Prosecutors left jurors with one indelible image in the murder trial of Joanna Hayes on Friday: a photo of the 26-year-old victim, Heather Strube, smiling lovingly at her toddler son.
Gwinnett County Assistant District Attorney Dan Mayfield asked the jury to find Hayes guilty in Strube's slaying and to bring justice for Strube's son, Carson.
Prosecutors contend Hayes, 45, of Luthersville, wore a wig and mustache to look like a man when she shot Strube in the head on April 26, 2009 in a Target parking lot in Snellville. Carson was buckled into his car seat a feet away. Prosecutors said Hayes killed her daughter-in-law because she didn't think Strube, who was in a custody dispute with Hayes' son, was good enough to raise her grandson.
Defense attorney Bruce Morriss told jurors the eyewitness testimony in the case tends to prove the shooter was a man. He said Hayes knew she wasn't guilty and never sought a lawyer's advice when talking to police, who erred in targeting her early on.
"I want to yell out to you she did not, Joanna Hayes did not do this thing," Morriss said.
Jurors start deliberating at 9 a.m. Monday.
Mayfield reminded jurors about the testimony of Paul Pinzino, a co-worker who said he talked with Hayes about a year before Strube's death about how to commit the perfect murder. Pinzino said Hayes told him she would not use a noticeable car; she would act alone, but involve an unwitting family member in her alibi; she would use an untraceable gun; and she would destroy the weapon afterward.
There are similarities between that fictional scenario and Strube's slaying, prosecutors contend. Hayes allegedly used a white Ford F-160 truck, the only one of three vehicles she owned that was not distinctive. The last people to see Hayes before the slaying were her husband and son. She told them she was going see her parents in Luthersville.
Hayes was known to have a .38 revolver. The murder weapon was never found, but the bullet came from a .38.
Hayes' perfect murder scenario also involved her giving a credit card to someone to use to establish an alibi, Pinzino said. She didn't do that, Mayfield said, but she bought food at a Wendy's near her parents' home about an hour and 20 minutes after Strube was shot. Hayes kept the receipt and pointed police to exactly where it was when they questioned her about her alibi.
The alibi didn't quite fit, though, according to Mayfield. It takes about an hour and 20 minutes to drive from the Target in Snellville to the restaurant, Snellville police found when they retraced the route under similar conditions.
Hayes, however, left her former home in Lilburn nearly two hours before reaching the Wendy's.
During the extra time, she could have killed Strube, Mayfield said.
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