Defendant testifies in beach-killing trial
ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- A man on trial who is accused of killing his girlfriend 15 years ago testified that he had nothing to do with her death.
James Fleming, now married and the father of a school-age child, told a jury Saturday that he was not the person who killed Janine Kirk.
Fleming, 42, spent most of his time on the stand explaining his relationship with Kirk and his actions around the time of her death. He is charged with one count of homicide.
Closing arguments were scheduled to begin today. Character witnesses also testified for him. Dan Geary, Fleming's former neighbor, said Fleming was an "upright and honest and truthful person. He never lied to me."
Kirk, 25, was found by tourists partially buried on the beach at Presque Isle State Park on June 25, 1988.
An initial autopsy concluded she had been forcibly drowned, but a second autopsy two years later determined that she died of multiple blows to the head. Though long considered a suspect, Fleming was not arrested until August 2000, after Brad Foulk, Erie County district attorney, was elected. Foulk, who had been an assistant district attorney at the time of Kirk's death, had vowed before he was elected that he would resolve cold cases.
Foulk based his arrest largely on the conclusions of criminologist Charles Dorsey and said Dorsey would testify about them. Dorsey had concluded that soap markings on Kirk's bathroom mirror denoting various times Fleming said he stopped by to look for her were staged.
Foulk rested without calling Dorsey, however.
No word about change
Foulk did not say what prompted the change. The defense had indicated that it had evidence suggesting Fleming and Kirk communicated using the mirror and soap, but it did not present that evidence Saturday.
Prosecutors contend that Kirk's death was inevitable because she was in a violent relationship and that Fleming knew details about Kirk's death that had not been publicized.
On the day her body was found, Fleming called park police after seeing a news account. He said the body that had been found on Beach 3 and wearing an aqua blue bikini was his girlfriend, who had failed to meet him the day before to go to an amusement park.
The news report mistakenly reported, however, that the body was found on a different beach and did not disclose information about the bikini.
Fleming testified that he was surprised by entries in Kirk's journal that were presented Friday in which she said he hit her and was no good for her.
He said Kirk told him that her therapist said he was the cause of her problems.
"I didn't understand how someone who never met me could say all Janine's problems were based on me," he said.