The stripper and the steelworker

Colin Linehan: They needed that picture of this evil. They needed that. Or else, their story would not fly. It would not fly with the evidence they had.

Pat Gullufsen: She, at least, wrote the ending.

The prosecution in Mechele Linehan's murder trial had painted a portrait of a wiley manipulator. Here, they said, was a conniving young seductress who reveled in her sexual power over lonely men.

Who succeeded in persuading one fiancé to kill another so she could cash in on his life insurance policy.

Mechele was represented in court by two respected private defense attorneys -- Kevin Fitzgerald and Wayne Fricke. Now, it was their turn.

Wayne Fricke: There is not going to be any evidence, not one bit of evidence, that Mechele in any way wanted it to happen, asked that it happen, made any solicitation, made any plan or knew that it was going to happen or that she was even present.

Their defense? John Carlin III acted alone, killed Kent "T.T." Leppink for reasons of his own.

As for the idea Mechele manipulated men? Remember, said the defense, Mechele was a stripper; getting money from men, having them imagine romance with her, was her job.

But there were other issues to tackle.

Such as that really dreadful comment Mechele made to her sister after Kent's murder.

Pat Gullufsen: What does she say she told her sister?

Jim Stogsdill: That if I would have done it, I would have tortured him.

How could anyone defend a comment like that? Well, Mechele, said her attorneys, had just learned that Kent had once embezzled from his family, had stolen personal information from her, had read her private e-mails.

What she said was terrible, but she was upset, said her lawyers, and the comment certainly didn't prove murder.

Pat Gullufsen: Did you and Mechele Hughes watch movies a lot?

Lora Aspiotis: Yes, we did.

But few people riled the defense -- and Mechele Linehan -- like the prosecution witness Lora Aspiotis.  

Her credibility was deeply suspect, said the defense, and her story?  Nothing more than a misunderstanding.

Fitzgerald: Isn't it true that she told you with regard to "The Last Seduction", she told you she liked the actress, Linda Fiorentino?

Lora Aspiotis: No.

Fitzgerald: I like movies. I like Al Pacino in "Scarface," but that doesn't make me a drug dealer, trying to kill rivals.

Lora Aspiotis: Not necessarily.

As for the prosecution's thesis that Mechele took out insurance on Kent only so she could then have him killed and collect the million dollars?  It was an interesting theory, said the defense, just not true.

Mechele wasn't involved in a murder plot. 

The defense argued that call to the insurance company Mechele made shortly before Kent's murder was exactly what the phone message indicated -- she wanted a refund. In fact, said the defense, Kent had made a similar call a week before.

Fitzgerald: All we know is that Mr. Leppink on April 23, wanted some money back.

Leirer: I believe that was the date that was mentioned.

And those e-mails, which certainly appeared suspicious, had been taken way out of context, said the defense, bits and pieces cherry picked by the prosecution to make her look guilty.

And the Hope note? That was just a way of keeping an obsessed Kent from following her to Lake Tahoe, where she'd gone with Scott Hilke.

In fact, according to the defense, Mechele was convinced a snooping Kent had discovered her car at the Anchorage airport and knew she wasn't in Hope. And therefore she wrote this to Carlin from Tahoe:

E-mail Mechele to Carlin:

"Tell T.T. I flew to Barrow... if you see him tell him Brett got hurt and I went to take care of the girls..."

Brett was another boyfriend who lived 1,000 miles away.

This was proof, said the defense, that Mechele wasn't trying to lure Kent to his death.

Mechele Linehan's husband Colin had been biting his tongue through it all. Waiting for his turn to talk about the woman he'd been married to for nearly 10 years.

He told the jury his wife is no gold-digger. That she worked and went to school during his residency.

Colin Linehan: She worked in a restaurant, Chophouse. She also volunteered teaching CPR classes. Also was involved in day and after - taught kids science before and after.

They had a baby. Mechele got her master's degree, started a business. 

Colin Linehan: It kills me that in their hearts that they think Mechele had anything to do with that because I know from the bottom of my heart and soul that she did not.

Caring mother? Community stalwart? Or manipulating murderess?

Mrs. Mechele Linehan chose not to testify.

And at the end of the testimony, she joined her husband and 7-year-old daughter to wait for her fate.

Go home? Or go straight from the courtroom to prison?

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