Source: Grand Rapids Press, WOOD TV
GRAND RAPIDS -- Two vastly different accounts of what happened before, during and after the death of a local businessman and church leader were presented to jurors today in opening statements for the murder trial of Steven Scarborough.
The prosecution said Scarborough is a killer, while the defense put forth that Scarborough got dragged into the murder by a friend with whom he was staying.
Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Helen Brinkman said Scarborough lured 62-year-old Victor Manious from a local gay bar to a friend's apartment in July and beat him to death with a bat while robbing the older man.
Scarborough then left Manious in the trunk of his wife's Toyota parked the wrong way on a downtown Grand Rapids street, she told jurors in Circuit Judge Dennis Leiber's courtroom.
Phone and text messages, a slew of lies and a cover up, prosecutors said, followed, including Scarborough racking up charges on Manious' credit card. He then left for Texas.
Brinkman said medical experts will testify that if Manious had received treatment for his wounds right away, he could have survived rather than dying in the trunk of the car dressed only in his underwear.
The prosecutors said Justin Robinson, the friend Scarborough was staying with, put the pieces together and contacted police.
A string of confessions, prosecutors said, further tied Scarborough to the crime.
But the defense countered with a vastly different story. They said Robinson is a liar and a manipulator, a bisexual who had sex with Manious previously. And that's how Manious knew to come to Robinson's apartment.
Defense attorney Paul Denenfeld said Scarborough -- a simple boy from Tennessee -- was the dupe of Robinson.
Denenfeld said Manious walked into Robinson's apartment while Scarborough was there alone and knocked Scarborough out.
Scarborough came to, found Manious sexually assaulting him and hit him with a baseball bat to defend himself, Denenfeld said.
What followed, Denenfeld said, was masterminded by Robinson, not Scarborough, who was merely dragged into the plan. He said that Robinson helped Scarborough hide the body and talked his friend into keeping his own name out of it when Scarborough talked to police.
The defense acknowledged Scarborough made some bad choices, but said Scarborough is on trial for murder, not theft.
"The way police dealt with Steven's truthful story about being sexually assaulted is just astounding," Dennenfeld said. "Man or woman who is being sexually assaulted ought to be able to use whatever force one needs to stop it. That's what he (Scarborough) did, and that isn't a crime."
Robinson testified against Scarborough during a probable cause hearing, saying he saw Scarborough using credit cards that were not his own to buy clothes at RiverTown Crossings mall, gas on a day trip and food.
Full article: Opening statements in Steven Scarborough murder trial describe 2 scenarios in Victor Manious' death | Grand Rapids Press
Body-in-trunk trial: tale of 3 men | WOOD TV