5.Prosecution Closing Argument — Thomas J. Fallon

MR. FALLON: May it please the Court, Counsel. In our opening remarks to you, we asked you to think about two questions as you listen to the evidence, as you examine the evidence, as you evaluated the evidence. And those questions were:

Was he there? Did he help?

In thinking about answering those questions, there's been a great deal of testimony, a great deal of information provided about the defendant, Brendan Dassey, and his uncle, Steven Avery. But there's one other person here who's important. And that is this woman, Teresa Halbach, because this case is about her as well.

In thinking about these questions, we pose them this way because there's an old maxim that seems to really fit; he who helps the guilty shares the crime.

We're going to evaluate the evidence from another prospectus. From what happened, the big picture, in the words of the defendant, and in the evidence that we presented.

Then we'll look at what corroborates that. Why is it. believable, why is it reliable, what the defendant told us?

And then we'll talk about the party to the crime. Specifically, why he is guilty of these offenses. What is it that he did that made him a-- a party to the crime.

And, finally, we'll look at the evidence. We'll turn that prism, and we'll look ever so slightly at the same evidence from another perspective. And that's the choices that he made. Comparing what he did and what he didn't do. The choices that he made, the decisions that could have been made, that should have been made, but were not made. And those decisions, along with what he -- what he didn't do, along with what he did do, is the proof.

All right. What happened? October 31. Just like any other Monday, Teresa Halbach gets up, seems like any other day, any other workday for her. Little did she know that this would be her last.

You see, this day she was on the Auto Trader beat. She had a full day of appointments. An afternoon full of appointments. As you recall, the first appointment was with Mr. Steven Schmitz of New Holstein. Mr. Schmitz, had he been called to testify, would have told you that Teresa Halbach was at his residence about 1:30. A ten-minute business transaction to place his vehicle in the Auto Trader Magazine. And Teresa appeared with a waist-length jacket, a white shirt and blue jeans.

Upon the conclusion of their business, he provided her an Auto Trader Magazine and a bill of sale. And Teresa moved on to her next appointment.

And that was with the Zipperers. You recall that if JoEllen Zipler -- Zipperer had been called, she would have told you that Teresa Halbach was at her residence in rural Manitowoc County between 2 and 2:30. About that time. Again, about a ten-minute transaction. Teresa was wearing a waist-length jacket, a white top and blue jeans.

And, again, the transaction was brief and concluded with a copy of the Auto Trader Magazine and a bill of sale. And, as Ms. Zipperer would have told us, it's about a ten-minute ride to her next appointment. That appointment was with a B. Janda, which, we all know now, was the appointment with Steven Avery. The appointment with death. Little did she know what awaited her.

Let's look at the evidence more closely. Remember, about 2:27 now, Teresa calls into Auto Trader to Dawn Pliszka. Says, I'm on my way to my next appointment. It's a ten-minute ride. Thereabouts.

So somewhere between 10:35 and 10:40, Teresa Halbach arrives. And at 2:41 in the afternoon on October 31, Teresa makes her last call. You recall Exhibit 56, the Cingular records documenting her very last call at 2:41.

As you recall from the other stipulation reached, at about 2:45 p.m. Bobby Dassey's getting up. Getting ready to start his day. He looks out the window, and what does he see?

Called to testify, he would have told you he observed a blue/green Toyota Rav 4 stop outside of his residence in close proximity to the maroon van that his mother, Barb Janda, had for sale. He would tell you that he saw a woman, that he later learned was Teresa Halbach, exit her vehicle and take pictures of that van.

Now, remember, this is 2:45. She concludes with the pictures and where does she go? Bobby Dassey tells us that she was walking toward the residence of Steven Avery. He takes his shower, he gets up and he hits the road at 3:00. He likes to go hunting before he goes to work. He leaves at 3:00 and what does he see? He doesn't see Teresa, but her vehicle is still there. The Rav 4. But when he comes back at five, Teresa is nowhere to be seen, and neither is the Rav 4. And we now know, based on the words of the defendant, himself, that Bobby Dassey was not the last Dassey to see Teresa Halbach alive.

