Defendant in murder trial awaits verdict
By Joe Mahoney, The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
"The husbands always do it," he told the woman, identified as a psychic named
"If they ever do a show about you, I better be in it LOL," Foos replied according to the transcript.
"You will be one of my many, many affairs LOL," Ramsaran, 39, responded, according to the transcript.
McBride, in depicting Ramsaran as callously disinterested in the search then taking place for
Through his questions, he suggested that Ramsaran was "joking around" about his wife's disappearance, a charge that Ramsaran denied.
But the prosecutor did get Ramsaran to confirm he had written, "You will be one of my many, many affairs LOL."
"What does LOL mean?" the prosecutor asked Ramsaran.
"Laugh out loud," Ramsaran said.
"Laugh out loud," McBride, turning to the jury, said matter-of-factly. "Judge, with that, I have nothing further."
Defense lawyer
Judge
Throughout his cross examination, McBride portrayed Ramsaran, a former program manager for
The prosecutor also suggested Ramsaran sought to smear his wife by telling others that she was taking drugs and supposedly having sex with a disabled man for whom she worked as a part-time caretaker, when in fact it was
The victim's unclothed body was found off a remote road in
In early
Ramsaran testified
"You wanted to meet your girlfriend's husband at your wife's grave," McBride said. "Don't you think that was a little inappropriate?"
In his direct examination by Garcia, Ramsaran testified that he first learned that his wife's body was found at about
Under cross-examination by McBride, Ramsaran acknowledged he was apprised via a telephone call from this reporter earlier that evening that the body had been located that day. Ramsaran also acknowledged in response to McBride's questions that he fell asleep on the couch after that call, only to be awakened later when the investigators arrived at the home.
McBride had said at the outset of the trial that the motive for the killing was
Garcia has argued that police rushed to judgement in focusing the investigation on
McBride suggested in his questions that
Ramsaran said he has no knowledge of the layout of that lot and pointed out his wife's purse was never found.
Ramsaran also denied that he sexually propositioned a bank teller who stopped by his house to console him on
Ramsaran jousted with McBride over the significance that his wife's corpse was unclothed when it was found, a detail that the prosecutor argued she was killed in her house before the body was transported to
"I'm the one who told the cops my wife sleeps naked," said Ramsaran, maintaining that he provided police with full access to search his house in the days after the disappearance.
McBride said Ramsaran had deleted an assortment of files from his iPhone before handing it over to investigators, and rather than eliminating older files, got rid of newer ones. Ramsaran argued he simply removed some files because he was running out of storage space on the device.
McBride also pointed out that
Ramsaran also explained why he went to the home of
He said
"I wanted them to take care of her," he testified.
During his testimony Monday, Ramsaran repeatedly deviated from strict instructions from
Noting that Ramsaran has prided himself as a workout buff who competed in marathons and owns elaborate weight-lifting gear, the prosecutor at one point asked Ramsaran if was capable of killing his wife with his "bare hands." Ramsaran repeatedly argued that he "never" had the motivation to kill his wife -- and still cared about her even after falling out of love with her.
But he acknowledged that he and
"You want to be with Eileen, your trophy wife,"
After
"What would give you that idea?"
McBride argued that
"It wasn't asked,"
"You got very good at deceiving people, didn't you?" McBride said.
"I'm very honest," Ramsaran said.
___
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