Jury Begins Deliberating in Radke Murder Trial : Courts: In closing arguments, prosecutor tries to link the 1988 slaying of a popular 16-year-old Mira Mesa High School student to a possible homosexual liaison.

Jurors in the Mark Radke murder trial began deliberations Thursday after hearing closing arguments in which attorneys from both sides acknowledged that not all the facts of the case are known.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel Lamborn indirectly told the jury for the first time during the trial that the death of Jeffrey Rudiger may have involved a homosexual liaison, this because his badly beaten body was discovered clad in only underwear and broken handcuffs.

Citing the mysterious “mission or project” that Rudiger told friends about, Lamborn argued that Rudiger was killed as he ran away from something he found to be “shocking, disgusting (and) it doesn’t take much of an imagination to think what that is.”

Defense attorney Douglas C. Brown argued that the circumstantial evidence on which Lamborn based his case is not sufficient to convict Radke of murder, even if the jury decides that Radke’s car was there the night of the killing.

Brown said the prosecution’s theory of a “phantom second man” being involved in the slaying is needed because of the lack of physical evidence linking Radke to the crime.

Brown mocked Lamborn’s conclusion that Radke was what Brown termed “a closet gay.”

While noting that Radke’s best friend is a 40-year-old woman and that there is no evidence regarding Radke’s sexual practices, Brown said, “We’ve now shifted gears to a pack of homosexuals committing the murder because the victim is missing his pants.”

Radke, 24, is accused of killing the 16-year-old Rudiger on Jan. 21, 1988, in a Mira Mesa alley near the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant where the two had worked together. Rudiger had been bludgeoned 26 times, and he had been stabbed so severely that a leg was nearly severed.

Rudiger, a popular Mira Mesa High School student who worked at a Supercuts hair salon near the restaurant, told friends he was going to work on a “special project or mission” the night he was killed, according to trial testimony.

Prosecutors allege that Radke is responsible for the slaying because of Rudiger’s statements about the project, blood found in the wheel well of Radke’s car which closely matched Rudiger’s, and tire impressions made with blood that match two different tires on Radke’s car.

In his closing statements, Lamborn told jurors that the motive for killing Rudiger was to prevent a secret from being revealed.

“What we have here is a person who got mad because Jeffrey Rudiger was going to tell,” Lamborn said.

In his closing arguments, Brown accused Lamborn of developing a “straw man” as an accomplice because of evidence--such as shoe prints that were not from Radke’s shoes--that indicates he did not commit the crime.

Brown, who presented a series of character witnesses who testified that Radke was a nonviolent person, argued that the prosecution case was full of mistaken interpretations and that it lacked a reasonable motive.

However, Brown made the surprise move of suggesting that Radke may have driven through the alley the night Rudiger was killed.

Although suggesting that blood drippings indicate that the killer or killers walked away from the site of the killing, Brown stressed that Radke was not responsible.

If you conclude that Radke’s car was there, Brown told the jury, “So what? It raises questions, but it doesn’t prove Mark Radke committed the murder.”

In his rebuttal, Lamborn said Radke’s character witnesses were not good friends. He questioned why Radke’s best friend, a 40-year-old married woman, did not testify.

“Wouldn’t you think your best friend would want to come in and say, ‘Mr. Radke, I know him and he’s nonviolent,’ ” Lamborn said.

The trial lasted eight days, and jury deliberations will continue today.