Chrestman Murder Case Goes to Jury : Trial: In closing arguments, defendant is described as a liar and a loser by the prosecution. Defense calls him a ‘perpetual victim.’

A man charged with killing a Simi Valley man and his dog in the mountains above Ojai was described by the prosecutor Thursday as a liar and a loser who coldly shot the victim in the back and then partied with a friend in the dead man’s truck.

But as jurors were about to begin deliberations, the defense painted a much different picture of Timothy E. Chrestman, calling him a “perpetual victim” who was abused first by the real killer and then by detectives who only pretended they wanted to solve the crime.

“There is not one cruel, vicious, nasty type of bone in Timothy Chrestman’s body,” defense attorney Steve Pell said in the trial’s closing arguments. “ . . . (This) killing is a killing by an animal. It’s not a killing by Timothy Chrestman.”

Chrestman, 20, of Port Hueneme, faces murder, robbery and other charges in connection with the March 4 shotgun slaying of Andy Anderson, 24, of Simi Valley.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bob Calvert told jurors that Chrestman, who was dropped off at Middle Lions Campground with instructions from his father to ponder what he wanted to do with his life, committed the murder so he could steal Anderson’s truck and leave the area.

The prosecutor said in his closing arguments that Chrestman told one lie after another to police and his parents, inventing a gang member named Angel “out of thin air” and blaming the murder on him.

Chrestman testified that he and Anderson, who met the day of the murder, were fishing together and Anderson was killed by Angel when he returned to his truck to get more bait.

Angel and another gang member then held Chrestman at gunpoint, forcing him to hide Anderson’s body in the nearby brush, the defendant said. After one of the men shot Anderson’s dog several times as she barked in the front seat of the truck, Chrestman was forced by Angel to drive him in Anderson’s truck to West Hollywood.

There the truck was abandoned and Chrestman claims he spent the next 36 hours trying to walk home, getting as far as Zuma Beach before he called his parents for help.

Calvert argued Thursday that every time Chrestman got caught in a lie or learned about evidence that contradicted his story, he would change his account to fit the new facts.

“He starts scrambling, and things (get) to the point of absurdity,” Calvert said. “It gets to the point of being ridiculous.”

For example, the prosecutor said, Chrestman had to explain why he was kept alive after Anderson was killed, so he said Angel was too drunk to drive. When that did not explain why he wasn’t killed after Angel sobered up, Chrestman added that Angel could not drive a stick shift, Calvert said.

And after insisting that he and Angel never got out of the truck or stopped during the 14 hours from the time of the murder to when the truck was abandoned in West Hollywood, Chrestman testified during the trial that they stopped for gas once and paid with cash.

“You start telling lies, and you get confused and you can’t keep them all straight,” Calvert said.

The prosecutor said the real explanation for the 14 hours was that Chrestman picked up a friend after leaving the campground, bought some marijuana and partied in the truck.

Pell, however, said it was sheriff’s detectives who lied in court, not Chrestman. The detectives never bothered to look for Angel, the defense attorney said, and they deprived Chrestman of food and rest even though they knew he had not eaten or slept during his 36-hour journey from West Hollywood to Zuma Beach.

During a two-hour taped interview with detectives, Chrestman first told the story about Angel, then said it was a former schoolmate who committed the murder, and finally said he shot Anderson by accident.

Pell said detectives were warned by Chrestman’s parents that he always tells the truth at first, but if you “get in his face” or tell him his story is foolish or stupid, he will start lying.

Detectives “pecked away at Tim’s dignity, Tim’s manhood,” Pell said, and deliberately insulted Chrestman so they could get false stories from him “to dupe you as jurors in this case.”

“They played him like a damn piano, but they knew what they were doing at the time and they were very artistic,” Pell said.

Jurors, who deliberated briefly Thursday, are scheduled to resume today.