Published May 20, 2008 10:56 am - Madison County Prosecutor Tom Broderick rested his case after the final video interview was presented in the murder trial of Jesse Lee Pitts on Tuesday.
10:55 a.m.: Prosecution rests in Pitts case
By Justin Schneider
Madison County Prosecutor Tom Broderick rested his case after the final video interview was presented in the murder trial of Jesse Lee Pitts on Tuesday.
The prosecution's final pieces of evidence were interviews conducted with Pitts at the Anderson Police Department. It appears those videos are as close as Pitts will get to taking the stand.
Pitts changed his story repeatedly during the course of the interviews. At first, he told police that he only gave Amanda Brinker a marijuana joint at her bus stop, then he said the two went to the park together and he knocked her down with a leg sweep that could have caused her fatal injuries. Finally, Pitts said he was swinging a metal pipe and accidentally struck Brinker.
A forensic pathologist testified that Brinker's injuries were consistent with seven or eight blows from a long, thin, metal object. The jack handle found in a car Pitts was known to drive has been identified by police as the murder weapon.
He also admitted to moving Brinker, but said he never put her body in the White River, where it was recovered.
Pitts, 21, has been charged with murder in the death of Brinker, a 14-year-old Anderson High School freshman. If convicted, he faces 45 to 65 years in prison.