GUILTY MA - Christa Worthington, 45, murdered in her Truro home, 6 Jan 2002

[Bobbisangel]

~snip~

Now, more than a year after the defendant, a black garbage man, was convicted of stabbing to death a white fashion writer on Cape Cod, the judge has taken the highly unusual step of summoning the entire jury back to court next week to testify publicly about whether racism infected the deliberations.

Depending on what he finds out, the judge could order a new trial.

http://cbs13.com/national/fashion.writer.murder.2.622964.html

I don't have an opinion one way or the other but does the judge really think that anyone on the jury is going to admit it if they were prejudice?

 

[joe jones]

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/lo...al/breaking_news/2008/04/judge_rejects_n.html

appeal denied

 

[Jean]

Inmate stabs Truro killer (Boston Herald 6/10/08)

Christopher McCowen, the trash hauler convicted of murdering fashion writer Christa Worthington, was hospitalized yesterday after being stabbed in prison, a Department of Correction source said.
The source called the stabbing at MCI-Cedar Junction “serious,” and said McCowen was stabbed by a fellow inmate - a 58-year-old white male who wielded a 7-inch metal shank.

Department of Correction spokeswoman Susan Martin would not identify the victim or the perpetrator. She would only say that an inmate was stabbed by another inmate with a “makeshift weapon” at about 2 p.m. Sunday in a housing unit.

More at link http://www.bostonherald.com/news/re...nmate_stabs_Truro_killer/srvc=home&position=1

 

[trixie]

wHOO HOO! :Banane10:It's about time! Now maybe someone else will have the guts to finish the job when he goes back.

 

[lstiff]

Bumping this. *blows off the dust* I listened to the 20/20 Podcast released today (A Killing on the Cape) that covers this. I guess the defendant is trying to get a new trial? The details of her young daughter spending time with her dead body broke my heart and literally made me want to cry. I hope she is doing well now.

IMO

 

[Queena]

I saw an episode of Perfect Murder that featured this case. I find it very hard to believe that Christopher McCowen committed this crime. I find it incredibly racist to think that this White woman wouldn't sleep with a poor Black man. Her idol was her Grandma Tiny, and she had an affair with Paul Robeson! Her friends talked about her lack of taste in men. The B.U.M... She was a equal opportunity lover. To think that he got convicted because no one believed that she would willingly have sex with him is crazy.

The guy who bragged about the killing... The one who said that he was about to go rape and rob a rich woman... He testified against Chris! Both of them were police informats..
That guy was recently arrested for child rape. The comments from the locals are very revealing... They think that he should have been locked up for murder years ago.

 

[Queena]

Nan:

The authorities asked all the men in the community to submit to a DNA test. Those that were reluctant were put under more intense scrutiny. This guy did consent to a test, I don't know if he did it reluctantly or not, but he did. Right away, his DNA matched what was found on her.

The baby has been with her biological father and his wife and family since the murder. He has five other chilren. He is a fisherman.

I saw the man today, he is african-american and was very quiet as he was led from the jail to the courthouse. Haven't seen the conference yet.

Sherlock

Very incorrect. The baby is with family friends. Jacket wasn't allowed to get custody because he was a suspect. They had McCowen's DNA for years before they decided to test it. He even talked to the police within days of the murder. He was a police informant.

 

[YESorNO]

Cape Cod Murderer, Who Maintains His Innocence, Breaks Silence on Slaying of a Single Mom (with clip)

"A former Massachusetts trash collector is speaking out on broadcast TV this week for the first time since he was convicted of raping and murdering a 46-year-old single mother more than 15 years ago.

The death of Christa Worthington in Truro, Massachusetts, gripped the small Cape Cod community and made headlines around the country.

