Nov 13, 2006 8:57 pm US/Eastern
Judge Sequesters Jury In Worthington Murder Trial
BARNSTABLE (CBS4) ―
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Christa Worthington (File)
CBS/AP
The Cape Cod jury considering murder and rape charges against Christopher McCowen has now been sequestered for the remainder of its deliberations.
Jurors told the judge Monday they were hopelessly deadlocked after nearly five days of deliberations. Judge Gary Nickerson ordered jurors to continue to try to hammer out a verdict in the case.
McCowen, 34 is charged in the January 2002 killing of Christa Worthington, who had left a glamorous life in New York for the quiet of a tiny Cape Cod town to raise her daughter. Worthington, 46, was found lying in a pool of blood in her Truro home, dead from a single stab wound to her chest, with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Ava, clinging to her body.
McCowen, who was Worthington's garbage man, initially denied having any physical contact with her. But after police showed him a DNA report linking him to the crime scene, he told eight different versions of the events leading up to Worthington's death, according to a state police trooper who testified during the trial.
McCowen said he had consensual sex with Worthington and beat her during an argument, but claimed his friend, Jeremy Frazier, stabbed and killed her. Frazier was never charged.
Prosecutors told the jury that McCowen's DNA was found on Worthington's body and said his own statements to police amounted to at least a partial confession.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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