'People lie, science doesn't,' defense says in Hopkins closing

YOUNGSTOWN

Defense attorneys said during closing arguments Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Çourt for a man accused of a 2013 murder that “people lie, but science doesn’t.”

David Betras was speaking of the testimony of a key prosecution witness against his client, Anthony Hopkins, 38, of West Dewey Avenue, who is accused of killing 33-year-old Frank James Brown, who was found shot to death early Sept. 28, 2013, on Truesdale Avenue on the East Side.

Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa told jurors in the courtroom of Judge Shirley J. Christian that they did make a plea deal with the witness, Randall Miller, who will serve 15 years in prison for a charge of involuntary manslaughter because he was the person who knew who killed Brown.

“We made a deal with a demon to get the devil,” Cantalamessa said.

But Betras said the deal is a rotten one because Miller, who admitted to selling drugs, told many lies.

“That’s who I would want to rely on. I want to rely on the devil, a drug dealer” Betras said sarcastically of the prosecution argument. “Randall Miller is a lying devil.”

Jurors began deliberations early Thursday afternoon and will resume at 9 a.m. Friday.

Miller and his wife Megan, a former cashier in the city’s finance department, were both charged with the murder of Brown, who was found lying amid shards of auto glass that was later traced back to the Millers’ Hazelwood Avenue home.

Read more about the case in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.