An hour passes. An agonizingly slow hour for Teresa Halbach, no doubt. You see, she's been overcome. She's now handcuffed, leg-cuffed and spread eagle on the bed of Steven Avery so that he can have his way with her.

Enter the defendant, Brendan Dassey. You will recall there's no disputing that he got off the bus at 3:45, again, about an hour after her arrival on the property, with his brother, Blaine, and they head up the driveway to the house. And, as you might expect, as usually happens in families, the older brother gets his way and Blaine gets the computer and the phone first to arrange his night's plans. And the defendant watches TV for awhile and then he goes out to get the mail.

He goes down and he gets the mail. And he's coming back to his house, and he looks at it and says, oh, I got something here for Uncle Steve. Well, I'll just take it over there. So he goes over to Steve Avery's trailer, and as he's knocking on the door, he hears screams. Screams for help. And he's knocking. And as he told us in his statement, it takes five minutes for his Uncle Steve to answer the door. And when he does, what is his observation? Steven Avery is dressed in red shorts, a white t-shirt and sweating.

Come on in, Brendan. So he goes in. And in a matter of moments he begins to understand what's occurring, what horrors are occurring in that room, because he can look down that hallway and see Teresa Halbach's body on that bed, at which time his uncle extends a most gruesome invitation. Do you want some, he says. They talk.

The defendant is trying to decide, well, I -- I don't know. I -- I'm too young. I -- I'm -- I'm not ready for this. -Do you want some? This is between 4 and 4:30. But it's starting to get late now. The defendant knows he's got to get home, because his mother's going to be home at five and Blaine is home. Got to find out what's going on.

So he goes home and he has dinner with his brother. He talks to his brother. And his mother comes home and he talks to his mother. And he learns that she's going to Green Bay to see the mother of Mr. Tadych. He knows that his brother, Blaine, is going treat or treating.

So what does the defendant decide to do? He decides to return to Teres -- to Steven Avery. He decides to take him up on the invitation. But before he does, he gets a call. He gets a call from Mike Kornely. I think Mr. Kornely was off maybe a half an hour. He gave us an hour in which that call would made. He thinks six. I think that call came in closer to 5:30. The call probably came in at 5:30, and Brendan clearly did talk to Mike Kornely, we have no dispute about that.

But he leaves and goes back. We know he goes back. We know he goes back because he tells the police he goes back. We know he goes back because he tells his mother in those phone conversations, ten weeks later on May 13 and May 15, that he went back. That he was there.

And we also know through one other fact, he knows that Avery's fiance, Jodi Stachowski, calls, and she told us that she called the first time about 5:30. So we know he went back.

Meanwhile, back at the Avery trailer, Teresa remains a prisoner and we can only imagine. But the defendant, this man, he goes back. Why? Because he wanted sex. Because he wanted to know what it was like. Because he decided, he made his first choice, to accept the invitation.

So he goes back and he rapes Teresa Halbach while his uncle watches and applauds his effort. Ata boy, Brendan, that's the way to do it. Does that sound like something you'd make up? So they go back to the front room and they talk about their deeds. But more importantly, they talk about, what are we going to do next? Well, the answer is obvious. They decide to kill her.

They go back to the bedroom. Steven Avery stabs her in the stomach. He hands the knife to the defendant. Says, here, cut her. And the defendant, he tells us he does. Right across here. Tells us that Mr. Avery chokes her to the point of unconsciousness. The defendant is then told to cut off a lock of her hair. A souvenir, no doubt. She's unconscious. They uncuff her. They tie her up and they carry her unconscious body to the garage. And then Steven Avery gets another monstrous idea. I know, instead of burying her in a nearby pond, we'll burn her. But, first, but, first, Brendan, you wait here. I got to go back and get the gun.

