After five days of testimony and nearly three hours of closing arguments Wednesday, a jury will now decide whether Minnesota Vikings cornerback Chris Cook brutally choked and assaulted his girlfriend last fall or was merely defending himself from the woman's angry, drunken attack.
The jury of seven men and five women received the case just before 2 p.m. Wednesday and quit for the day about 4:30 p.m. They'll resume deliberating Thursday morning.
During closing arguments, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Liz Cutter and defense attorney John Lucas each tried to convince the jury that the other sought to distort the facts to suit their perception of what happened.
"Jealousy, anger, rage and misplaced guilt. These are the emotions that drove the events of Oct. 22 and shaped them after," Cutter said. "We are here today because of the defendant's rage."
Lucas countered that prosecutors are not mind readers, and cannot know why Chantel Baker, a 21-year-old college student, recanted her allegation that Cook choked her.
"It shows how you can take what people said and construct a story that goes from Point A to Point Z," he said. "And if there are things that don't fit there, you can wrench them in and make them make sense."
Cook is charged with felony domestic assault by strangulation and third-degree assault. Baker initially told authorities that Cook tried to choke her during the fight but later recanted and testified last week that she was not choked. On the stand Tuesday, Cook denied that he tried to choke her.
Prosecutors contend that Baker was pressured to recant the allegation and did so out of fear. Defense attorneys say she lied that night to ensure Cook went to jail and confessed to her misdeed three weeks later.