The killing remained unsolved for three years until the surprise arrest of Christopher McCowen, Worthington’s former trash collector, who was placed at the scene by DNA evidence. A disputed statement McCowen gave to police, admitting he had sex with Worthington and beat her, was also damning. He blamed the fatal stabbing on a friend, who police said had an alibi...."

http://people.com/crime/christopher-mccowen-abc-interview-christa-worthington-murder/
---

Chris McCowen: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

http://heavy.com/news/2017/11/chris-mccowen-christa-worthington-trial-arrest-podcast/

Link: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/20061116cworthington.jpg
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[JerseyGirl]

Bid for new trial continues

The Judge denied Pelletier’s last motion for a new trial for McCowen in 2014.

His lawyer told the Judge that he planned to amend a subpoena submitted to telephone companies Verizon and T-Mobile for records of phone numbers relevant to the case. Because of the age of the numbers, the companies said they could not determine who owned the phones the numbers were connected to. But they said they could determine whether each number was connected to a landline, cellphone or pager.　

If Verizon can provide records showing that the 978 number was not connected to a pager, it will show that Frazier lied on the stand, he said.

“If it wasn’t a pager number, if it was a landline, then he committed perjury,” he said.

http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20180112/bid-for-new-trial-continues-in-worthington-case

 

[otto]

Bumping this. *blows off the dust* I listened to the 20/20 Podcast released today (A Killing on the Cape) that covers this. I guess the defendant is trying to get a new trial? The details of her young daughter spending time with her dead body broke my heart and literally made me want to cry. I hope she is doing well now.

IMO

SPOILER ALERT: I watched the movie Murder on the Cape on Netflix last night and was really disappointed in how the story was told. Not only is the child a son rather than a daughter, but the murder is a drug dealer retrieving his drugs from her car rather than the garbage man. The convicted person is a doper who took the child from the car to the house rather than the person who committed the murder. The child is raised by the father rather than the appointed guardian in the Will. Modifying the truth as it was in the movie did not make for a better story.

 

[moonriverfarm]

Murder on the Cape was nothing more than a fictional Lifetime - type movie. Not accurate on much of the facts presented as true.
Are the crime scene photos accessible anywhere? Seems when I read Invisible Eden the first time, I had seen photos of the body somewhere. Looking at the crime scene let you know how violent this attack was.

 

[RosalindaA]

One of the fastest-growing! true-crimers on youtube, Stephanie Harlow covered Christa's case this week

I had not heard of this case previously but it is clearly a very tragic and complex one. Stephanie does get a lot of detail into her videos, reads the books and articles that have been written about cases, has a pleasant voice to listen to and has a serious and victim-friendly approach. Perhaps a good starting point for people today for Christa's case IMO.

From what I can see, I don't have much if any doubt that Christopher McCowen's conviction was the right verdict, DNA and too many changing stories from him, clinch it for me. I hope Christa's daughter has help to deal with the re-awakening of all the trauma that his legal manoeuvrings must cause her.

 

[mysteryman50]

I still believe it was her old flame, Tim Arnold. And I'll tell you why: he was obsessed with Christa, as his phone messages to her demonstrated. And he was clearly volatile. And he arrived at the scene with his father to return a flashlight? If I had been a det on the case, I would've grilled him about the flashlight over and over again. It makes no sense at all. The excuse about returning a flashlight is weak, weak, weak. I mean, was he worried that Christa needed the flashlight, had she asked for it back, was he so angry at her that he was returning it to her to spite her, or what? I can't make sense of the flashlight. I wonder if there was ever any forensics done on the flashlight. That the child was still alive is also a telling clue. Ava, the daughter, was asleep and climbed out of her crib. His 911 call always struck me as phony and the use of the word, nursing, especially. It was almost too specific. He was already distancing himself from the crime by saying that he thought Christa had fallen. It was clear she hadn't fallen. So...

