U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley sent an impassioned message to jurors in the federal trial of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. during closing arguments this afternoon.
Referring to blood found in Rodriguez's car that was linked by DNA to slain University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, Wrigley told jurors, "That blood in Alfonso Rodriguez's car was Dru's voice shouting out, 'I was here. He forced me here.'"
"Can you feel her strength? Can you feel it?" Wrigley said.
Minutes later, defense attorney Robert Hoy attacked Wrigley's closing, calling it a bid to inflame emotions.
"That (argument) has no place in a courtroom. That belongs in an evangelical tent some place," Hoy said.
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Wrigley said the blood found in Rodriguez's car and other evidence would lead jurors to conclude Rodriguez abducted Sjodin from the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks, N.D., and left her body in a remote ravine.
Hoy maintained the prosecution had not proven an essential element of the case, that Sjodin was alive when transportation across state lines began.
Hoy seized on instructions given by Judge Ralph Erickson, which defined transportation as occurring if the victim was moved any distance at all, as long as the movement was not incidental to another offense besides kidnapping.
Hoy said if someone forced Sjodin into a car for the purpose of sexual assault and unintentionally killed her by putting a plastic bag over her head, the acts would not fall under the federal charge of kidnapping resulting in death, which Rodriguez faces.
"There are other reasonable interpretations of the government's evidence," Hoy said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Norm Anderson called Hoy's argument a red herring intended to distract jurors from the real issues in the case.
He said Rodriguez tore the 22-year-old Sjodin out of her safe college life and dragged her into a nightmare world of abduction, sexual assault and murder.
"And for what? ... For his own sexual gratification. And that's it," Anderson said
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The case went to the jury shortly after 4 p.m., with the judge instructing jurors he would send them home at 10 p.m. if they had not reached a verdict by then. After selecting a foreman, however, jurors called it a night shortly after 5 p.m.
Deliberations will resume today.
