In closing arguments in the Scott Doll prison contraband case, the key question attorneys for both sides wrangled over is who brought powdered aspirin into the Genesee County Jail.
Defense Attorney Dan Killelea made the suggestion that the aspirin was given to Doll by a corrections officer at the jail.
Repeating a phrase Doll reportedly used when speaking "officer to officer" with Corrections Officer Vincent Maurer about his state of mind after trying to ingest the aspirin, Doll reportedly said to Maurer, "an officer gave it to me."
After the aspirin was discovered by Maurer, Killelea suggested, jail officials had no choice but to prosecute him for promoting prison contraband.
"Who’s going to step up (and say) they just gave aspirin to a guy just was convicted of murder?" Killelea said. "Who is going to fess up to showing some humanity, some professional courtesy?"
Assistant District Attorney Robert Zickl said that suggestion made no sense and wasn't supported by the evidence.
This is not "Law and Order Batavia," Zickl said, adding that conspiracy theories belong on TV, where they’re entertaining, but they’re not reality. Zickl said this case is reality.
"If you are a senior corrections officer are you going to risk your career by giving the defendant aspirin ground up in a balloon?" Zickl said. "If you did that, why would you say you've got to go upstairs to check on something and let somebody else watch the defendant? Why wouldn’t you stay there and watch him ingest it?"
Zickl argued that if a corrections officer wanted to give Doll aspirin, why grind it up, why not just give him a few tablets?
The evidence -- the balloon, the white powder all over the jail cell and on Doll's face -- is more consistent with the behavior of an intoxicated, despondent person who carried the alleged contraband into the jail himself.
Killelea questioned why the balloon wasn't introduced as evidence, why it wasn't tested for fingerprints or DNA. He argued that to produce the amount of white powder observed by officers, a pretty large balloon would be needed, and a balloon that size would be difficult to hide through three pat down searches.
There is no evidence, Zickl argued, that the balloon was giant. He said 20 ground-up pills could produce a good deal of powder and easily be concealed by an experienced former corrections officer who would know how to hide something not easily found in a standard pat down search.
After arguments, with the jury out of the courtroom, Killelea objected to Zickl's closing argument, saying that Zickl repeatedly made reference to the aspirin being in the balloon at one time. He said no evidence was introduced to prove the balloon ever contained aspirin, or that there even was a balloon.
Judge Robert Balbick is just completing instructions to the jurors, who will begin deliberations shortly.
