Ava worthington trial

He recently moved into a dormitory in Provincetown, where he lives with restaurant workers. Even though he proclaimed his innocence in the days, months and years that followed his tragic discovery, many locals silently suspected he was the killer. I think most reasonable people were caught in that same trap.

Arnold was sighted on Commercial Street yesterday morning, walking in front of town hall. In an amazing coincidence, Tony Jackett, Christa Worthington's former lover, a man who had also lived under suspicion, was sitting there on a bench. Both men had pointed their fingers at each other in the wake of the murder — Arnold the ex-boyfriend, Jacket the ex-lover whose child Worthington bore. Arnold sat down and talked about living in the shadow of an unsolved murder.

Later in the day, Jackett said, "I kind of felt like I wanted to give him a hug. I felt so happy for him. Happy, and grateful. She had been alone there for two days. Police interviewed him, as they did with postal carriers, landscapers and others who worked in the area. By all accounts, McCowen is a man of opposites — gregarious one moment, reserved the next; liked by one employer, disdained by another; admired for his luck with the ladies and detested for that very same quality.

But then there's McCowen's history of violence and convictions for trafficking stolen property, stealing cars, theft and burglary in Florida.

At least three restraining orders were filed against him in and in Orleans District Court. One was sought by Amy Smith in May She asked for protection after McCowen, who is 6-feet tall, shattered her car window following their break-up.

Christopher McCowen, accused of the murder and rape of Christa Worthington, told investigators that he participated in the beating of Worthington and was present when she was killed. Welsh declined to provide further information on McCowen's alleged statement but said investigators do not anticipate additional arrests in the case.

Robert A. George, the scrappy Boston defense lawyer now representing the only person charged in Christa Worthington's murder, is known for tough cases. George became the second lawyer to represent Christopher McCowen, 33, of Hyannis, who was arrested April 14 and charged with murder, armed assault and aggravated rape stemming from the slaying of Worthington, a Truro fashion writer.

McCowen has pleaded not guilty. Right now, I see nothing. The man accused of killing Christa Worthington three years ago was indicted by a Barnstable County grand jury yesterday. Christopher McCowen, 33, is scheduled to appear in Barnstable Superior Court next Wednesday on charges of murder, aggravated rape and armed burglary. Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said yesterday no one else will be charged with the killing of Worthington, a fashion writer and mother who was 46 at the time of her death.

On the night of his arrest for the rape and murder of Christa Worthington, Christopher McCowen apparently gave investigators a wildly divergent statement. According to testimony in Barnstable Superior Court yesterday, the statement began with McCowen denying any involvement with Worthington and ended, approximately six hours later, with McCowen telling investigators that he punched Worthington after a sexual encounter, then witnessed her execution-style murder at the hand of his friend.

But when investigators, suspicious that McCowen had acted alone, asked McCowen what he would say if his friend's alibi stuck, McCowen allegedly said, ''Then it's all on me. McCowen consistently denied killing or raping Worthington during the April 14, , interview at the state police barracks in South Yarmouth, according to testimony yesterday from Massachusetts State Police Trooper Christopher Mason, who conducted a significant portion of the interrogation.

Attorneys in the murder trial of Christopher McCowen wrapped up pretrial business yesterday, including introducing a motion to sequester the jury in the high-profile case of the stabbing death of Christa Worthington. With the trial set to begin Monday in Barnstable Superior Court, the first order of business for Judge Gary Nickerson will be to hear a change of venue motion filed late last month by defense attorney Robert George, Nickerson said in court yesterday.

If that motion is denied, the court will hear several other motions before beginning jury selection, which is expected to take about two days. Tim Arnold, the first witness in the trial of Christopher McCowen, accused of raping and killing Christa Worthington, testified yesterday in Barnstable Superior Court about discovering the former fashion writer's body in January Arnold had come over to return a flashlight he had borrowed, one that had guided his way along the darkened path that runs between her house and his father's, which sits just to the back of hers.

Once Arnold got closer to her body, he saw blood around her head. He realized something was wrong. Arnold's exasperated voice rang out in the courtroom as Welsh played the tape. I think she's dead. Christopher McCowen had told police, again and again, that he didn't really know Christa Worthington. After more than three years of searching, Mason and Trooper William Burke finally thought they had found Worthington's killer when they arrested McCowen on April 14, , after DNA testing of his cheek swab matched semen taken from Worthington's body.

Carter, a Yale Law School professor who has written about the role of religion in politics. Medical neglect Traditionally, authorities have been reluctant to intervene in family health decisions except in the most extreme cases of medical neglect. But through infrequent trials, courts have sharpened the boundary between secular and spiritual law. Hays, a member of a church similar to the Followers of Christ, relied on divine healing to cure his 7-year-old son, who died from leukemia.

The father was sentenced to five years' probation. Hays appealed his conviction. He argued that it was impossible for him to pinpoint the moment his conduct shifted from permissible to criminal and claimed that such distinctions violated his First Amendment right to freedom of religion. The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, saying, "Once a reasonable person should know that there is a substantial risk that the child will die without medical care, the parent must provide that care, or allow it to be provided, at the risk of criminal sanctions if the child does die.

An autopsy showed the girl suffered from a blood infection, pneumonia and a large, benign cyst on her neck that had never been medically addressed. In a pretrial hearing, defense attorneys tried to ban the introduction of autopsy photos as evidence in the Worthington trial.

The raw images provide vital evidence that investigators and medical experts need to illustrate their testimony, he said. By all appearances, Carl and Raylene Worthington are law-abiding parents who deeply grieve the loss of their daughter. But under Oregon law, they could each receive more than six years in prison if convicted.

Regardless of the outcome, the next few weeks will add to their painful burden. As they mourn the loss of one child and look forward to another -- Raylene Worthington appears to be at least five months pregnant -- their lives will be on public display.

In the statement issued Saturday, the church emphasized the emotional toll of the case: "This prosecution compounds and prolongs the Worthington's grief. The Worthingtons will never stop loving or missing their daughter and the Followers of Christ congregants grieve with them. Ken Byers said he and his fellow jurors went back to work Tuesday feeling obligated by civic duty to reconsider the evidence and reach a verdict. Jurors generally tried to look at the world from the Worthingtons' perspective and personal values, Santos said.

Why didn't the Worthingtons call or attempt to revive her? Byers was one of two jurors who voted to convict Carl Worthington of manslaughter. He voted not guilty on the charges against Raylene Worthington. The jury faced a nearly impossible task of sorting through conflicting values and legal responsibilities and deciding what was reasonable, said Christopher J. Dominic, president and senior consultant with Tsongas Litigation Consulting, a nationally respected jury-consulting firm based in Portland.

What does a reasonable person think to be true here? That thoughtful deliberation, considering the Worthingtons' point of view, was exactly what defense attorneys sought.

They complained of a rapid public rush to judgment by those suspicious of a small, isolated church with beliefs well outside the mainstream.

The public seems "to have gotten the wrong impression. I hope the community learned something," Neidig said. Some jurors may have been confused by Oregon's manslaughter law or found it inappropriate to the circumstances. Under Oregon law, manslaughter is not defined as an intentional killing but as accidental death that the defendant has a legal responsibility to prevent. The criminal mistreatment charge is clearer, requiring parents to provide adequate medical care.

That failure to act was the basis for the Carl Worthington's criminal mistreatment conviction.