Cookson deliberations resume today

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BANGOR – After more than eight hours of deliberations, the jury deciding the double murder trial of 38-year-old Jeffrey Cookson still had not reached a verdict Wednesday night.

Jurors were still deliberating at 8:30 p.m. After testimony by more than 70 witnesses, the lengthy deliberations were not a surprise to many at the Penobscot County Courthouse.

The panel went out at 12:45 p.m. after hearing three hours of closing arguments from Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese and defense attorney William Maselli.

Cookson is accused of the Dec. 3, 1999, execution-style slayings of 20-year-old Mindy Gould and 21-month-old Treven Cunningham in Dexter.

Gould had recently ended a three-year relationship with Cookson and had obtained a protection-from-abuse order against him just three days before the murders. She was baby-sitting Cunningham.

Cookson was arrested two weeks after the shootings and has been incarcerated at the Penobscot County Jail ever since.

Family members of Gould and Cunningham packed the Bangor courthouse Wednesday and spent the day camped out in court hallways as jurors deliberated throughout the day and evening.

The jury sent three notes to Justice Roland Cole on Wednesday, asking him to repeat the meaning of reasonable doubt and again for the definitions of direct evidence vs. circumstantial evidence.

The state’s case against Cookson has been largely based on circumstantial evidence, with no eyewitness or physical evidence linking him to the deaths.

Jurors also asked to have the testimony of a Dover-Foxcroft store clerk read back to them. Julie Mountain had testified that Cookson was in her Dover-Foxcroft store between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. the morning of the murders.

On Wednesday, Marchese told jurors that Cookson had the motive, means and the opportunity to kill Gould and Cunningham, and said that jurors could be “assured beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty.”

Much of the evidence in the 11/2-week-long trial focused on Cookson’s obsession with Gould. On Wednesday, Marchese reminded jurors of the testimony from Gould’s neighbors, friends and family who witnessed that obsession during the weeks before the murder.

“Who other than Jeff Cookson wants Mindy dead? Who other than Jeff Cookson was watching this house? … “This is about control. It’s about a man who could not accept no. Mindy Gould was scared to death as well she should have been,” said Marchese.

Marchese accused the defense of manufacturing evidence and suggested that several of the defense witnesses had altered their testimony to benefit Cookson.

“If Jeff Cookson is not the killer, why is it necessary to manufacture evidence,” she said. “These are the actions of a desperate man. If Jeff Cookson is not guilty, then he is the unluckiest man alive.”

Evidence was undisputed that the gun used to kill Gould and Cunningham belonged to Cookson, but the defense maintains that Cookson had sold the gun to Gould for $1. The defense produced a handwritten copy of a bill of sale for the gun, which Marchese dismissed as part of a “manufactured alibi.”

The gun, a 9mm Taurus, has never been recovered.

The window of opportunity that Cookson had to commit the murders was narrow. Gould was last seen alive at 8:25 a.m. at the Church Street home in Dexter where she lived. Cookson was known to have been at his brother’s home in Guilford by 9:11 a.m. Testimony has suggested that it could take anywhere from 19 to 25 minutes to drive the route going the speed limit and with the flow of traffic.

“Even if you accept that it takes 25 minutes, he still had enough time,” Marchese said. “These were very quick murders. This was a quick event.”

Suggesting that it probably took about three minutes to commit the murders once inside the home, Marchese timed three minutes on the clock and had jurors sit quietly for that amount of time.

“Mindy Gould paid the ultimate price for leaving Jeff Cookson, and Treven Cunningham paid the ultimate price for simply being there that day and being part of Mindy’s life,” she said.

Marchese questioned the credibility of Cookson’s brother, Scott Cookson of Guilford, who offered up an alibi for his brother earlier this week. Scott Cookson testified that his brother was asleep at his Guilford home during the time the murders were thought to have been committed.

“Blood is thicker than water, ladies and gentlemen. Make no mistake about it,” she said.

Maselli, however, also delivered a powerful closing argument, pointing to testimony that he said suggested the murders occurred at 9:25 a.m., a time when Cookson’s whereabouts are accounted for.

“The evidence does not just leave room for reasonable doubt,” he said. “The evidence actually proves that he did not do it.”

Maselli accused the state of “molding” the evidence to fit the narrow time frame that Cookson had to commit the murders and disregarding other evidence suggesting the crime occurred later.

He reminded jurors of testimony offered by Bonnie Lindsay of Sangerville, who during the course of several interviews with police insisted she was on the phone with Gould after 9 a.m. the morning of the murders. Weeks before the trial, however, Lindsay told police she was mistaken and had actually talked to Gould last at around 8 a.m.

Maselli pointed out that Lindsay had been sure of her statements to police two years ago and only recently changed her mind as the case was heading to trial.

Lindsay has maintained that the phone conversation with Gould ended because someone was at Gould’s door.

Maselli also noted the testimony of a next-door neighbor who said she heard a loud bang between 9 and 9:30 a.m. that day, and he reminded jurors of a handful of Dexter residents who testified that they saw unfamiliar cars parked near the residence at about the same time that morning.