The Andrew Reid Lackey capital murder trial went to the jury late Friday, but after meeting for a half-hour the jury foreman sent word that the panel wished to commence deliberations Monday.

The four-count indictment charges Lackey with capital murder during a burglary, capital murder during a robbery, burglary and robbery.

After charging the seven-woman, five-man jury, Circuit Judge Bob Baker told them he would “stay up here all night if that’s what you want to do.” However, Baker also gave them the option of coming back on Monday because he said he would not hold them over the weekend.

Lackey, 24, is accused of the Halloween Night 2005 slaying of 80-year-old Charlie Newman in the den of his North Hine Street home. District Attorney Kristi Valls said that Lackey was acting under the notion that the former contractor had a vault built into a room under his stairwell in which he kept large supplies of cash and gold bars.

Under questioning, Derrick Newman, the victim’s grandson, admitted that he told Lackey, who had been his friend since fourth grade, that his grandfather was “mean” and was a multimillionaire. He told Lackey he had seen his grandfather emerge once from the room under the stairs with a zippered bag of money.

It can be heard clearly on a recording of an open-line 911 call originating from Newman’s home on the night of the killing, someone repeatedly demanding, “Where’s the vault? Where’s the vault?”

Valls said that voice is Lackey’s. Defense attorney Randy Gladden does not deny that the voice is Lackey’s, but on Friday defense witnesses, including Lackey’s mother, Sharon Lackey, and clinical psychologist Frankie L. Preston both talked of a disturbed young man, who according to his mother, has shown troubling characteristics from the time of his birth. Preston said his preliminary diagnosis was that Lackey had a mild form of autism.



No insanity plea

However, Baker reminded the jury that, “There is not a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. This is not a case of not guilty by reason of insanity.”

Gladden said he hired Preston to do a mental health evaluation on Lackey in March 2006 while he was being held in Limestone County Jail. However, after performing the battery of tests, concluded that while Lackey displays a “generalized anxiety disorder, in particular social phobia during his formative years,” he was “sane and knew right from wrong.”

Gladden did not launch an insanity defense. With overwhelming evidence, including a gunshot wound to Lackey’s chest coming from Newman’s gun and the discovery of the gun in Lackey’s rental car, as well as irrefutable DNA evidence, the most Gladden could hope for was to save Lackey from the capital murder conviction, which carries with it the possibility of a death sentence.



No intention to kill

Gladden contended that Lackey traveled to Newman’s home to rob him, but he had no intention to commit murder.

“He thought he could go with a stun gun and a starter pistol to Mr. Newman’s home and get his money,” said Gladden in closing.

Gladden acknowledged that Lackey could not plead self-defense in killing Newman because Lackey originated the action that led to Newman’s death, however, he said Lackey was justified in trying to prevent his own death.

“Was there a robbery? No. Was there a burglary? There was obviously an entry into a house that was not forced, but when Mr. Lackey struggled for his own life, the burglary was pretty much over,” said Gladden.

“It pains me to say it, but did he commit intentional murder? Yes. But did he commit capital murder? No. The robbery was over; the burglary was over. Mr. Lackey was trying to save his life.”

“I’m not trying to muddy the waters here. I’m asking you to find my client guilty, but guilty of murder, not capital murder.”

Valls in her closing argument read from the transcript of “chats” retrieved from Lackey’s computer hard drive in which he uses the screen name “Jacob” and tells a person in England, “Damien,” days before the attempted burglary and the murder that “I don’t have the balls to do it. I love money more than life itself, but I can’t off an old man.”

In the retrieved chats “Jacob” also tells “Damien” at one point that he has been “monitoring the old man’s mailbox” and found that he had received just one card on his 80th birthday, and that it wasn’t from a family member. He expresses temporary sympathy for the old man and says although he has spent thousands of dollars in equipping himself with items such as a stun gun and night vision goggles, he is not going to do the job.



Worried about money

But then in a few days after some apparent reversals of fortune on his job as an online trader on the auction site e-Bay, Jacob tells Damien, “I’m going to do the raid so I don’t have to worry about money again.”

The prosecution always goes first in closing statements, but is allowed to respond to the closing statements of the defense.

In Valls’ answers to Gladden, she cautioned the jury against thinking of Lackey’s mental problems as an “excuse” for murder. She said Lackey could have stopped after stabbing Newman once or twice and ran out of the house, but a pathologist testified that the victim was stabbed and cut 70 times and shot once through the chest.

“How far will we take excuses?” asked Valls. “Lackey was p——d off because Mr. Newman shot him. He made sure he’d kill him and kill him good. This is no place for pity. I ask for justice—justice for Charlie Newman.”