Jury Begins Deliberations in Randone Trial

Before Brian Lee Randone was led away from the courtroom in handcuffs by the bailiff for possibly the last time Thursday, he turned to his two attorneys and softly said, "Thank you, God bless you guys."

Randone, a former preacher and reality television show contestant, is for allegedly beating and then smothering his live-in girlfriend, Felicia Lee.

Attorneys in the weeks-long trial, which started on Nov. 17, finished their closing arguments Thursday morning, and a jury of eight women and four men will now decide whether Randone spends 25 years to life in prison or walks away.

Mark Overland, one of Randone's lawyers, asserted Wednesday in his closing remarks that his client was "another victim of Felicia Lee's reckless use of drugs."

The defense has , the date rape drug, which she was known to use recreationally. She had a level of the drug in her system at the time of her death that could potentially be fatal.

For the first time, Overland argued Wednesday that it was "impossible" for Randone to have killed Lee because a paramedics report showed that she still had a tiny amount of electrical activity in her heart when emergency personnel responded to Randone's home in the 500 block of West Duarte Road the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2009.

According to a defense expert, that "pulseless electrical activity" only lasts in someone for a maximum of 30 minutes, and because it was present in Lee when she was found at about 12:28 p.m. that day, phone records show she had to have died during a period of time when Randone was on the phone making a business call, Overland said.

"Medical, scientific facts, which are uncontroverted, show that Felicia Lee could not have died by being smothered," Overland told the jury.

Prosecutor Guffaws at Defense

In Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Philip Wojdak's rebuttal Wednesday and Thursday, the prosecutor guffawed at Overland's theory and said it was based on testimony of an expert, Dr. Harry Bonnell, who was fired from his job as the chief pathologist with the San Diego's coroner's office a decade ago and has served as a professional defense expert ever since.

"Dr. Bonnell is a hired gun to say ridiculous things," Wojdak said, pointing out that the defense did not make the argument that it was impossible for Randone to have killed Lee until the final days of trial.

"Why did the defense hide the ball as long as it could?" Wojdak asked.

Overland also focused on the prosecution's lack of a concrete motive in the alleged killing. Text messages sent by Lee the night before she died show that she had become upset with Randone for not coming home for dinner, but Overland said that there was no evidence beyond an argument that showed Randone had motive to kill her.

"If an argument was a motive for killing somebody, ... there'd be a lot of corpses in Los Angeles," Overland said.

Of the increasingly irate messages sent by Lee to Randone the night before she died, two cryptically referred to the police being called to the apartment where she was presumably using GHB by herself while Randone was out on business.

"I have been driven to the point of insanity," she wrote in one text to Randone. "Very important you get back to me before the cops come as I am freaking out. I have no one," she wrote in the other.

Overland suggested that Lee was intoxicated on GHB and knew that she might hurt herself. The 31-year-old had brushes with the law while on drugs before--she was picked up for a DUI on one occasion and also transported to the hospital after being found unconscious on a sidewalk in another incident--and Overland and co-counsel Ed Rucker have argued that she .

"She's saying you better get over here before the cops come," Overland said of the texts. "And why would the cops come? Because she knows, because she's been here before."

Wojdak countered that the defense was engaging in "character assassination" in referring to Lee's history of drug abuse.

"It's all meant to make you feel like Felicia Lee isn't worth your time...because she's just a druggie," Wojdak said.

Wojdak concluded his rebuttal Thursday morning, asking the jury why it took so long for Randone to call authorities for help the morning of Lee's death. It would have taken at least an hour for her to sustain the extensive injuries she had, yet Randone didn't call paramedics until she stopped breathing, Wojdak said.

"If he loves her, then why didn't he help her?" he asked.