Closing arguments end K.C. serial killings trial

Kansas City, Mo. ? Prosecutors said a man whose DNA was linked to seven slain women is either the city’s worst serial killer or is being shadowed by the worst serial killer.

The comments came during closing arguments for Lorenzo Gilyard, 56, who was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder in the killings that took place in Kansas City in 1986 and 1987. Six other murder counts, including one stemming from the death of an Austrian national, were dropped last week as the trial got under way, although prosecutors could refile those charges later.

The victims

Victims named in murder charges against Lorenzo Gilyard. All of the locations are in Kansas City.¢ Catherine M. Barry, 34, found in an abandoned building near 30th and Central streets, March 14, 1986.¢ Naomi Kelly, 23, found in a city park at 10th and Harrison streets, Aug. 16, 1986.¢ Ann Barnes, 36, found at 13th Street and Lydia Avenue on April 17, 1987.¢ Kellie A. Ford, 20, found in Roanoke Park at 1300 W. Valentine Road, June 9, 1987.¢ Angela Mayhew, 19, found in the 2600 block of Genessee Street, Sept. 12, 1987.¢ Shelia Ingold, 36, found in an abandoned van parked in the 3700 block of Troost Avenue, Nov. 3, 1987.¢ Carmeline Hibbs, 30, found in a parking lot at 3560 Broadway, Dec. 19, 1987.

Gilyard would face life in prison if convicted in any of the deaths. His fate is being decided by Jackson County District Judge John O’Malley.

Prosecutors made DNA evidence linking Gilyard to all seven women the centerpiece of their presentation.

“The defendant wasn’t counting on the fact that science would catch up with him, but it did,” said Ted Hunt, chief trial assistant. “Twenty years later, a part of his own body is pointing a finger back at him.”

Semen or seminal fluid was found on six of the women, and his hair was found on the seventh victim. All of the victims were left in sexually compromising positions.

But defense attorney Susan Elliott said the lifestyles of the victims – all but one of whom were prostitutes – suggested it was not only probable but likely that they had sexual contact with other men.

The defense went through each of the cases suggesting other alternatives, including that one victim was killed as retaliation for talking to the FBI about a drug supplier and that another had been threatened by a boyfriend before her death.

“The theory espoused by the state is that because we only found Lorenzo’s sperm, it’s impossible that someone else had sexual contact, specifically sexual intercourse with them, after Lorenzo,” defense attorney Tom Jacquinot said.

The defense reiterated testimony from defense witness Thomas Bennett, who said earlier Tuesday that the more likely cause of death for one of the women, Sheila Ingold, is an overdose of methadone. The drug is a synthetic opiate used to ease withdrawal symptoms for users of heroin or certain prescription painkillers.

Prosecutors said Ingold, 36, had been strangled and semen on her body matched Gilyard’s DNA. But Bennett, a consultant and the associate state medical examiner for Montana, said therapeutic and lethal doses of methadone can overlap.

On cross-examination, Bennett acknowledged that similarities between Ingold’s death and the deaths of the other women raised suspicions. But, he said: “Just because it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck doesn’t mean it’s a duck.”

Hunt said during his closing argument that he remembered the saying being “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.”

The prosecution said Gilyard at first claimed not to know the victims. But later the prosecution noted the defense claimed Gilyard had consensual sex with the victims but didn’t kill them.