Penalty Phase Begins For Bucks County Man Convicted Of Two Counts Of First Degree Murder In Deaths Of Pregnant Woman, Daughter
By Jim Melwert
DOYLESTOWN, Pa., (CBS) -- Day one of the penalty phase for a Bucks County man convicted of two counts of first degree murder for killing a pregnant woman and her four-year-old daughter.
The prosecution opened its argument for the death penalty for 22-year-old Marcel Johnson with a forensic pathologist who testified he concluded Ebony Talley was tortured with 37 stab and slash wounds, one of those stab wounds, he said, directly into her pregnant belly.
Bucks County chief of prosecution Matt Weintraub says one of many factors pointing toward the death penalty:
"The defendant went above and beyond the amount of force needed to kill Ebony Talley and to show that his goal was to inflict as much pain on her as he could in the last moments of her life."
In opening statements, the defense outlined reasons the jury should select life in prison instead of death, including abuse and neglect during Johnson's childhood.
