"Dorothy Ulrich was aware of the pain, you can hear her screaming. Was a decision being made while she was being stabbed and beaten by a sword while she begged for her life"

Dorothy Ulrich

Mendocino Assistant D.A. and special prosecutor Mr. Paul Sequeira delivered a powerful, effective and emotional closing this afternoon in the Jason Warren jury trial. Using Dorothy Ulrich's last words, photographs that the jury had seen, evidence items that were shown in court, DNA, physical evidence from both crime scenes and reiterating key concepts from Judge Cissna's jury instructions, the 5 women and 7 men jury was spellbound as Mr. Sequeira linked the Hoopa and Myrtle Avenue murders of Dorothy Ulrich, Suzanne Seemann, Maggie, Jessica Hunt's dog and attempted murders of Jessica Hunt and Terri Vroman Little.

Mr. Sequeira also very masterfully used Warren's juvenile record and showed the similarity between 2001 and this case demonstrating the limited purpose of Warren's state of mind.

Premeditation and deliberation was the theme Mr. Sequeira stressed throughout his closing telling the jurors that the evidence did not support any of the lesser charges required by the defense for them to consider.

Highlights:

"I'am going to tell you something about the lessers; I'm not being cavalier. The Humboldt County District Attorney presented information in the complaint. I don't intend to have you look at the lesser charges. The defense has the right to have charges read to you if there is failure to prove by the District Attorney. I don't intend for that to happen in this case."

"In this case, a cold calculated decision can be made very quickly."

Saying that the audio of the attack was disturbing, Mr. Sequeira said that he did not play his best evidence during closing because he did not want the jury to hear it for the fourth time.

Referring to the tape that was played three times during the trial where jurors heard Dorothy Ulrich's attack and her begging for her life, Mr. Sequeira said. "You heard, you heard the duration. You are in an unique position to hear how long it took for the defendant to take her life. You heard the process of the defendant's mind before he struck the fatal blow."

Dorothy Ulrich's mother, Mrs. Shirley Ortega left the courtroom during part of Mr. Sequeira's closing when he said, "Dorothy Ulrich was aware of the pain, you can hear her screaming. Was a decision being made while she was being stabbed and beaten by a sword while she begged for her life?"

"It's the shallow wounds I want to talk about when it comes to torture." Bringing up the prosecution medical expert who testified that the wounds were different in size and depth as if the weapon had not been inserted "into too far" Mr. Sequeira said, "They are jabs, pokes. Who does that if they don't intend to inflict pain?"

He took out the brother sword to the twin sword the prosecution alleges is the murder weapon, which was not found. "This weapon is the baby brother. Big brother was the murder weapon. Who takes a longer sword and pokes and jabs and beats for many minutes?"

Then Mr. Sequeira whacked the sword in the courtroom, effectively demonstrating the sounds we all heard in court on the surveillance audio that captured the attack on Dorothy Ulrich. "It's difficult to hear in the courtroom. Can you imagine being there and living it? I could do it for three minutes. I could do that; it's a long time when you are being beaten."

As he was saying this, pictures of the blood spattered on boxes, Dorothy Ulrich laying on the floor, blood around her, her arms covered with bruises and contusions and cuts flashed on the projector screen.

"Beaten while someone is screaming in agony, saying stop, please stop, please stop, I can't take it anymore."

Mr. Sequeira referred to Dorothy Ulrich's swollen hands and said that Warren beat her "as she begged to live a little longer. Can you imagine the mental anguish? The defendant had the ability to stop. What did he say? Shut up and be quiet. He might as well have said Shut up and be quiet, I'm killing you."

"She is not here to testify but her last words, she told you who killed her."

"If that's all I have, it would be proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but that's not all I have, I have science."

"Science ids him as the killer." Mr. Sequeira referred to the DOJ testimony about the blood on Warren's shoe and shorts. "More blood not analyzed because they thought " they had enough to identify Warren positively.

"This case is gloomy with injuries and autopsies. There were some rays of sunshine in this dark case. Those rays are Jessica Hunt and Terri Vroman Little. They survived. They got to tell you what happened."

"Was it just an amazing coincidence that he hit one of the joggers dead center, one on the left and one on the right?"

"He positioned the car so he could kill all three women. By the grace of God they survived. He wanted all of them."