Keith Luke Murder Trial Goes To Jury
BOSTON (CBS) -- The fate of accused murder Keith Luke is now in the hands of the jury.
Closing arguments in the Luke trial were held Wednesday in Brockton.
Police say in 2009, Luke, a self-described white-supremacist went on a violent rampage, bent on killing as many non-whites as possible.
They say he broke into a Brockton house where he knew two young Cape Verdean women lived. One of them was home, so with a gun to her head, he handcuffed her, and raped her. When her sister arrived at the house, Luke allegedly shot her three times, killing her.
Luke shot one of the women five times and then left the house, according to police, thinking she was dead. The stuffed bear she had been hugging, actually helped save her life.
In closing arguments, the prosecution said Luke's evaluation by doctors two weeks after the murders, at Bridgewater State Hospital determined he was not mentally ill.
"The evidence is overwhelming that he had no mental illness. He wanted to kill. He wanted to rape," Prosecutor Frank Middleton told jurors.
Luke's defense said his client had poor social skills and has suffered from mental illness since he was very young.
The defense asked the jury to find Luke not guilty by reason of insanity.
