, being ravaged for some 19 hours. And, he asked the jurors, don't you think someone would have heard her screaming, crying, even whimpering?
Then, pointing out that the little girl was released, Harrison asked rhetorically, "Does the predator save the prey?" He answered no.
Based on this record, he said, the commonwealth has not met its burden and he asked the jury to find Christina Regusters not guilty of all charges.
