Defense starts in Cunningham trial

Attorneys for Matthew Cunningham started the defense’s presentation Monday morning by attempting to portray their client as a drifter with no real job who had problems before the night police say he went on a stabbing spree through the Andante apartment complex in 2004.

Donna Cosic, co-owner of Va Bene restaurant, explained under oath that Cunningham, 29, was “odd.”

“He was physically there, but he wasn’t there,” Cosic told the jury. After receiving complaints from other workers, Cosic said she told Cunningham not to return to the restaurant on the morning of Oct. 12, 2004, about 12 hours before he allegedly killed his roommate, Robert Barker, and neighbor, Katharine Spain, and severely wounded another resident, Gerardo Barrientos Olivares.

But contrary to what prosecutors have said - that Cunningham was upset over losing his job and lashed out at people - Cosic told the jury that Cunningham never worked at the restaurant, so he didn’t have a job to lose.

Under cross examination by Deputy County Attorney Mark Barry, Cosic explained that Cunningham simply covered for other employees when they were sick or not available.

“He was never hired,” Cosic said.

But a senior server at the restaurant, Boris Bakrac, told the jury that Cunningham had a regular lunch shift and, while he didn’t know whether Cunningham was full or part time, he knew him as an employee.

Last week Barry told the judge, “The defendant was bent on destruction and killing that day” because he was unhappy with his life.

But the challenge for the defense is to convince the jury that Cunningham was insane at the time of the murders.

Mental health experts for the defense and the prosecution generally agree that Cunningham is psychotic, but he has been found competent to stand trial, partly because of medication he is currently taking.

The defense has to show that their client was not in control when the alleged murders took place, despite three weeks of testimony that prosecutors said showed Cunningham knew exactly what he was doing.

Later this week Cunningham’s mother, Sabine Cunningham, is expected to testify about her son’s mental problems that go back to when he was a teenager.

Prosecutors said that Cunningham was fed-up with his life and turned on his roommate, Barker, after being told he would need to get a job or move out. Witnesses said that Cunningham chased Barker to the apartment’s pool area where he stabbed him to death in front of a dozen people.

Cunningham then chased other apartment residents into one of the buildings, witnesses said, where he turned and attacked Spain when she walked out to see what the commotion was about.

Cunningham then ran to another building where he attacked Olivares, according to testimony. During that battle, Olivares and his wife Maria Veronica Manriquez fought back, striking Cunningham in the head with a baseball bat.

Witnesses also described how Cunningham escaped from that apartment and attempted to elude police.

The trial, before Judge Sally Duncan in Superior Court in downtown Phoenix, is expected to last through January.

Doug Murphy can be reached at (480) 898-7914 or dmurphy@aztrib.com.