Defendant allegedly threatened fellow inmate By Glenn Smith
Ethan Mack's fate could be in the hands of a jury today as his defense team prepares to wrap up its case in the Kate Waring murder trial.
A couple of defense witnesses are expected this morning before the case, now in its second week, moves on to closing arguments. Then it will be up to a Charleston jury to decide whether Mack is guilty of killing his 28-year-old friend who once described him as her big brother.
Mack, 30, is accused of torturing and killing Waring at his James Island home on June 12 and 13, 2009.
His wife and co-defendant, Heather Kamp, testified that Mack repeatedly jolted Waring with a stun gun, bashed her in the head with a wine bottle and left her in a water-filled bathtub to die at the couple's Riley Road apartment.
Waring's remains were found on Wadmalaw Island four months later.
The seventh day of testimony in the case concluded Wednesday with an unexpected bombshell from a fellow inmate who had testified against Mack last week.
Mack's lawyers re-called Antjuan Green to the stand to poke holes in his story that Mack had recruited him in a jailhouse plot to discredit Kamp and leave her holding the murder rap. Attorney David Aylor pointed out apparent inconsistencies between Green's testimony and various things he hold investigators over the summer.
The jury was treated to even more potentially damaging testimony after 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson questioned Green about his ride home from court Friday.
Green told the jury that he was placed in a jail transport van with Mack after testifying against him. Mack started rapping that "he was gonna ride up in my spot and kill my family and sister and stuff," Green said.
"It wasn't no happy ride back," he said.
Green said Mack also has spread word that he is a "snitch," resulting in Green being moved to protective custody.
Green testified last week that Mack recruited him to write a letter in June claiming he overheard Kamp at the jail admit to killing Waring. He said Mack even gave him a sample letter to write to prosecutors, revealing elements of Kamp's supposed confession.
Green notified authorities instead, partly in hope of getting a break on a pending burglary charge that could send him to prison for life.
Earlier in the day, Mack declined to take the stand in his own defense. A defendant taking the stand can be a risky move, opening them to grilling by prosecutors.
If Mack had taken the stand, prosecutors likely would have questioned him about various inconsistencies in his own stories. He would have to explain three forged checks that were made out to him from Waring's bank account, including a $4,500 check he reportedly tried to cash two days after she disappeared.
Mack almost certainly would have been asked about a ring he pawned in June 2009 -- a ring that Kamp claims to have pulled off Waring's finger after she was killed.
Instead, Mack's legal team has worked to point out the lack of hard physical evidence linking Mack to the crime while trying to undermine the credibility of his chief accuser, Kamp.
From various witnesses, the jury learned that Mack was considered a close friend of Waring, a laid-back guy and a good worker who was named employee of the quarter at a Folly Beach hotel one day before Charleston police arrested him on forgery and obstruction of justice charges in the Waring case.
Stephanie Stanley, a forensic analyst with the State Law Enforcement Division, told the jury that she found no blood or DNA on the Taser, carpeting or bathtub drain samples police sent her from Mack's Riley Road home.
Kamp has said she and Mack purchased cleaning supplies and scoured their apartment after killing Waring. On cross-examination, Stanley pointed out that she did not test for the presence of cleaning solutions on the samples she received from police.
Mack's lawyers work to destroy Kamp credibility , published 10/13/10
Also Wednesday, Anthony Boling disputed accusations that he ordered Mack to kill Waring because she was an informant who set him up on drug charges that landed him in prison.
Boling said Waring was a close friend who had nothing to do with his drug business or his arrest on cocaine trafficking charges in 2006. He befriended Waring in 2004, dated her for a time and introduced her to Mack, he said.
"I am very aware of who set me up and it had nothing to do with Kate Waring," he said.
Kamp told police at one point that Boling ordered "a hit" on Waring from prison and that he was involved in a drug gang whose members burned tattoos into their arms.
Investigators have testified that the story was one of the tales Kamp spun before eventually coming clean about the roles she and Mack had in Waring's death.
Boling said none of what Kamp told police is true, including statements that he used Waring for her money. He said he already had enough income from an interior trim business, real estate sales and dealing cocaine.
"I sold drugs," he said. "I really didn't need money from anybody."
Boling said Waring wrote him letters while he was in prison and, at one point, expressed fear about death threats she was getting. She told him she wouldn't leave her house without Mack or another man's protection, Boling said.
Boling said he didn't recall seeing other correspondence in which Waring complained of her deteriorating relations with Mack and Kamp shortly before her disappearance.
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