Closing Arguments Heard in the Stevens Murder-for-Hire Trial

Update, 12:07 p.m., Thursday:

Could jurors believe a handyman with a criminal record who said Tiffany Stevens hired him to kill her ex-husband? Did the surreptitious tapes he made of two phone conversations with her show that she was trying to get him to commit the murder?

Those were quetions lawyers for both sides addressed in closing arguments Wednesday before a jury at state Superior Court in Hartford, according to a report in the Hartford Courant. Jurors began their deliberations at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday and didn’t have a verdict by the end of the day.

According to the Courant’s account:

Anthony Bochicchio, the prosecutor, said jurors should ask themselves whether Tiffany Stevens would believe John McDaid, the handyman, would kill her ex-husband, Eric Stevens of Stratford, if she gave him $5,000. Someone who would be approached with that offer wouldn’t be a “boy scout,” Bochicchio said, adding that jurors needed to separate any dislike of McDaid or Eric Stevens from the question of whether or not Tiffany Stevens is guilty.

Defense attorney Hubert Santos said that even if they think Stevens paid McDaid to kill her ex-husband, they should consider whether or not her judgment was impaired after using drugs, being involved in a difficult custody battle with Eric Stevens over her daughter, and after suffering from Stevens’ alleged emotional abuse of her. Eric Stevens possessed at least one surreptitious tape recording for five hours before giving it to police, with spots on it that were unintelligible, and jurors should ask themselves whether Stevens was devious enough to have altered the tape, Santos said.

Original article, Wednesday:

A Hartford jury heard lawyers give closing arguments Wednesday in the murder-for-hire trial in which Tiffany Stevens is accused of plotting to have her ex-husband, Eric Stevens of Simsbury, murdered, according to WFSB-TV.

A defense attorney argued that the surreptitious tape recordings made by handyman John McDaid of two telephone call between him Tiffany Stevens were either unintelligible or too vague, the television station reported.

The purported $5,000 that Tiffany Stevens purportedly agreed to pay for the murderis a ridiculously low amount of money, the lawyer said, according to the report.

A prosecutor told jurors in state Superior Court in Hartford that Eric Stevens might not be someone they like, but that doesn’t mean someone who plotted to murder him should go free, according to WFSB-TV.