A prosecutor told jurors necrophilia inspired the killing of a 16-year-old girl who was lured to a remote area and beaten to death before the teen defendant and another man had sex with the corpse.
"What you will hear may seem very disturbing. There's violence of the worst kind," Deputy District Attorney Lewis Cope told the jury during opening statements Monday in Joshua Curnutte's murder trial.
Curnutte, 17, and Jonathan Stephens, 21, formed a gang they called North Side Necrophiliacs and on April 2, 2002, they and Luke Miller, 16, lured Christy McKendall to Little Sand Canyon on the pretense of looking at a marijuana garden allegedly planted by Stephens, Cope said. At the mouth of the canyon, Curnutte and Miller held down the Highland girl's arms and legs while Stephens choked her into unconsciousness, the prosecutor said.
"It was not enough that Jonathan Stephens would squeeze the life out of Christy McKendall," said Cope, noting Stephens allegedly picked up a eucalyptus log and struck the victim. "With that log in his hands, he brought it down on her face again, and again, and again, and again."Stephens and Curnutte then had sex with her body, Cope said.
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/3858468/detail.html
"What you will hear may seem very disturbing. There's violence of the worst kind," Deputy District Attorney Lewis Cope told the jury during opening statements Monday in Joshua Curnutte's murder trial.
Curnutte, 17, and Jonathan Stephens, 21, formed a gang they called North Side Necrophiliacs and on April 2, 2002, they and Luke Miller, 16, lured Christy McKendall to Little Sand Canyon on the pretense of looking at a marijuana garden allegedly planted by Stephens, Cope said. At the mouth of the canyon, Curnutte and Miller held down the Highland girl's arms and legs while Stephens choked her into unconsciousness, the prosecutor said.
"It was not enough that Jonathan Stephens would squeeze the life out of Christy McKendall," said Cope, noting Stephens allegedly picked up a eucalyptus log and struck the victim. "With that log in his hands, he brought it down on her face again, and again, and again, and again."Stephens and Curnutte then had sex with her body, Cope said.
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/3858468/detail.html