And at that moment, the defendant becomes the silent sentinel for the last moments of Teresa Halbach's life. Steven Avery returns to that garage and shoots her 10 or 11 times on the floor of that garage. And in the blink of an eye the killers become pallbearers carrying her out on the Black Jack creeper to the fire that's already started, to the fire that's ready to go under cover of darkness, to a bonfire that's common on that property. Carrying her to the funeral fire.

only this is not a funeral fire of days of antiquity where family and friends came to honor the dead for their life. This was not that. This was an incineration. It was not conducted to honor her, it was conducted to destroy her. It was conducted, more importantly, to destroy the evidence of these heinous acts.

Moments pass, and it's time to clean up. It's time to cover up. The SUV is taken down to the other part of the salvage yard. It's covered with tire -- uh, excuse me, with bush, fence posts, with brush, and the hood of a car. All part of the plan to cover up these acts.

Then it's back to the fire. What are we going to do? Now, it's time for the fire to be tended. More tires, more wood, more brush, a van seat are all thrown onto the fire to conceal the horrific acts that they have done.

Now, let's step back for a moment. It's about 7, 7:30 -- 7:30 to 7:45 now. The defendant's mother is returning with Scott Tadych from Green Bay. And you recall the stipulation. If called to the -- testify, Mr. Tadych would state that between 7:30 and 7:45 on October 31, he was at the property where he dropped off Barb Janda.

Tadych would state he observed a large fire in the burn area behind the detached garage of Steven Avery. Tadych would further indicate at that time he observed Steven Avery and the defendant standing by the fire.

Time passes. But there's more cleaning up to be done. There's more coverup to be done. The floor in the garage where the shooting occurred has to be cleaned with paint thinner, with gasoline, and with bleach. Bleach. Why would you use bleach to clean automotive stains off a floor in a garage? You wouldn't. But, if you're Steven Avery, you would know to use bleach to destroy the evidence.

What else is destroyed? Her clothes. There wasn't just a bag of rags that was used to clean up. Teresa Halbach's clothes were used to clean that up. And they were thrown in the fire along with the bedding. And just as Teresa and her clothes was burned, just as her personal effects were earlier disposed of in the burn barrel, the camera, the cell phone and the like, her purse, her palm pilot, all of that, burned.

Eventually, the killers have to go back to the fire, because to consume a body requires a great deal of heat. More tires, more fuel. And they go back and they tend the fire. And they watch the fire. And they must have thought they were home free. But we know they were not, because Teresa's remains bear silent witness to the killer's deeds. Tom Sturdivant, Rod Pevytoe, Leslie Eisenberg and Dr. Jeffrey Jentzen would see to that.

And you recall Dr. Jentzen's stipulation. He would have told us, in his expert opinion to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that the manner of death was homicide and the cause of death was gunshot.

All right. Now, the question is, why should we believe the things that the defendant has told us? Let's talk about corroboration. Teresa Halbach was in Steven Avery's trailer on October 31. How do we know? His trailer was searched. And what did we find? An Auto Trader Magazine and a bill of sale. Just the same information that Steven Schmitz received, that JoEllen Zipperer received.

Teresa Halbach was restrained in Steven Avery's trailer. How do we know? Handcuffs. Handcuffs and leg cuffs. Restraints. Teresa Halbach was shot in the garage. How do we know? Well, remember, there was a search warrant that was issued shortly after the defendant gave his statement. His confession. We have bullet fragments from a .22 caliber. We have shell casings, 11 shell casings. Shell casings that were discharged from this weapon. Bullets discharged from this weapon. A .22 caliber Marlin Glenfield rifle. The very rifle that hung on the rack in Steven Avery's bedroom. The very rifle that fired the bullet which was found right there, in bullet number 23, found in the garage. The bullet with the profile of Teresa Halbach. Her DNA is on that bullet.

Now, let's think about that for a minute. That rifle was effectively seized by 11 a.m. on Saturday, November 5, when the SUV was discovered on that property, because law enforcement had control of those premises. It was collected into evidence the next day, Sunday, the 6th, as the testimony revealed.

