CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Closing arguments were delivered Wednesday afternoon in the obstruction of justice trial for Sidney Moorer. Moorer is accused of kidnapping Heather Elvis, and this week’s trial is related to alleged lies he told that could have hindered the police investigation in finding Elvis.
Horry County Senior Assistant Solicitor Nancy Livesay presented a forty minute argument claiming that Moorer lied to police, deleted phone calls, and deleted text messages with the intent to disrupt the investigation into Elvis’ disappearance. The solicitor began with an explanation of how the jurors should determine if Moorer is guilty of obstruction of justice.
“Obstruction of justice is just what you would think it would be,” states Livesay. “It is doing anything to obstruct justice being served.”
Livesay also claimed there was no evidence that Moorer only called Elvis to tell her to stop contacting him, as Moorer claimed.
Livesay held up phone records for the jurors, 11 men and one woman, to note deleted text messages Moorer sent to Elvis, two in particular that asked Elvis to call him.
“The whole time his intent was to mislead them (police),” announced Livesay. “He (Moorer) knew this was serious. He knew it was. And everything that came out of his mouth almost was some twisted version of the truth.”
The solicitor concluded by accusing Moorer of knowing that 20-year-old Heather Elvis was missing and purposefully misleading police to get the pressure off himself.
As Moorer’s attorney Kirk Truslow approached the jury, he began by explaining how “offended” he was by what the state had just presented. He immediately recognized the jury as the group that will have the last say in Moorer’s fate.
“The power is with you, so please, for the love of everything, please, it’s the only thing that works from keeping someone who’s innocent form being found guilty,” Truslow says of and to the jury.
Truslow encouraged the jurors to consider what was actually obstructed, “nothing ,” the attorney says.
The defense attorney also noted that Moorer was just the first of many who could potentially face charges in the case of Heather Elvis’ disappearance. He said the prosecution was just looking for someone to blame after not conducting a thorough investigation.
“They’ve fumbled this thing for four years in ways you and I can’t imagine,” claims Truslow. “It’s causing trouble. It’s causing pain. So they have resorted, at this point, to put anybody in jail for anything associated with this. Somebody’s going to pay. They don’t care who.”
Truslow closed his final argument by alleging the state just wanted to jail someone associated with the case for the sake of putting someone away. He pressed into the importance of the juror’s decision and considering the evidence presented during testimony.
Moorer’s defense also brought up the number of witnesses and everything presented – security video, phone records, and phone maps – and compared it to a “box of crap.” Saying that a superfluous amount of information was offered to convince the jury that the more the prosecution presented the guiltier his client, and noted that the jurors should be offended by the notion they could be that easily swayed.
“We trust you,” Truslow said immediately before he walked away from the jury.
The jurors were given a 10 minute recess by the judge before moving forward.
