jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601
DURHAM — The defense in Angel Luis Richardson’s first-degree murder trial rested their case on Wednesday.
Richardson is charged in the Dec. 4, 2006 killing of Marlon Rand, whose body was discovered behind the Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers (TROSA) North Street facility.
After sending the jury home, Superior Court Judge Cressie Thigpen Jr. talked with defense lawyer Jonathan Broun and District Attorney Tracey Cline about other charges jurors should be allowed to consider against Richardson.
Broun said second-degree murder should be an option because his client’s involvement with the murder was pressured. Richardson said his motive in associating with the others who roped him into the matter wasn’t to hurt anybody but simply to get money and keep company with young ladies, Broun said.
But Thigpen didn’t go along with that. The judge said the defendant went to a store, bought a beer, took a nap near the would-be crime scene before waking up, spotting Rand and shooting him. That shows premeditation, and that amounts to first-degree murder, Thigpen said.
Richardson is 23 and faces life in prison if jurors convict him of first-degree murder.
Broun several times during the case asked Thigpen to declare a mistrial based on what the defense lawyer argued were procedural errors by Cline in not making available key information to the defendant in a timely manner.
Each time the judge ruled against the defense.
On Wednesday, Broun again on more than one occasion tried to get Thigpen to declare a mistrial. Broun cited insufficient evidence and untimely delivery of evidence.
Thigpen disagreed.