Now, that gun is the only gun that could have fired the bullet with Teresa Halbach's DNA on it. All right. Well, we know Teresa Halbach was alive on Monday morning. We know she was alive on Monday afternoon. So that bullet with her DNA had to have been fired from that gun between Monday afternoon, October 31, and Saturday, the 5th, because how else does that bullet get in that garage with her DNA on it?

The bullet gets there because it comes from the gun of Steven Avery, from the shots fired by Steven Avery, that only this man, the defendant, knows. He told us she was shot ten times. That's pretty close. As we say, we have 11 cartridges. She was shot with a .22 caliber rifle. We have a .22 caliber rifle.

And what else did we find in the search? More ammunition, .22 caliber long rifle magazine, mini mags found in the trailer of Stre -- Steven -- Steven Avery.

Teresa Halbach was shot in the head twice. She was shot on the left side of the head. How do we know that? Well, we have two bits of information. Dr. Leslie Eisenberg, the forensic anthropologist, told you that she examined the cranial fragments and found, not one, but two fragments that showed internal beveling consistent with a projectile, consistent with bullet entry wounds to the left side of the head. Remember? The parietal bone. And into the back of the head, the occipital bone. There's an example of the cranial damage to the parietal bone right there. A bullet entrance wound.

X-rays. Remember the testimony of Mr. Olson? There's an x-ray from the parietal. That's the inside picture. Traces of elemental lead. Well, lead comes from bullets. There's the parietal and the occipital. Left side of the head and the back side.

Teresa Halbach's body was loaded into the rear of an SUV after she was shot. How do we know that? The defendant told us they did that. Well, we have Sherry Culhane and Nick Stahlke to tell us about that.

This particular photograph here shows the presence of a stain on the right rear well plastic molding. A stain that Mr. Stahlke told us was consistent with hair. With bloody hair.

But that's not the only blood in the back. We have the cargo door, the tailgate area where you have impact stains, you have dropping passive gravity stains. All blood stains. All blood belonging to Teresa Halbach. Clearly, corroborating the fact, as the defendant told us, that her body was placed in and out of that vehicle.

He told us that her body was burned. It was mutilated in the fire pit behind Avery's garage. How do we know? Well, let's look at the site of the general layout. We have the defendant's trailer, the van, Mr. Avery's trailer and the burn area all in immediate close proximity. And you remember the defendant told us it only takes a minute to walk between his place and Steven Avery's. The burn area contains human remains. Remember, the silent witness.

Tom Sturdivant and Rod Pevytoe. Mr. Sturdivant, the one who began to find the remains of Teresa Halbach. The remains which were provided to Dr. Eisenberg from this burn pit just as the defendant said.

As Dr. Eisenberg told us, this was the first bit of forensic evidence from that fire pit. Now, all you have to do is look at that box. Those are the remains of Teresa Halbach. If that's not mutilation, if that's not burning to the point of mutilation, to the point of destroying, as best they could, her remains, I don't know what is. Remember Mr. Pevytoe telling us, Dr. Eisenberg and Sherry Culhane, this piece of bone recovered from the pit had the muscle tissue of Teresa Halbach. This was tested and the DNA confirms a match to Teresa Halbach. There's no doubt that it is her remains in the pit just as the defendant told you.

But as if that's not enough, do we have any more? Dr. Eisenberg told us that there were representative samples from almost every bone in the skeleton of Teresa Halbach that was found in that burn pit. You remember this photograph? She was assisted by Trooper Austin from the Wisconsin State Patrol, who put together this diagram reflecting the -- the bone fragments which were recovered from head to toe. There's no doubt that she was burned in that pit, that she was mutilated in that pit.

And if we needed more, we have more. Dr. Simley. Tooth No. 31. The molar. He fracture matched it together, compared it with the dental x-rays he received from Teresa's dentist, and was telling you that it was very consistent, highly consistent with Teresa Halbach.

So, you have DNA, you have the defendant telling us, you have a dentist confirming all what the defendant told us, it is her remains in that burn pit. He told you that a van seat and tires were thrown upon the fire. Is there any doubt of that? There is no doubt.

