Case of Sexual Circumstances12-3-2013 Louisiana:
BATON ROUGE - Defense attorneys told a jury of 12 men and women today that Dustin Musso killed his grandfather in May of 2009. Musso beat him and set his house on fire.
However, Lance Unglesby said his grandfather's actions over many years prompted Musso to kill him. He asked jurors to not find his client guilty of first degree murder, but rather manslaughter which carries a lower penalty.
In court a 23-year veteran police officer testified that she doesn't get rattled easily, but Dustin Musso rattled her. She also said that he was the most "evil and malicious" person she has ever encountered.
Unglesby blamed Musso's family and grandfather for his unstable childhood. As he was being raised, he lived in nearly 23 foster homes.
"Pete Musso molested children," Unglesby said. "He molested lots of children, molested Dustin. The sins of his past finally caught up with him."
Prosecutor Prem Burns doesn't buy it.
"The old molestation, that's what the Menendez brothers did in their case," Burns said. "To pull it out of the woodwork, 'Oh we were molested by out father' to try to get off on first degree murder, it's an easy thing to do against a dead person."
