Prosecutor grills doctor's alleged killer

Confronted repeatedly by his own laughter and voice discussing trial strategy with his girlfriend on recorded prison phone calls, Bucks County exterminator Jason Smith struggled Tuesday to rebut a prosecutor's claim that he killed pediatrician Melissa Ketunuti and burned her body.

Smith, 39, of Levittown, shifted uneasily on the witness stand as Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber played a recording of his March 20, 2013, telephone call with Shannon Mooney, the mother of his then-4-year-old daughter.

Mooney told Smith - held without bail after being charged with killing Ketunuti on Jan. 21, 2013 - that she had researched work by the Innocence Project of New York on false confessions. The problem, Mooney said, is that those most likely to falsely confess to a crime are children and the intellectually disabled.

"That's not fair," replied Smith, breaking into laughter. "I mean, I'm kind of mental."

Selber asked Smith whether he was considering the options his girlfriend discussed.

"Well, I'm not handicapped, if that's what you're getting at," he replied.

"So, you got to act mental, you considered that as a strategy?" asked Selber.

"Yes," Smith conceded.

Smith was questioned for about an hour by Selber before returning to the defense table. His lawyer, J. Michael Farrell, then called his last witness before resting his case.

The Common Pleas Court jury of six women and six men then heard about 21/2 hours of closing arguments by Farrell and Selber before leaving. The jurors return to court Wednesday to get instructions in the relevant law from Judge Sandy L.V. Byrd and then begin their deliberations.

Smith is charged with murder, arson, and related counts in the slaying of Ketunuti, 35, a physician and researcher at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Smith met Ketunuti the day she died, when he went to her home in the 1700 block of Naudain Street to get rid of mice. He was arrested after police discovered his number on the doctor's cellphone, and surveillance video showed him in the area of her home before and after she was killed.

After five hours of interrogation, detectives confronted Smith with a photo of Ketunuti's charred body. Smith, police said, broke down and confessed. He told detectives that he and Ketunuti had argued about the job he was doing, and he became enraged. Finally, he strangled her and set her body on fire to try to hide the crime.

Smith has testified that he was roughed up by one detective during his interrogation. The detective, Smith said, grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him into the wall.

Prosecutors on Wednesday presented rebuttal testimony, including police and prison intake exams of Smith that showed no signs - or complaints by Smith - of physical injuries by police.

In his closing argument, Farrell maintained that Smith only confessed because of his low intelligence, physical exhaustion, and physical abuse by his interrogators.

"He was threatened, hopeless, and despairing, and he then confessed to a crime he did not commit," Farrell told the jury.

Farrell argued that no biological or physical evidence implicated Smith in Ketunuti's death.

Selber told the jury that the circumstantial evidence inevitably led to Smith and that his confession provided details about Ketunuti's murder that only her killer could know.

Selber told the jury that unlike Smith's other customer on Jan. 21, 2013, there was no receipt from Ketunuti proving she had paid the $270 for the extermination visit.

"Why didn't she pay?" Selber asked the jury. "She didn't pay because she was dead and tied up and burning in her basement, that's why she didn't pay."