Attorneys Give Closing Arguments in Murder Case

Fighting for a first-degree murder conviction, Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald Glynn told jurors Thursday that Kenneth McKinzie lied when he blamed another man for beating and strangling an elderly Oxnard woman three years ago.

Evidence--including statements by two witnesses who testified that McKinzie had confessed--clearly shows he was the killer, the prosecutor said in his closing argument.

But defense attorney Willard Wiksell raised doubts about the credibility of those witnesses, adding that his client got caught up in an “Alfred Hitchcock nightmare” by buying stolen property from the real killer.

“If you think he’s lying, then you’ll convict him,” Wiksell told jurors. But “it would be wrong to convict someone . . . based on tainted testimony.”

The jury, made up of nine women and three men, is expected to begin deliberations today. Jurors will consider numerous charges, including murder, kidnapping and robbery.

If they find McKinzie, 39, guilty of first-degree murder and at least one of two special circumstance allegations, the trial will advance to a penalty phase in which they would be asked to decide whether he should be executed or sentenced to life in prison without parole.

For the past two weeks, prosecutors have presented evidence to show that McKinzie attacked 73-year-old Ruth Avril on Dec. 21, 1995, during a midnight robbery in the garage of her south Oxnard home.

Avril was severely beaten and stuffed into the trunk of her car. Two surfers found her body in an irrigation ditch near the coast the next morning.

Glynn began his closing argument Thursday by outlining the evidence and describing the brutal attack on Avril, a divorcee who lived alone in an upstairs apartment. He said her attacker probably didn’t intend to kill her at first, “but things got out of hand, and she fought back.”

Blood splattered in Avril’s garage and smeared inside the trunk of her car indicated a violent confrontation, authorities said. A crime scene expert testified that blood smears in the trunk show that Avril was still alive while pinned inside.

The prosecution contends that McKinzie sped away from Avril’s home toward the spot where her body was found. During that three-mile drive, Glynn said, the defendant had ample time to premeditate murder.

“[He’s] decided, ‘This robbery has gone south on me. She’s still alive, I can hear her hollering and screaming in the trunk. What am I going to do? I’ve got to do something to get rid of her,’ ” he said.

Hours after the slaying, McKinzie smoked rock cocaine with a friend, Theresa Johnson, and allegedly admitted having beaten and choked Avril to death. Although McKinzie told jurors that Johnson lied, Glynn said she knew subtle details about the attack that only the killer could have told her.

Glynn also poked holes in the defense’s contention that 21-year-old Donald “Little Tommy” Thomas, a former Oxnard resident who knew Avril, was the real killer.

“None of this ties together,” he said. “What Mr. Wiksell would like to suggest is that Tommy brutally beat a woman who was like a grandmother to him. It’s an insult to that young man. . .. Tommy had nothing to do with Ruth’s murder.”

In addition, Glynn said, McKinzie admitted on the stand that he had used Avril’s credit cards to illegally withdraw $440. He sold her stereo and gave her camera and pink bathrobe to his daughter for Christmas. When the film in the camera was developed, it had two pictures: one of Avril and one of her neighbor.

But in his closing argument, Wiksell said all of that proves nothing. The defendant testified that he got Avril’s personal belongings from Thomas.

And Wiksell lashed out at the prosecution for making light of his so-called “Tommy Defense,” telling jurors that the evidence shows that Thomas could have been the killer.

Thomas used to park with his girlfriend at the Arnold Road site where Avril’s body was found. He was the last person to see her alive, Wiksell said, and his handprint was found at the crime scene on a stereo cabinet.

Meanwhile, authorities found no direct evidence to place McKinzie in Avril’s garage during the attack--no blood, no fingerprints.

Wiksell said that McKinzie went out with Johnson that night, but that she never observed blood or scratches on him.

“The person who killed [Avril] beat her,” he said. “The evidence of death would be evident from head to toe and we’ve got nothing on Kenneth McKinzie.”

Lastly, Wiksell attacked Johnson’s credibility, saying she was “higher than a kite” on cocaine the night McKinzie allegedly confessed. He told the jury not to rely on statements made by an 18-year drug user and dealer when considering his client’s guilt or innocence.

“If you met her outside of here tomorrow, would you believe anything she said?” Wiksell asked. “She stretched the truth.”