LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Latest on closing arguments in the Los Angeles trial of a man charged with the murder of two women and the attempted murder of a third woman (all times local):
12:30 p.m.
An attorney for a man charged with killing two women in Southern California says actor Ashton Kutcher was a “star witness” in the case whose testimony helps point to a different suspect.
Attorney Daniel Nardoni tried to convince a jury in closing arguments Wednesday that other men may have been responsible for the stabbing deaths Michael Gargiulo is charged with.
Kutcher testified that he and Ashley Ellerin had planned to go out the night she was killed in 2001. He said he last spoke to Ellerin on the phone shortly before 8:30 p.m.
Nardoni said Ellerin’s apartment manager testified that he had a sexual relationship with Ellerin, and was with her when Kutcher called. Nardoni suggested that the man may have been angered by Kutcher’s call and became violent.
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9:30 p.m.
Attorneys for a man charged with killing two Southern California women and trying to kill a third will make their last effort to convince a jury that the case against him is thin and insufficient.
Lawyers for 43-year-old Michael Gargiulo are set to present their closing arguments to a Los Angeles jury Wednesday.
On Tuesday, prosecutors portrayed Gargiulo as a serial killer who researched both his victims and how to get away with murder.
Gargiulo’s attorneys will likely remind jurors of the light physical evidence tying him to the stabbing deaths of a woman in Hollywood in 2001 and another in an LA suburb in 2005.
The defense’s case also included testimony from a psychologist who says Gargiulo has dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder.
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