Jurors nearing final verdict in Cunningham trial

Defense attorneys in the Matthew Cunningham murder trial had hoped to elicit some sympathy for their client this week, bringing in witness after witness to talk about the 30-year-old and why he should be sentenced to life in prison instead of death by lethal injection.

But by Wednesday, most of what the jury learned was that the man found guilty of killing Robert Barker and Katharine Spain in the Andante apartment complex in 2004 started doing drugs in high school, where he also ran a small gambling operation that one friend, Kurt Binder, said made $200 a week.

The jury also learned that Cunningham rebelled against his strict father, got at least one DUI while in high school, several more in college and even more after dropping out of college.

They also heard about his cocaine use increasing year after year, starting in high school and, according to Derek Voss, while attending a dry Jesuit College was found with a keg in his dorm room.

But Voss, and the others, all agreed that while alcohol and substance abuse was a major issue for Cunningham, none said they ever thought that he had a mental illness, which is the cornerstone of the defense’s attempt to keep Cunningham from being executed for the two murders.

“He is schizophrenic and I believe suffers from the disease of substance abuse,” Dr. Pablo Stewart, a psychologist, testified on Tuesday.

But Lisa Vanhaverbeck, a cousin and nurse who works in the mental health field, admitted that she thought it was drugs, not mental illness, that affected Cunningham.

Two weeks ago, after a long trial, the jury found Cunningham guilty of the murders of Barker and Spain, of two aggravated assaults and a burglary. Last week the same jury found that the crime met the legal requirements to justify the death penalty.

This week the jury heard from the family of the victims and from friends and family of Cunningham.

By Feb. 20, if all goes as planned, it will be up to the jury of six men and six women to decide Cunningham’s fate.

The jury has already been told by Judge Sally Duncan that the decision of life or death is an individual juror decision that doesn’t come with a formula.

Unlike the original question of his guilty or innocence, the jury doesn’t have to limit itself to testimony and evidence and decide as a group beyond a reasonable doubt.

In this phase of the trial the decision for the jury is if the mitigation presented, including some testimony that Cunningham was a good student and hadn’t been in trouble before the night he killed Barker and Spain, is compelling enough to warrant life in prison; or if the aggravaters that the jury agreed on last week, including how the murders were cruel, heinous and depraved, are enough to warrant death.

“The only logical, fair, merciful, just decision, is that Matt Cunningham should live,” his attorney, Larry Blieden, told the jury on Monday.

But Deputy County Attorney Mark Barry came right back and told the jury: “It was the defendant’s decisions that placed us here. He made decisions on which way his life would go.

“Do what you told us you could do, return a verdict of death.”

The trial continues Tuesday, with closing arguments set for Wednesday morning in Maricopa County Superior Court in downtown Phoenix.

More Cunningham trial coverage:

Feb. 11 - Cunningham jury hears statements from victims' families

Feb. 6 - Cunningham Jury to deliberate sentencing Thursday

Jan. 31 - Cunningham guilty in apartment murders

Jan. 29 - Cunningham's future in jury's hands

Jan. 25 - Defense's closing arguments set for Monday

Jan. 11 - Cunningham’s illness not 'remarkably consistent’

Jan. 8 - Expert says Cunningham schizophrenic

Jan. 4 - Cunningham competent says judge

Dec. 21, 2007 - Defense finds challenge in proving Cunningham insane

Dec. 19, 2007 - Defense starts in Cunningham trial

Dec. 4, 2007 - Emotions high for victims’ families in Cunningham trial

Nov. 27, 2007 - Cunningham murder trial commences

Oct. 30, 2007 - Jury selection begins in Cunningham murder trial

April 3, 2007 - Mental status could delay murder trial