Zintman murder trial heads to closing arguments and jury deliberations
MARQUETE — The Steven Zintman murder trial continued today with more damaging testimony.
Day three of the Zintman arson murder trial escalated with more shocking testimony. Zintman is on trial for setting a house on fire that resulted in the death of his girlfriend, Sally Plume.
Yesterday we showed you testimony from police of the varying stories he told them, today’s testimony included stories from a neighbor adding in more reasons how the fire got started.
“Then he told you several other stories? He said the heater started the fire. He said there were clothes on top of the heater but it could not have been the heater because he borrowed that from us. What was his demeanor? Just matter of fact, there was never very much emotion,” said neighbor, Katie Thibeau.
A witness for the prosecution talked about a beating stick he had to keep people in line and the alleged killing of his ex–wife’s dog.
Prosecution worked to establish a pattern of behavior.
“I use to keep a notebook in case my parents couldn’t find me or found me dead. I would keep it from Steve. Every time I felt like I would be killed, I would write down the dates and what happened. Sometimes I would have to hide it in different places, Steve found it once and ripped some pages out of it and burned it,” said ex–wife Marhi Black.
The defense called another neighbor to the stand (INSERT NAME) who said that he knew of Zintmans criminal history, but did not know why because he didn’t consider it his business.
The defense also called (DOCTOR HARVEY) who spoke about the effects that Zintman’s chronic alcoholism has on his memory.
“He wouldn’t have to be drunk to not remember yesterday, he wouldn’t remember yesterday. He could be as sober as he could be and he wouldn’t remember last week, yesterday, his parent’s death, his child’s birth or anything. The memory is that far gone.”
Both the prosecution and defense have rested, and the rebuttal stage has completed as well. Thursday morning, the closing arguments will be made and jury deliberations will begin.