CHARLESTON, S.C.(Court TV) — Prosecutors who claim 12-year-old Christopher Pittman knew exactly what he was doing when he shot and killed his grandparents called a handful of final rebuttal witnesses Friday, paving the way for closing arguments Monday.
The rebuttal case focused on Christopher's behavior during the three years he spent as an inmate at the South Carolina Juvenile Detention Center in Columbia.
Jurors learned that Christopher, now 15, was written up by correction officers 39 times for offenses ranging from foul language to threatening to stab and rape one officer. Prosecutors called the witnesses to rebut a contention that has been central to the defense case.
Christopher's lawyers called numerous witnesses to testify that Christopher was a normal boy who presented no serious behavioral problems until he began taking Paxil and Zoloft following a 2001 suicide threat.
As with much of his behavior before the killings of Joe and Joy Pittman, defense lawyers wrote off Christopher's behavior while incarcerated as either not serious, not his fault or the result of being incarcerated.
"That's the language of the jail, isn't it?" defense attorney Henry Mims asked one corrections officer who told jurors about the expletives Christopher once hurled at him.
"Did you know he was on Paxil or just came off of Paxil?" Mims asked a female officer, whom Christopher called a "bitch" and threatened to "f--- up."
Stephen Snyder III, who is 6-foot-1 and weighs 400 pounds, testified that he was afraid of Christopher despite his age and the fact that he weighed less than 100 pounds.
"He told me that we was going to stab me in the stomach and the eye and in the throat and he was going to rape me," the former corrections officer said.
Prosecutor Barney Giese asked him if he believed Christopher
"The rape part, no. But the stabbing — I knew his history, and I wasn't taking chances," Snyder said. "I never turned my back on him from that point on."
Noting that Christopher was a "scrawny little kid" of 12, defense attorney Andy Vickery questioned whether Snyder really believed Christopher was capable of carrying out the "grandiose" threat of stabbing and raping him.
"Killing your grandparents with a shotgun is pretty grandiose, too," Snyder said.
Last-minute motion
Earlier Friday, Judge Danny Pieper blasted the defense over a request to reopen their case to present new evidence.
Vickery reported that the results of blood tests that came back late Thursday indicated that Christopher's DNA contains an enzyme that some experts have associated with a slowing down of the metabolism of medications.
The defense had hoped to present the evidence to explain why Christopher was still saying that his grandparents deserved to die two weeks after the killings — statements the defense claim are consistent with an adverse reaction to Zoloft.
"I'm not a big fan of trial by ambush," Pieper told Vickery. "If you've figured anything out, you've figured that out."
Vickery said he ordered the tests after Christopher was released on bond last week, but did not inform the court or prosecutors because he was concerned that the results could provide fodder for the state's case.
Both the judge and the prosecution pointed out that the results of the tests could have been filed under seal to protect Christopher's rights against self-incrimination.
Pieper said he would consider permitting the defense to reopen its case, but Vickery quickly withdrew the request, saying an expert contacted during a break indicated that the results really did not contribute to the defense's case.
Pieper also denied a last-minute request by prosecutor John Meadors to have Christopher taken into custody now that the testimony is over. Meadors cited testimony that Christopher and another boy once concocted an elaborate plan to escape from the juvenile detention center during a dental visit. The plan was never attempted.
Pieper set aside 90 minutes for each side to give its closing arguments on Monday.
If convicted of murder, Christopher faces 30 years to life in prison. A finding of guilty but mentally ill or not guilty by reason of insanity would send Christopher to a forensic hospital for an undetermined length of time.
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