Randone Trial: Prosecution Rests, Torture Count Stands

A judge denied an attorney's motion to have a torture count thrown out after the prosection rested its case Wednesday in the trial of Brian Lee Randone, who is for allegedly beating and smothering his girlfriend to death in Monrovia in 2009.

Attorney Mark Overland argued outside the presence of the jury Wednesday that the prosecution did not provide sufficient evidence that 31-year-old Felicia Lee sustained "great bodily injury" before her death on Sept. 11, 2009. He said the wounds she suffered were "shallow scratches and abrasions" that did not meet the criteria for a torture count.

"Basically what we have here is torture by scratching," Overland said.

Judge Dorothy Shubin denied Overland's motion to have the count thrown out, saying that Lee's injuries were "greater than minor or moderate harm." She also pointed to the bruising found throughout Lee's body, which she called "so extensive that you really can't separate out where one bruise ends and another begins."

Overland's motion came after Deputy District Attorney Philip Wojdak rested his case shortly before noon Wednesday. Wojdak's final witness, Sheriff's Homicide Detective Brian Schoonmaker, who investigated Lee's death, spent much of the morning being cross-examined by Overland in testimony that was sometimes contentious.

Schoonmaker took issue with Overland's description of Lee's wounds as "superficial," a word used in a technical sense to describe the wounds by the .

"They're not deep cuts. They're on the surface but I wouldn't call them superficial," Schoonmaker said.

Overland asked Schoonmaker if he was able to find any object in Randone's apartment that he believed could have been used to inflict the . He responded that he did not.

Schoonmaker's testimony also touched on the number of wounds sustained by Lee. He counted 320 total wounds on her body by poring over crime scene and autopsy photos showing each angle of her body, he said. Overland asked if Schoonmaker counted the injuries to bolster the prosecution's case.

"The higher the number, the better for the prosection?," he said.

"It's not about the prosecution, it's about Felicia Lee," Schoonmaker replied, adding that his count was "conservative" because it did not include the bruises throughout Lee's body.

Testimony will resume Wednesday afternoon when the defense begins to present its case.