SEATTLE - An attorney for accused murderer Conner Schierman tells a King County jury that a second person may be responsible for the July 2006 brutal murders of Schierman's Kirkland neighbors.
Defense attorneyJames Conroy admits his client was in the victim s house the night of the murder and set the house on fire.
Schierman, 28, is charged with four counts of aggravated murder and one count of arson for the July 16 ,2006 murders of neighbor Olga Milkin, her sister, Lyubov Botvina, and Milken s two sons, Justin, 5 and Andrew, 3.
Schierman could get the death penalty if convicted of any count of aggravated murder. The case went to the Jury late Thursday afternoon. Deliberations will begin Friday.
' We don t know what happened that night. We will never know, said Conroy. But Conroy told jurors that a strange footprint in the victim s tool shed points to a possible second suspect. We don t know if there was another person in the house.
Conroy told the jury that DNA evidence points to one or two other people being in the house at the night of the murder.
Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Scott O Toole began closing arguments by telling the jury that Schierman terrorized the family and is guilty by far, far, far above any reasonable doubt.
O Toole quoted author Robert Louis Stevenson and stated Everybody sooner or later sits down to a banquet of consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, today Conner Schierman sits down to his banquet of consequences.
In an unusual move, Schierman s attorneys did not present an opening statement when the trial began on January 20. The opening statement would indicate to the jury the defense strategy. Schierman pleaded not guilty to the charges.
O'Toole spent nearly two months presenting eyewitnesses and DNA evidence which O Toole say ties Schierman to the brutal crime. According to prosecutors, Schierman committed the murders then took a shower inside the victim s house before leaving to buy gasoline. Charging papers state Schierman then set the house on fire to cover up the murders.
Schierman never took the stand in his own defense. Instead, defense attorneys presented evidence that Schierman was in an alcohol-induced blackout due to consuming more than a liter of vodka.
Milkin s husband, Leonid, was serving in the military overseas when the crimes occurred. He was the first witness the prosecutors put on the stand. Leonid has sat through most of the two month testimony of the trial.
