Closing arguments for the 2015 double murder trial of Benjamin Ronald Marki are underway.
Prosecutor Andrew Saddler told the jury that the stab wounds and injuries on Ann Chuchmuch and Wilfred Pott show the person who inflicted them intended for the couple to die and that the fire that was set at their home was deliberate.
Saddler said one person committed all of those offenses and that the jury should find Marki guilty of those crimes.
He touched on the fact that Marki had blood on his hands and gas on his shoes but urged the jury to consider all of the evidence and testimony when making their decision.
Chuchmuch was found dead in a Brant Street home after a fire on December 27th, 2015. At the time police said Pott died in the hospital. Testimony has since heard both were dead before the fire was set.
Marki was renting a room at their home at the time of the fire.
Defence lawyer George Josef started his argument off with a slide show that said “Ben Marki is not guilty.”
Josef told the jury it would be easy to find him guilty because he is a convenient suspect but it would be wrong to do so.
He recapped that Marki was distraught at the scene of the Brant Street house fire where Chuchmuch and Pott were found.
Josef went onto explain that there were no burn marks on Marki and only trace amounts of gasoline was found on him.
He explained that the gas could have gotten on him when he was pounding on the back door of the house where the fire started.
Josef told the jury to consider that Marki wasn’t covered in blood which is unusual since the victims were stabbed multiple times.
Josef closed with “Ben has a right to his silence and doesn’t need to testify to clear his name.”
He went onto tell them that Marki thought of the couple as his parents and loved the pets that were put in danger in the house fire.
Josef added that what happened to them was tragic and senseless but Ben Marki doesn’t deserve to be blamed for it.
The jury is going to receive instructions from the judge Thursday morning before they start deliberations.
