Defense have known tactics.
1. Somebody else did it.
and in a no body case, no one did it, there is no crime.
2. I did it but there is a reason: self defense, provoked to rage, impaired
3. Mental illness made me do it.
MOO oing to court and letting defense use up an extra 40 minutes spinning scenarios a defense predictably needs to spin to set the stage for the reasonable doubt that someone else did it or that the person ran away was an immediate a problem of prosecution competence.
This is not hindsight, at the time I was hoping that it the lack of understanding that in court you persuade judges and juries to interpret facts to accept the prosecutions theory, and in a no body case that is going to be even more crucial, was a glitch not an actual professional problem, but it was a problem and continued to be a problem.
Possibly the judges can be faulted as well but that does not mean the case was well presented.