Closing arguments made in attempted murder trial

PALMER — Attorneys delivered closing arguments Friday in a man’s second trial for attempted murder.

Jamie R Smith, 20, has been in jail for the alleged beating of Savannah Simpson since 2013. A first trial ended in June 2015 with a hung jury. Smith is charged with attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and evidence tampering.

Smith was 17-years-old when authorities say he attacked and beat Simpson in the woods near a large bonfire party in May 2013 near a party spot known as “Green Gate.” Prosecutors say witness accounts eliminate the possibility that another person could have committed the brutal assault, which resulted in multiple facial fractures and internal organ damage to Simpson, according to medical testimony. The defense largely focused around whether Alaska State Troopers had focused on Smith as a suspect based on the say-so of other witnesses at the fire, many of whom were intoxicated.

Past testimony has described a chaotic scene as troopers responded and people fled in vehicles.

Prosecutor Lindsey Burton focused her closing argument on about 20 minutes when Smith and Simpson were alone together in a stretch of woods. When Smith was next spotted, he was covered in Simpson’s blood, and Simpson was unresponsive. Investigators couldn’t find an eyewitness to the alleged assault, meaning the state would have to rely on circumstantial evidence to make its case.

“This is a primarily circumstantial case,” she said. “That’s why all of the evidence is important. You cannot separate evidence out. You have to look at all of it.”

Without an eyewitness or conclusive physical evidence, jurors would have to rely on reason, Burton said on redirect.

“You need to look at all of the evidence and make reasonable conclusions based on your reason and common sense,” she said.

Public defender Windy Hannaman pointed out that the bottle the prosecution alleges was used as a weapon had neither Smith’s fingerprints, nor blood on it. Nor is the 20-minute window supposedly narrowing Smith to the lone suspect firmly established, because numerous witnesses had consumed alcohol. As many as 200 people, some with blood on them, departed the scene while troopers were investigating, Hannaman said. Troopers radioed back the identity of the suspect less than a minute after arriving on scene, Hannaman said.

“When you start to see other people covered in blood, when you start to see cars passing you — we heard at least five makes and models he’s calling out, Trooper Striker says, ‘I got license plates when I could’ — you’ve gotta start to think that maybe it’s not what a bunch of drunk people are telling me,” she said. “Maybe it’s more than that.”

Closing arguments and jury instructions concluded about 4 p.m. Friday.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.