COVINGTON, Ga. — Defense lawyers argued in turn Tuesday morning that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Christopher McNabb and that, on the evidence, Cortney Bell couldn’t be held accountable for their 2-week-old child’s death as a murder trial against the two neared its conclusion.
They have been charged in the 2017 death of their 15-day-old daughter Caliyah. A jury is expected to begin deliberating Tuesday after the prosecution gives closing statements.
In his own closing statements Tuesday morning, McNabb’s attorney Anthony Carter said that over five days of testimony the prosecution had fallen far short of providing proof his client was guilty.
“Who killed Caliyah McNabb? Is there any real evidence Chris McNabb brutally killed his daughter?” Carter asked the jury. “What happened? How was she killed? If she was struck with a blunt object, what is that object and where is it?”
“We don’t have any idea,” he said.
Carter sympathized with jurors who “wanted to come in here thinking we could find justice for baby Caliyah,” he said. “But that’s not your job.”
He instructed the jury to remember to focus on the singular issue of McNabb’s guilt or innocence and, if they thought he might be guilty, to fully consider whether they thought so beyond any reasonable doubt.
“There is a lack of direct evidence in this case,” he said. “This case is so circumstantial that it requires an enormous amount of speculation on your part to say Chris McNabb is guilty of this crime. And I’ve gotta remind you, this is not Las Vegas. We’re not laying down odds on who did it.”
Carter told the jury: “It’s not who do you think the most likely person to have done it is – it’s did the state prove Chris McNabb guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
In addition to challenging the state’s evidentiary breadth, he said the original law enforcement investigation was insufficient because of how narrowly it focused on McNabb. At the expense, he said, of other possible theories to explain the crime.
Investigative shortcomings were one of the pillars of Carter’s defense. The trial included one investigator admitting that “some things were overlooked” as much evidence that could possibly have had blood or DNA wasn’t tested, and others acknowledging that other potential suspects – however improbable – were largely ignored.
“I am begging you to look at the evidence, to presume that Chris McNabb is innocent, to ask yourselves if the state proved he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” Carter said. “Please, please come back with the only true and just verdicts – which are gonna be not guilty on all charges.”
PHOTOS: 2-week-old baby found dead after being missing
Bell’s attorney, Bryan Frost, has been defending her on the slightly more limited charge of murder in the second degree – effectively, that she laid the groundwork for Caliyah’s murder through negligence.
Frost acknowledged that it would be easy to judge Bell for not being an excellent mother – for her drug use, for not leaving McNabb despite a pattern of domestic violence – but said that was not enough to convict her.
“The baby didn’t die of the drugs that my client did, the baby didn’t die of any previous beatings that my client sustained,” Frost said. “The baby didn’t die over my client sleeping for four, four-and-a-half hours. Again, we know how that baby died. We saw how that baby died.”
Caliyah died of blunt force trauma to the head, a medical examiner testified during the trial.
“There has not been one shred of evidence that suggests that my client Ms. Bell did anything to harm that child,” Frost said. “So as much as they wanna pack on for how horrible a mother she is, she didn’t cause that child’s death.”
McNabb and Bell have maintained they fell asleep shortly before 6 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2017, and the infant and her 2-year-old sister Clarissa were safe and sound.
They have testified that McNabb woke up to a text from her father around 9:30, fell back asleep, and then they woke again at 10:30 to Clarissa telling them the baby was missing.
Caliyah was found the next day, bundled in a gym bag and left in the woods not far from her parents’ home.
BACKGROUND:
THE TRIAL:
DAY 1:
DAY 2:
'Some things were overlooked': Attorneys spar over evidence on Day 2 in trial of 2-week-old's murder
DAY 3:
DAY 4:
DAY 5: