Closing arguments delivered in Sharonville mobile home park murder trial
More than four years after a woman was found dead in a Sharonville mobile home park, the murder trial of her husband is coming to a close.
On Thursday, the prosecution and the defense delivered closing arguments in the case of Brian Smothers. The 43-year-old is accused of killing his wife, Lea Ann Smothers, in the couple's mobile home in the early hours of Jan. 1, 2018.
He is charged with two counts of murder, one count of felonious assault, two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of gross abuse of a corpse.
'It's not real'Woman describes finding body at mobile home park as murder trial begins
Prosecutors say Brian Smothers beat and strangled his wife sometime around 1:45 a.m. on New Year's Day. He allegedly dragged her body through the snow to the area behind the park's only dumpster. Police found drag marks in the snow tracing back the couple's mobile home in lot No. 15.
His attorneys say he was asleep the whole time, and someone else, likely a man Lea Ann Smothers was seeing outside the marriage, was responsible for her death.
Prosecutors began closing statements by reiterating previously presented DNA evidence of Smothers' skin found under his wife's fingernails, his clothing items with Lea Ann's blood on them, along with his bootprints along the drag trail, and a neighbor's security camera footage that night of a man with the same colorblocked jacket that he was arrested in.
It would've taken several minutes to strangle Lea Ann Smothers to death, Hamilton County assistant prosecutor Kristen Kueffner said.
"The evidence points to one person and one person only, and that man is Brian Smothers," Kueffner told jurors. "At any point he could've stopped, and she wouldn't have died."
When police were investigating the vicinity of the couple's mobile home when Lea Ann Smothers' body was found by a neighbor later that morning, Brian Smothers asked an officer if he could leave and go to work. They let him, and he drove to his father's house in Grant County, Kentucky, where he was arrested. He was photographed after the arrest with defensive scratches on his neck and face.
Both sides conceded it was a marriage marked by infidelity. Lea Ann and Brian Smolders were both known to have extramarital relations, attorneys said.
Smothers' defense attorney, Connor Reilly, argued it was someone else who killed Lea Ann Smothers. He said she was messaging a friend about having sex with someone else that night after she and her husband got into a fight.
He also said Brian Smothers would not have stayed on the premises as long as he did if he had committed the murder.
"You compare all these actions taken, and you'll see it doesn't align with the state's argument," Reilly said. "You don't hang out for hours and hours and hours, 100 yards away from the body you killed."
Assistant prosecutor Clay Tharp told the jury to not "fall for a ruse." He called Smothers' defense claims flights of fancy and self-serving statements.
Jurors are expected to enter deliberation on Friday.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati area mobile home park murder trial comes to a close
