Closing arguments made in du Pont trial

Kim Smith

Thursday, Nov. 18, 1999 | 11:45 a.m.

Forensic experts may not have found evidence placing a suspect at a murder scene, but a video of him in the minutes following the murder is just as good, prosecutors in the du Pont murder trial argued during closing arguments Wednesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom O'Connell told jurors that the video, which shows Ricardo Murillo buying trash bags at a Walgreen's store, is just one of the compelling pieces of evidence they should use to convict Murillo in the Aug. 2, 1998, death of Patti Margello.

Jurors deliberated Murillo's fate for two hours before breaking for the day Wednesday. They were expected to resume deliberations this morning.

Murillo is one of four people indicted in connection with Margello's strangulation death. Authorities allege Delaware resident Christopher Moseley hired Murillo, Diana Hironaga and Joseph Balignasa to kill Margello because she interfered with his attempts to save his stepson from a life of drugs and destitution.

Moseley's stepson is Dean MacGuigan, a direct descendant of the founder of the DuPont chemical corporation who moved to Las Vegas last summer in order to obtain a quick divorce from his wife, Linda MacGuigan.

Margello was found stuffed inside an air conditioning vent in Room 6 of the Del Mar Resort Motel three days after she died.

O'Connell and co-counsel Peter Ko and Matthew Parrella built their case with the aid of Moseley, Hironaga and MacGuigan and more than 250 exhibits.

Many of the exhibits consisted of phone records that showed countless calls between Moseley, Hironaga and Murillo, some at key times. Other documents included hotel bills, airline records and bank statements.

Assistant Federal Public Defenders Shari Kaufman and Arthur Allen argued the government has little evidence to tie their client to the murder.

"If they're trying to prove everyone knew everyone and they knew their phone numbers, then gosh, I think they've got us," Allen quipped at one point in his closing argument.

The government has hundreds of documents, but not one of them proves that Murillo received money for killing Margello, Allen said.

"They looked for 15 months to find this man spending $10, much less $10,000 and they found nothing and you know if they had they would have told you," Allen said.

Hironaga and Moseley are not to be trusted because they made deals with the government in the hopes of getting something other than life sentences, Allen said. Moreover, Hironaga, Moseley and MacGuigan are all admitted substance abusers.

"A murderer and a liar corroborating what another murderer and liar says ... don't buy it," Allen said.

Allen, who quoted Voltaire and Tennyson on the virtues of telling the truth, also quoted his mother.

"She used to say that some people will walk across the street to tell a lie when they can stand still and tell the truth. Diana Hironaga is one of those people," Allen said.

O'Connell reminded jurors that while the government did not get to choose its witnesses, much of what they said was corroborated by other evidence and other witnesses.

Hironaga testified that after Murillo and Balignasa strangled Margello they left for a short time and then came back with trash bags, wrapping tape and drinks. Detectives found a Walgreen's surveillance tape with two men matching Murillo and Balignasa's description on it. Records found at the store show someone bought trash bags, tape and drinks at the same time.

"What are the odds of, at 3:30 in the morning, finding two males, one about 6 foot and the other about 5 foot 4, buying the very same garbage bags and the very same tape used to wrap Ms. Margello up, within walking distance of the murder scene?" O'Connell asked.

"It's as good as putting him (Murillo) in the room," O'Connell said.

Ko also pointed out that Hironaga testified she tried repeatedly to find Murillo in the hours before the murder and her cellular phone records show she paged Murillo 26 times that night. The records from that night do not show that she tried to call any of the other people the defense has hinted might have been involved in the murder, he said.

There are other things the defense can't get around, Ko said.

MacGuigan testified that Marg-ello called him on the morning she died and said she was with "Rico" and Hironaga. The defense insists Murillo has never gone by that name, but Murillo never corrected an FBI agent who repeatedly called him "Rico" during a 30-minute interrogation, Ko said.

Ko also noted that Murillo, who is known to work on cars, had everything he needed to fix cars in his trunk except jumper cables. Jumper cables were found tied around Margello's body, he said.

Ko's argument prompted Allen to throw his and Kaufman's keys on the prosecutors' table with an invitation for them to look in their cars for jumper cables. He assured them they wouldn't find any.

O'Connell also brought up the jumper cables, laughing at the defense's argument that whoever killed Margello didn't have a car, since her body was left behind.

"What? Someone walked to the Del Mar with jumper cables to kill Ms. Margello and then wrapped her up with them when they were done?" O'Connell said.

O'Connell also asked the jury not to pay too much attention to the fact Murillo's fingerprints and hair weren't found in the room.

"There may not be tests that put Murillo in that room, but there were no tests that put Ms. Margello in that room and we know she was in that room," O'Connell said.