NEW YORK, March 3 (UPI) -- Martha Stewart's New York federal court case went to the jury Wednesday after 90 minutes of instructions from the judge.
Stewart and her former Merrill Lynch & Co. broker, Peter Bacanovic, are charged with conspiring to obstruct justice and making false statements to federal investigators looking into ImClone stock trading.
The jury was to begin deliberations after lunch.
Robert Morvillo, Stewart's lawyer, told the jury Tuesday prosecutors had provided no evidence to support its case.
He said there are "major, gaping, huge holes" in accounts provided by Stewart and Bacanovic as to the circumstances behind her sale of ImClone Systems stock in late 2001.
"What kind of conspiracy is this?" Morvillo asked, raising his voice. If there was a conspiracy, he argued, the defendants would have made sure their stories matched. "It's a conspiracy of dunces."
The defendants maintain they agreed to sell Stewart's ImClone stock when it fell below $60 a share.
Prosecutors dismissed that as a lie that hides the fact Stewart sold because she had been tipped by Bacanovic's assistant to attempted selling by Samuel Waksal, then ImClone's chief executive.
