LOS ANGELES -- Jurors in the Vicki Morgan murder trial began deliberations today with the primary evidence in the case being a taped confession by accused killer Marvin Pancoast.
After Superior Court Judge David Horowitz issued the jury instructions, attorneys for both the defense and prosecution said they expected a quick verdict.
'The reason we expect it (the verdict) today is because there was damn little evidence,' defense attorney Charles Mathews said.
The case against Pancoast, 34, is based primarily on a taped confession he gave police shortly after her death.
The confession was one of at least three statements Pancoast made in which he admitted battering Miss Morgan to death last July 7 at the condominium they shared.
The prosecution produced a baseball bat belonging to Miss Morgan's teenage son and said it was the murder weapon. But their own forensic experts testified the bat had no fingerprints, and the bloodstains on it could not be identified as the victim's.
The defense said whatever prints had been on the bat had been ruined by police mishandling, which it said was probably part of a conspiracy to cover up for the true killer. Prosecutors said the mishandling of the bat was merely police 'bungling' and denied there was a coverup.
Defense lawyers spent much of their time trying to show others had a better motive than Pancoast to kill Miss Morgan, including the ghost writer working with her on a book in which she claimed she would name high government officials who had cavorted at sex orgies with her.
The defense even suggested that writer Gordon Basichis 'hypnotized' Pancoast over the telephone the night of the slaying, telling him he had just killed Miss Morgan.
Prosecutors called the claim a 'fantasy' and part of the 'smokescreen' the defense has created to shift blame from Pancoast.
The jury was not allowed to hear testimony about so-called 'sex tapes' that Miss Morgan purportedly had showing the sex orgies. She told friends the tapes were her 'insurance policy.' The tapes have never been produced.