Remember the testimony -- excuse me -- of Special Agent Pevytoe, with 27-years experience in the Arson Bureau for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, examining more closely the pit and its remains. And what did he tell us? He told us many things. Steel-belted wire from radial tires was harvested from that pit. And when he observed that wire, there were bone fragments in that wire. So we know the tires were used to consume Teresa Halbach. We also know tires were used, but he could tell you that encrusted-like surface of the ground from the tires being consumed and melting down, from the smell, he could confirm there were tires.

He also commented on this, Exhibit 170. The implements of mutilation. You can still see wire from steel-belted radial tire. There's the picture from the scene as it was. You can see a tire in the background and the van seat.

And, as Agent Pevytoe told us, this ball of wire right here is steel-belted radial tires, and in that spool of wire were more remains, when he first saw them, of Teresa Halbach. He said there were many tires, multiple tires, at least five, probably more. -Who knows how many radial tires that weren't steel-belted were used in the incineration of Teresa Halbach? He told us that fires -- fired excellent source of fuel.

But he also told you about the van seat. This van seat. A van seat, for all intents and . purposes, is going to take two people to pick up and put on the fire. Agent Pevytoe told you that the polyurethane in that seating is like solid gasoline. It's a fuel that's roughly the equivalent of the fuel in the tires, that you're going to get quite a blaze from a tire. You can have just a couple of tires and have a flame that's going to go back and forth, three, four, five feet. Couple more tires in, you might have one that's going to go nine or ten feet with a great deal of heat. Enough heat to consume a body.

The defendant told us that Teresa Halbach's SUV, her Rav 4, was driven to the pit area, as they call it. To the salvage yard. To a point in the yard as far away from Avery's trailer, far away from the defendant's trailer, in the far corner.

The defendant told you in his confession that the vehicle was covered with branches and a car hood as we talked about earlier. Well, we have the picture upon recovery that night. There's the car hood, the fence post and the other items. Earlier in the day, upon its initial discovery, another view. Branches on top, boxes, cardboard, and there's the hood, just as the defendant told us. The license plates were removed. You recall the testimony and stipulation. They were found by a firefighter in an abandoned car on that property.

But here's a key point. In that statement the defendant tells us that Steven Avery opened the hood of that vehicle. How do we know? Well, based on that statement on March 1, they swabbed the hood and obtained a DNA profile on that hood. A DNA profile of Steven Avery. Only the killer and his accomplice would know that, to look there, because law enforcement had not looked there before. And not until he told them to, is when they found this. The garage floor was cleaned with gasoline, paint thinner, and bleach. Remember the testimony -- excuse me -- of John Ertl. Mr. Ertl told us that one of his duties for the crime lab is to come in and check areas for possible blood stain residue. And one of the tools they use is a -- is a spray called luminol, because it reacts to a -- a number of items. But most importantly it reacts to blood.

But when asked, what else does it react to? He said, bleach. It reacts "vigorously", I believe was his word, to bleach, just as it does to blood. And although subsequent testing found no blood, the luminol reacted to bleach. Bleach used to clean the stain in the garage. Paint thinner, bleach. Recovered items.

But Here's a critical fact. The defendant's blue jeans. Exhibit 58. Those certainly look like bleach stains to me. The defendant told the officers on March 1, before he gave his statement, that these were the pants he was wearing when they asked him, hey, we heard from somebody else that you had bleach on your pants. He said, yeah, there is the bleach. There are the pants.

Now, it seems to me the last time that I spilled bleach on any of my clothes, unless I knew it, unless I saw it, you don't really recognize that there's bleach on there until they're washed. The defendant is trying to sell you a bill of goods saying, well, I -- I didn't bend over, I didn't get dirty, but I decided to wash my pants even though I just put them on an hour or two earlier. I don't think so.

The defendant told you that the key for Teresa's vehicle was put, by Mr. Avery, in his bedroom. The key was discovered in a search in the defendant's bedroom. Now, that search occurred on November 8.

