Kami Ellis

WARSAW — The prosecution and defense have made their closing arguments and the jury has gone into deliberation in the case of Scott Wilkins.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Karin McGrath presented her argument first. McGrath appealed to the jury to consider the evidence, to take into account eyewitness accounts and to keep in mind the law when deciding Wilkins’s fate.

“This case is about Kami, a beautiful, smart, loving and loved young woman,” McGrath said. “Kami Ellis never made it to her 28th birthday. Her dreams and hopes burned to ashes in a field off of CR 1350N.”

McGrath defined terms like “reckless,” reminding jurors that the vehicle’s engine was found more than 300 feet from the car, the vehicle’s calculated speed and the  marijuana metabolites that were found in Wilkins’s system following the accident.

She pointed out witness testimony, painting a picture of Wilkins leaving the scene, leaving Ellis in the burning vehicle, finding his way back to his apartment and attempting to cover his tracks.

“He orchestrated his own escape,” McGrath said. “He orchestrated his ability to get out undetected.”

She also brought up medical evidence.

“There is no evidence of any head injury,” she said, adding a number of witnesses, including medical personnel, described him as “awake,” “alert,” “oriented.”

Wilkins’s charges include: causing a death while operating a motor vehicle with a schedule I or II controlled substance in the blood, a level 4 felony; failure to comply with acts required of a driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in death, a level 5 felony; and reckless homicide, a level 5 felony. McGrath asked the jury to find Wilkins guilty on all of these.

Next was Wilkins’s attorney, Mark Caruso, who asked the jury to look at the accident in a different light than painted by the prosecution.

“This is an unfortunate situation that Kami Ellis is no longer with us,” he said. “She was a passenger in a car driven by a friend and somehow he survived. How anyone survived this accident is a miracle of some sort.”

He also asked them to look at Wilkins in a different light.

“Is Scott Wilkins this cold, calculating killer the state is making him out to be,” Caruso asked the jury.

He recalled witness testimony that described Wilkins running back and forth between the vehicle and the road repeatedly, saying, “come on, let’s go. Come on, let’s go.”

“He was screaming for help, trying to help Kami,” Caruso said.

He asked them to take into account conflicting witness testimony and elements of the story he felt did not quite add up.

“Somehow he traversed four miles on his own and somehow ended up downtown,” Caruso said, also pointing out that Wilkins had a broken foot.

He also questioned testimony from a neighbor claiming she saw Wilkins hiding in the bushes across the street.

“Kyra (Davis) was supposedly the one who saw him skulking about,” Caruso said. “She did because she was wide awake at 4 a.m., looking for skulkers in the PNC Bank parking lot.”

He also said it was unlikely that an untrained civilian could spot Wilkins when a team of police officers could not.

He also pointed out Wilkins’s responses in a video shown as evidence, pointing out that Wilkins was mumbling and could not recall certain pieces of information.

Caruso asked the jury for a just decision.

“He’s lucky to be alive today and sadly, he lost a friend that night and the Ellises lost a daughter,” Caruso said. “That’s a tragedy.”

McGrath made a brief rebuttal to Caruso’s statements, first referring to Wilkins’s state of mind in the video.

“Have you ever had a kid who pretended to be asleep because he doesn’t want to be in trouble,” McGrath asked the jury.

She also refuted Caruso’s statements about Wilkins’s making his way back to Milford in a confused state.

“This is not a man confused,” she said. “It’s a man in trouble. It’s a man who doesn’t want to get caught.”

“There was THC in his blood and cowardice in his soul,” she said.

Then, holding up a single pink boot, she added, “This is all that’s left of Kami.”

Following the closing arguments, the jury was briefed on a set of 33 rules, then sent to deliberate. Ink Free News will post their decision later this evening.

See related:

• Defense Rests, Case Going To Jury
• Prosecution Rests In Scott Wilkins Trial
• Jury Reviews Medical Documents
• Further Evidence Presented In Wilkins Trial
• Wilkins Trial Continues
• State Begins Presenting Its Case
• Jury Trial Begins In 2014 Fatal Accident
• Two Arrested Following Saturday Traffic Fatality
• Victim In Saturday’s Crash Identified
• One Dies In Fatal Accident Near Milford