Bukurim Miftari, charged with murder,? sat expressionless in a packed courtroom Thursday morning in downtown Anchorage. His supporters and the family and friends of his alleged victim, Kristen Reid, filled three rows of benches as prosecutors and defense attorneys made their closing arguments.
"Have you ever loved someone so much you wanted to kill them?" District Attorney Sharon Marshall asked the jury, mostly women, as closing arguments began in the Nesbett Courthouse. On the opening slide of a PowerPoint presentation, that question was typed above a picture showing Miftari and Reid. They were smiling.
"This is a case about a 21-year-old in love with a 30-year-old married woman, who didn't return the love he wanted, expressed or needed," Marshall continued.
Marshall showed images of Reid's face covered in blood, with a bullet wound in her temple. Many in the audience shuddered, and Reid's friends sobbed.
Reid's body was discovered nearly naked in a ditch along Fairbanks Street near International Airport Road early in the morning Sept. 17, 2012. Close to the body were pools of blood and Miftari's SUV, parked in the middle of the street. Articles of Reid's clothing were scattered about.
Marshall said "Buki," as he was known to friends and family, pulled the trigger of a silver handgun, killing Reid, then panicked and staged the scene in an attempt to confuse police.
Both sides agreed that Reid was a drug dealer who was working the room at the popular strip club Great Alaskan Bush Company on the night she was murdered.
Miftari, now 24, and Reid had been in a relationship for nine months. On Sept. 16, it appeared Reid was ready to end it, Marshall said. The night of her murder, a witness claimed Miftari seemed "agitated" as Reid talked to other men and gave out her phone number -- all parts of what Marshall described as "a part of (Reid's) business."
The two left the Bush Company separately. Reid made her way to a friend's house, while Miftari began searching for her, the prosecutor said. Then Miftari found her.
"He knew that she would talk to him, just to make him go away," said Marshall.
Reid had her purse but didn't have a chance to put her shoes on before Miftari kidnapped her, forcing her into his SUV, Marshall said. "One man with a gun" can make people do anything, she said.
Reid's Burberry purse, filled with cocaine, cash, an orange polo shirt and other items, was found in a dumpster around the corner from where the SUV was parked.
Defense attorney Rex Butler argued in his closing statement there was "too much reasonable doubt" for Miftari to be found guilty. He said Reid could have been killed as an act of drug retaliation and quoted an Anchorage detective who said she'd investigated more than 20 drug retaliation cases -- why would Reid's case be any different, he asked.
Butler said prosecutors were trying to "bend" the truth "without breaking it." For example, he said, cellphone mapping, which the state used to track Miftari's whereabouts that night, couldn't be used as evidence because the towers "bounce around" and "don't prove anything."
State prosecutors didn't even look at other suspects, Butler said.
Bruises on Reid's body showed a struggle, but what happened inside Miftari's SUV is unknown. Forensic evidence shows Reid was shot through the front windshield. The vehicle's keys were found tossed on the ground nearby.
If there was a struggle, Butler said, Miftari would have had scratch marks or bruises on his arms and face. But when Miftari was taken into custody he was not examined for trauma.
Marshall, who eventually got the last word in, said the drug theory doesn't work. Why would Reid's purse -- with the drugs and money inside -- have been left behind in a dumpster?
Around 3 p.m. Thursday, both Butler and Marshall were done and the jurors were dismissed to deliberate.