The trial of a man accused of killing his wife, a beloved Massachusetts teacher, two years ago came to a close Wednesday, leaving a jury to decide if she was slain by a profligate husband, as prosecutors claimed, or if the evidence didn't tie the man to the killing, as his defense lawyers said.
A jury in Boston is deliberating Andrew MacCormack's murder charge following closing arguments made Wednesday. He is accused of beating, strangling and stabbing Vanessa MacCormack at their Revere home on Sept. 23, 2017, while their 1-year-old daughter was in the room next door.
The couple had been fighting for months over Andrew MacCormack's drug use and spending habits, Suffolk County prosecutor Ian Polumbaum said, and that came to a head when he attacked her.
"Throughout that 911 call, there is one simple word that the defendant never uttered, not even once: Vanessa. Never said her name," Polumbaum said as he ended his argument playing the emergency call MacCormack's team says he made after finding her body.
MacCormack's defense attorney acknowledged that he wasn't perfect, but that it didn't mean he killed his wife, telling the jury that no physical evidence tied him to the scene. They have said that MacCormack was out with the couple's daughter at the time of the killing.
"Andrew did not in fact kill his wife," Hayes said.
While John Hayes said that the Andrew MacCormack had none of the marks that would have indicated he was involved in such a brutal assault, Polumbaum said that was because he hit her with a bed rail from behind while she was eating a granola bar, causing extensive damage to her face.
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Vanessa MacCormack's injuries included a broken nose, bruising to her face and stab wounds around her back and neck, a medical examiner testified during the trial.
She was a beloved mother and second-grade teacher at Connery Elementary School in Lynn. Her mother cried in court Wednesday when Polumbaum read out the injuries she received during the attack.
