US temple murder trial hinges on killer's word

The case against a man being retried in the killing of nine people at a suburban Phoenix Buddhist temple hinges on the testimony of a man who pleaded guilty to the killings and is serving a 270-year prison sentence.
The 1991 killings stirred outrage in Thailand, where monks are revered and where most men serve a brief stint as apprentice monks at some point in their lives.
Prosecutor Jason Kalish told jurors in closing arguments of Johnathan A. Doody's murder and robbery trial Monday that the evidence shows only he and the accomplice who testified against him were responsible and the accomplice told the truth.

Doody planned "for weeks if not months ahead of time" to rob the temple monks and kill any potential witnesses, Kalish told jurors. That's proven not only by the testimony of accomplice Allesandro "Alex" Garcia but by other testimony.
"We know Alex Garcia was there," Kalish said. "The evidence shows there was only one other person there, Johnathan Doody."
Defense lawyer Maria Schaffer urged jurors who heard the case over more than two months not to believe Garcia's story.

"In this case, ladies and gentlemen, Alex Garcia is the devil," Schaffer told jurors. "And in this case the state of Arizona made a deal with the devil."

She called Garcia a "sophisticated and savvy" teenager who worked police to minimize his involvement and avoid the death penalty and told investigators on a team of hundreds of detectives whatever they wanted to hear.
The now 39-year-old Doody is being retried after a federal appeals court threw out his confession, which investigators obtained after more than 12 hours of interrogation.
Just 17 at the time of the murders, Doody is accused of killing six monks, a nun and two helpers during a robbery. Each was shot with a .22-caliber rifle in the back of the head, and some were also hit by shotgun blasts. Their bodies were found arranged face-down in a circle.

Authorities say Doody and Garcia made off with cameras, stereo equipment, piggy banks and about USD 2,600 in cash.
Doody wielded the rifle, and Kalish said Garcia testified "he wasn't really into it" and pointed the shotgun mainly at the ground when he fired.
Garcia was just 15 at the time and pleaded guilty. He and Doody have been behind bars since their arrests two months after the killings.