Teresa Halbach's clothes. He told us they were burned in the pit, but why should we believe him? Well, we have the five Daisy Fuentes rivets recovered in the burn area. We know that Teresa had a pair of Daisy Fuentes jeans from her sister, Katie. Exhibit 13. A pair very much like these. A pair with six rivets. Rivets that look just like that.

You remember Agent Sturdivant telling you about a zipper pull, also, that he found when he first began searching that burn area on November 8. So we have a zipper pull, we have Daisy Fuentes rivets, and I think he also told you some grommets that are, no doubt, from her shoes.

The defendant told you that his uncle's finger had a cut on it at the time the SUV was hidden in the corner of the salvage yard. All right. There's multiple points that corroborate this. A search of the defendant, Steven Avery. You recall this picture with a cut on his hand. Interestingly enough, the right hand. The hand that you would put a key, if you were going to start a car with your right hand, you'd put it in that ignition. And where is the stain? Right next to the ignition. Right here. Ignition is right there behind the steering wheel, and there's the stain. So if you were actively bleeding, that's what you would expect to see. Blood right where you would expect to see it.

But there was blood elsewhere. Remember? Steven Avery's blood was on the CD case and on the car seats, corroborating the fact that he was actively bleeding, that he did have a cut on the day that that vehicle was hidden.

We have burn barrel contents. Defendant said he saw items in the burn barrel. Well, we know that he was right, because recovered from the burn barrel were various electronic devices, or at least their remains. A canon A310 PowerShot camera, a Motorola RAZR phone, a palm pilot, all recovered from the barrel. Things that only the killers would know.

We have a couple more. We have more corroboration. Jodi Stachowski testified that she called Steven Avery twice on October 31. The defendant told us that she called twice on the 31st.

Before we get to that, we have even two more points. And it's almost like it's like the -- the elephant in the room that no one's paying attention to for corroboration. There are two points. The richness of the detail provided by the defendant in that confession tells us that it's true. You can't have that rich of a detail unless you were there, unless you experienced it, unless you lived through it.

And the other one is the fact that everything he said, everything he said in that story, corroborates Steven Avery's involvement in this. There was nothing inconsistent that suggested anyone else other than Steven Avery was his partner in this heinous act.

All right. Party to a crime. What he did. Let's talk about that. First degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, second degree sexual assault. I want to talk a little bit about "party to the crime" before we review, specifically, how the evidence applies to the defendant. One is a party to the crime if they directly commit it or they intentionally aid and abet the person who's committing the crime.

The Court has just instructed you, and let me emphasize, a person intentionally aids and abets the commission of a crime when acting with knowledge or belief that another person is committing or intends to commit a crime. He knowingly either assists the person, he helps the person, or he is ready, willing to assist, and the person who's doing the act knows of the willingness to assist.

All right. So let's talk about that knowledge component. Think back. He opens the door, and he knocks, and he hears screaming. He hears screaming for help. He goes in and he sees her tied to the bed, cuffed, spread eagle. And he hears the words again, help me. Clearly, there's knowledge right there. He knows there's a crime afoot. Whatever is happening, it isn't good and he knows it.

But the critical fact is the invitation by the defendant. The invitation to have sex with Teresa Halbach. The invitation to rape her. And he chooses. He decides to accept. So he participates. He directly commits second degree sexual assault because he rapes her. He assists. He helps kill her. He rapes her. He cuts her throat. Remember? The defendant stabs her in stomach and he gives the knife to the defendant and says, cut her. He cuts her.

He helps uncuff her. He holds her down to make sure she doesn't try to get away, after they've stabbed her and choked her, so that she can be tied up. He helps to carry her to the garage. He helps put her into the Rav 4 after Avery shoots her. He watches her while he gets the gun.

- He helps carry her on the Black Jack creeper to the fire pit. And he helps throw her on the fire. He helps putting fuel on the fire; tires and wood and brush and the van seat. All affirmative acts. All things that he did. He helped.

