CENTENNIAL — By the end of the day, it is expected that an Arapahoe County jury will begin deliberating whether it wants to add a third person to Colorado’s death row.
Closing arguments in the death-penalty phase of the Robert Ray trial began this morning.
“It is an awesome responsibility you have. It is not one any of you chose to assume,” explained prosecutor John Hower during the beginning of his closing argument.
The same jury that will be asked to determine Ray’s fate convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder last month. During the trial, prosecutors successfully argued that Ray orchestrated the murders of Javad Marshall-Fields and Marshall-Field’s fiancée, Vivian Wolfe, in June 2006.
Prosecutors believe Ray plotted the murders to keep Marshall-Fields from testifying against him in a 2005 murder case.
Ray told the jury Tuesday that he wanted a life sentence instead of the death penalty for his role in the murders. His defense told the jury during the previous weeks of testimony that Ray grew up on the violent streets of Chicago’s South Side and that, as a boy, he witnessed both death and murder.
The defense was expected to begin its closing arguments after the lunch break.
Read more of this story at .