 

[AundriaP]

I still believe it was her old flame, Tim Arnold. And I'll tell you why: he was obsessed with Christa, as his phone messages to her demonstrated. And he was clearly volatile. And he arrived at the scene with his father to return a flashlight? If I had been a det on the case, I would've grilled him about the flashlight over and over again. It makes no sense at all. The excuse about returning a flashlight is weak, weak, weak. I mean, was he worried that Christa needed the flashlight, had she asked for it back, was he so angry at her that he was returning it to her to spite her, or what? I can't make sense of the flashlight. I wonder if there was ever any forensics done on the flashlight. That the child was still alive is also a telling clue. Ava, the daughter, was asleep and climbed out of her crib. His 911 call always struck me as phony and the use of the word, nursing, especially. It was almost too specific. He was already distancing himself from the crime by saying that he thought Christa had fallen. It was clear she hadn't fallen. So...

I lean this way, as well. They destroyed the DNA on scene, though Tim's DNA was found on the blanket they carelessly tossed on Christa's body. I read today that they had blood on the left heel of one of Christa's shoe that was never tested, as well as two samples of DNA from under her nails that weren't matched to anyone, as well. This man, Chris, was convicted on seriously faulty DNA and a disgustingly mismanaged crime scene. I can't say he IS or IS NOT guilty, but I certainly could NOT have judged him guilty BEYOND a reasonable DOUBT. There is just no way.

 

[AundriaP]

One of the fastest-growing! true-crimers on youtube, Stephanie Harlow covered Christa's case this week

I had not heard of this case previously but it is clearly a very tragic and complex one. Stephanie does get a lot of detail into her videos, reads the books and articles that have been written about cases, has a pleasant voice to listen to and has a serious and victim-friendly approach. Perhaps a good starting point for people today for Christa's case IMO.

From what I can see, I don't have much if any doubt that Christopher McCowen's conviction was the right verdict, DNA and too many changing stories from him, clinch it for me. I hope Christa's daughter has help to deal with the re-awakening of all the trauma that his legal manoeuvrings must cause her.

I don't feel confident in that conviction at all, considering how careless this whole crime scene was handled. But I LOVE Stephanie Harlowe!

 

[mysteryman50]

I’ll check her out. I still think it’s Tim. What leads you to him?

 

[mysteryman50]

Then again, Chris changed his story multiple times and lied by omission about his supposed affair with Christa. So...there’s that as well.

 

[ilovewings]

Okay, I am watching this story on 20/20-- McCowen's sperm was found in her body: He says it was consensual sex-- really? at the risk of sounding racist (and i am not)-- I can hardly imagine this upper class woman, living like a hermit, saying, hey smelly garbage man, (black or white) yeah let's get it on-- I can hardly resist you: please--- what a crock: at first he lied about even knowing her. Oh, he also said he had sex with lots of women on his garbage route so why didn't the defense bring these women in to testify to that- BECAUSE IT NEVER HAPPENED. He was so attractive and appealing as a garbage man that women could not resist him. Spare me.

 

[Queena]

Okay, I am watching this story on 20/20-- McCowen's sperm was found in her body: He says it was consensual sex-- really? at the risk of sounding racist (and i am not)-- I can hardly imagine this upper class woman, living like a hermit, saying, hey smelly garbage man, (black or white) yeah let's get it on-- I can hardly resist you: please--- what a crock: at first he lied about even knowing her. Oh, he also said he had sex with lots of women on his garbage route so why didn't the defense bring these women in to testify to that- BECAUSE IT NEVER HAPPENED. He was so attractive and appealing as a garbage man that women could not resist him. Spare me.

Dude or Madam, Black men have always been fetshized. Always. I find it no more preposterous that a upper class white lady will have sex with a garbage man, than the women who are upper class and throw themselves at my husband. In front of me the wife and even their husbands. There's a reason that the top *advertiser censored* categories are BBC (big black and you can figure out the C) and cuckolding. Even her friends said that it was not out of the realm of possibility that she would have had sex with a Black garbage man. Some people also like to have sex with people who they feel are less powerful or worth less than them. I've learned to never be shocked at what or who people will have sex with. There are people who have sex with animals out here.


If you have to start your statement with I'm not racist, then you may be racist.