Bucks County Jury To Decide Life In Prison Or Death For Man Convicted Of Killing Pregnant Woman And Child
By Jim Melwert
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (CBS) --- The fate of a Bucks county man is now in the hands of the jury. It's tasked with deciding life in prison or the death penalty for the 22-year-old convicted of killing a pregnant woman and her 4-year-old daughter.
That jury will continue deliberations this morning.
The jury was sent home an hour after getting the case because a juror had to pick up a relative at the airport.
In closing arguments, prosecutor Matt Weintraub tells the jury they must sentence 22-year-old Marcel Johnson to death because what he says are over half a dozen aggravating factors in the two murders.
Weintraub points to a forensic pathologist who testified Johnson tortured 22-year-old Ebony Talley by stabbing or slashing her 37 times in her murder.
Another factor, Weintraub argues: Johnson knew she was five-months pregnant.
The jury will have to decide those and if they're outweighed by mitigating factors, which the defense argues include the neglect and abuse the defendant faced growing up, as well as his age, and a lack of a violent criminal record.
