Accused of setting fire to his ex-girlfriend's home and killing her two young children, William Robert Woods passed on a chance to take the stand.
"It's not going to change your decision," Mr. Woods told Lackawanna County President Judge Thomas J. Munley on Tuesday. "You already have your decision made up."
During a recess on the last day of Mr. Woods' murder-arson trial in Lackawanna County Court, he told his public defenders he wanted to take the stand. The prosecution's last witness, Scranton police Fire Marshal Martin Monahan, had just finished testifying.
After speaking privately with his attorneys, Cathy Tully and David Cherundolo, Mr. Woods reconsidered.
The prosecution and defense rested their cases on Tuesday. Citing a need to review the evidence, Judge Munley said he would return a verdict on Thursday.
District Attorney Andy Jarbola, who is prosecuting the case, decided not to seek the death penalty in exchange for Mr. Woods agreeing to waive his right to a jury trial. If convicted, Mr. Woods faces life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors allege Mr. Woods used lighter fluid to burn down Tyaisha Leary's 166 S. Hyde Park Ave. home on July 21, 2009. The fire killed her two sons, 10-year-old Michael and 9-year-old Taevon Miles. Ms. Leary and another son, 12-year-old Nijea, were injured in the blaze.
Following hours of testimony from several prosecution witnesses in the five-day trial, the defense called only one witness, Benjamin Christensen, a Lackawanna County prison inmate incarcerated for indecent assault.
In his testimony on Tuesday, Mr. Christensen said another inmate lied when he claimed Mr. Woods allegedly told him he set the fire, but did not mean to the hurt Ms. Leary's children.
In his closing argument, Mr. Jarbola compared Mr. Woods, 43, to a "little child" who retaliated against Ms. Leary after she broke up with him and obtained a protection from abuse order against him.
Mr. Woods displayed the lowest of human emotions after the split: obsession, jealousy and rage, the district attorney said.
"If I can't live there, nobody will," Mr. Jarbola said, pointing a finger directly at Mr. Woods, seated at the defense table. "If I can't have Tyaisha, nobody will. The only person who had the motive, the means, and the opportunity is sitting right here in this courtroom."
In Mr. Cherundolo's closing argument, he said the prosecution's case was "totally circumstantial," failing to present any direct evidence linking Mr. Woods to the crime.
"They failed to meet the burden of proof," Mr. Cherundolo said.
Outside the courtroom, Ms. Leary said the blaze erased her chance to raise her two sons, helping them "flourish" into young men.
"I'll never get to do any of these things," she said. "Hopefully, I'll hear the judge say guilty ... guilty on everything.
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