He gets the golf cart so that -- to make it easier to collect a van seat, a wood cabinet, and. whatever else, and tires. Got to work fast before everyone gets home. And he watches. He's ready, willing and able to assist as Steven Avery tends to the incineration of Teresa Halbach. He's there. He knows what's going on. He saw the body parts. You bet he did. And he told his cousin that he did. We know that to be true.

Now, before we do that, let's talk a little bit more about these jury instructions. First degree intentional homicide. The defendant, or a person with whom he was acting, in this case, Steven Avery, caused the death of Teresa Halbach. There is no doubt.

"Cause" means the defendant's act or acts, or the person with whom he was acting, was a substantial factor in producing her death. Well, cutting her throat, tying her up and carrying her to the garage so that Steven Avery can shoot him -- shoot her is certainly a substantial act in furtherance of her death. A substantial factor in producing her death.

Clearly, they intended to kill her. After they're done raping her, they have a little chat in the front room to decide what we're going to do next. That's the point they decide to kill her. That's the point where he had the knowledge. He knew that they were going to commit a crime.. He knew they were going to kill her because they had to kill her, because she'd been to the Avery Salvage Yard many times before. She knew her killers. She certainly knew Steven Avery. So to cover up the sexual assault, they had to kill her, and they did. Those are the acts.

Now, I'm going to comment on you've been given what we call in the trade, "a lesser included offense" called "first degree reckless homicide". At clearly, at a minimum, his behavior is reckless. It's clearly utter disregard for human life. The callousness by which he conducted himself. Turning a cold ear to her pleas for help. Don't do it. Do the right thing. Please. But he turned a deaf ear and he didn't do the right thing. He wanted to do what he wanted.

Well, that, at a minimum -- that is so clearly beyond reckless. The evidence calls for a verdict of guilty on first degree murder as a party to the crime. He helped kill her. And while it's true that we make no bones about it that Steven Avery was the one who fired the gun, he was clearly assisted by Brendan Dassey. There is no question on mutilation of the corpse. Why? You have to burn the body. We got to get rid of the evidence. Fire is better than discarding a body in some pond some near -- somewhere nearby. A fire will consume the remains. There'll be nothing left. We'll get away. Or so they thought.

Second degree sexual assault only requires two elements. Did he have sexual intercourse with her, and he did so without her consent. Well, I think "without consent" is pretty apparent here. And he told you. He didn't have to tell you. That whole confession, he could have laid it all on Steven Avery, but he didn't. No one had to -- he didn't have to admit that he raped her, but he did. We know he did it.

All right. Now, let's look at the evidence from another perspective. Let's look at the evidence from the perspective of what he didn't do, of the choices he made, because it's important. While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions. And this is about consequences. This is about justice.

What's the first choice as we go back and think about the evidence? What was the first choice he really had to make here? Well, remember, it's between 4 and 4:30, and he's over there at Steven Avery's trailer, and he sees her tied to the bed. He's asked, do you want some? It's decision time.

Well, he could have tried to rescue her. But I'll grant him that. He's not going to pull that off. We all know that. But what were the choices that he had? He could run, leave, call 9-1-1. He could just say, Uncle Steve, you can't do this. He could have at least tried to talk him out of it.. He could have simply left and said, no, to the invitation. And when he got back at 5:00, he could have told his mother. As we know in the call, and as she rightly noted, I would have put you in the car and we would have left.

The defendant was not someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was in the right place at the right time. He was the only person who could have saved her, and he chose not to save her. Why? Because he wanted to know what it was like. That was the choice he made.

A second choice. Showing his complicity. He didn't have to go back. Remember, he's at home at 5:00. He hadn't done anything yet but see what was likely to happen. He hadn't done anything but receive an invitation. At 5:00, he didn't have to go back. He could have told Blaine. He could have told his mother. He could have -- I got to go trick or treating, Blaine, you got to take me. Or, mom, can I go with you? But he didn't. He chose to go back. That's the decision he made.

The third choice. Okay. He's still got a chance to rape or not to rape Teresa Halbach. Try to rescue her probably wouldn't have been too successful. He could have ran out and called 9-1-1. He could have left. Or, you know what? At least he could have said, no. But he didn't. He chose to rape her. Even with her saying, don't do it, do the right thing, tell him to stop. But he didn't.

