Jury deliberates in U.S. Marine murder retrial

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — Closing arguments were heard in the retrial of a man accused of shooting and killing a U.S. Marine in Lexington.

Prosecutors made their final case to a jury Monday, urging them to convict Dawan Mulazim of murdering U.S. Marine Jonathan Price in the Woodhill Center parking lot in 2014.

Mulazim is on trial for Price’s death a second time because last year, a jury couldn’t make a decision.

The jury won’t just make a decision on the murder charge but also on a separate robbery charge the commonwealth is connecting to price’s death.

The prosecution says the 2nd Street robbery almost a month after the shooting ties Mulazim to Price’s murder all because of a Yankees baseball cap found in a dumpster.

Police say Mulazim can be seen wearing that cap on surveillance video in a drive-thru liquor store minutes after the shooting five years ago at Austin City Saloon.

The defense went first Monday finishing up its case, arguing there’s not enough evidence to incriminate Mulazim.

Investigators didn’t find any of Price’s DNA on Mulazim.

Attorneys say Megan Price’s description of the murder weapon doesn’t match the one prosecutors say was used to kill her husband.
They went on to say Mulazim wasn’t guilty of a robbery at a Quality Inn six days before the shooting though a jury did find him guilty.

The commonwealth argued then the murder weapon used was stolen from the hotel.

Mulazim’s public defender says he’s the wrong guy who’s been fighting for his life the last five years and is now putting his trust into the jury.

“Trusting them that they will actually work from the right picture from the presumption of innocence and they will come to the verdict of this case of not guilty because Dawan Mulazim did not commit these robberies. He did not assault Megan {rice and he did not murder Jonathan Price”, says public defender, Kim Green.

The commonwealth in its closing argument says the defense is trying to distract the jury from the evidence.

In her closing statement, Green used a puzzle reference saying the commonwealth and police were trying to force pieces together that don’t fit and you should throw away pieces that don’t fit.

The commonwealth says that’s not how it works.

“You take each individual piece and you set it. You may not know when you look at a piece where it goes or what the relevance of it is at that particular moment. But you wait until you have all your pieces together to find out what the bigger picture is. That’s how you work a puzzle. The defense on the other end has somehow forgotten that basic thing,” says commonwealth’s attorney Kim Baird.

The commonwealth wants the jury to find Mulazim guilty of complicity to assault since they say it was Quincinio Canada who shot Megan in the leg.

Baird says she wants the jury to know the shooting was no accident, it was intentional.

The commonwealth finished its argument and the jury began deliberating. If a verdict isn’t reached Monday night, the jury will have convene again Tuesday.