So think about the decisions that he had to make along the way just in a matter of moments. He's got to go into that room. He's got to take his shirt off. Got to take his pants off. He's going to take his shoes off. He's going to take his underwear off. He's going to climb into that bed and he's going to penetrate her.

All steps along the way. Decisions. Stop anywhere. Say, no, I don't want to do this, Uncle Steve. But he didn't. He gets done and they go into the other room, and he gets his -- Instead of making a call, instead of receiving the thanks from the Halbachs, instead of receiving that adulation from the -- from the family for reporting this crime and saving their daughter, instead of receiving thanks from them, he's receiving thanks from Steven Avery. Ata boy, that's how you do it. That's the choice. He could have chosen thanks from the Halbachs, but he chose thanks from his uncle.

Fourth choice. The decision to help kill her. All right. He'd already found out what he wanted to know. He found out about sex. He didn't have to kill her. Could have let her go. At least a conviction for rape is better than a conviction for murder. Could have called 9-1-1, couldn't you. You know what? At that point he probably wasn't going to call 9-1-1, but he could have said, no, I don't want to do it. He could have left. He could have gone back to his trailer. But he didn't. So he decides. He goes back into that bedroom and his uncle stabs her, and he takes the knife and he cuts her throat right across here above the Adam's apple. Instead of saying, no, instead of leaving, that's what he chooses to do.

There's a second part. He also chooses to help carry her to the garage. He chooses to help uncuff her, to hold her down while Uncle Steve ties her up. He helps carry her to the garage. He could have said, no. He could have ran out that door and said, I can't do it anymore. I just can't do it. This is wrong. But he didn't.

Put her in the SUV, or, excuse me, on the garage floor and he's left alone with her. Now, think about that. He's left alone for a moment or two. Probably a minute. He knows from their conversation that Avery's going to go get that gun. He could have ran out that door. He did not have to be there. But he stayed as the silent sentinel for Teresa Halbach's last moments while his uncle fired 11 shots into her body.

The final choice was his choice to help dispose of the body, to help cover up this crime, to lie about it. He gets the cart. He gathers the fuel, as we've just said, and they burn her, they incinerate her in their effort to destroy the evidence. The mutilation was made and done for the purpose of concealing these brutal, heinous acts. That's why that corpse was mutilated. That's why it was burned. That's why the fire was tended with the shovel and the rake, to break up into pieces, to create more surface area to burn the body quicker, more efficiently.

The cleanup and the coverup. Let's clean up the garage. Let's hide the SUV. Let's burn the bedding. Let's burn her clothes. Could have stopped anywhere. But he didn't.

And if he is as innocent as he would have you believe, he didn't have to lie to Detective O'Neill. He who helps the guilty shares the crime. Was he there? Absolutely. Is there any doubt? This is beyond any doubt. He clearly was there. The richness of the detail, the corroborative evidence answers that question as does it the second. Did he help? Did he assist? Was he ready, willing and able to assist? Yes. Did he assist? Yes, he did. Did he help? Did he help Teresa Halbach? No. Did he help Steve Avery? Absolutely.

The defendant cannot escape the responsibility for his actions by claiming they were the ideas, that it was the fault of Steven Avery, because, in essence, this case comes down to this very point. The invitation to participate in these monstrous acts clearly speaks to Steven Avery. No doubt. But this case isn't about the invitation, this case is about the acceptance of that invitation, and the acceptance of that invit -- invitation speaks to the defendant, Brendan Dassey.

The evidence calls for verdicts of guilty on first degree murder, for second degree sexual assault and for mutilation of a corpse. A weakened sense of responsibility does not weaken the fact of responsibility. And there's only one verdict. Those are verdicts of guilty. And we ask you to return those verdicts.

On behalf of the prosecution team, Mr. Kratz, Mr. Gahn, Mr. Fassbender and Mr. Wiegert, we thank you for your time and your consideration.