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Tuesday, February 25, 2003 6:46 PM CST
Mertz says he doesn't know if he killed McNamara
BY DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
CHARLESTON -- Anthony B. Mertz says he didn't kill Amy Warner or set fire to an apartment building, but what about the killing of Shannon McNamara?
"I don't know," was his reply.
Mertz spent about five hours on the witness stand Tuesday and claimed he can't recall whether he killed the Eastern Illinois University student in her Charleston apartment, a crime he's been convicted of.
The 26-year-old former EIU student described how alcohol abuse, mostly beginning during his time in the Marine Corps, led to "blackouts," where on a day after heavy drinking friends had to tell him what he did the night before. He said that was the case on June 12, 2001, when McNamara was strangled to death and her body was slashed several times with a knife.
Defense attorney David Williams asked Mertz about the prosecution's attempt to link him to the June 1999 stabbing death of Warner and the February 2000 fire of an apartment building under construction, both in Charleston.
Mertz said he didn't drink the night Warner was killed so he remember staying up late watching television; he said he and Warner had a mutual friend but he never met her.
"I don't know," Mertz replied when Williams asked if he killed McNamara. Then, his voice fading, he added: "I know the evidence points to me. I don't remember much."
Later, Mertz said he knows he had opportunities in life but "wasted them." He was crying when he answered Williams' question about his thoughts on his crime.
"At least if I knew, it would be something I could deal with but not knowing is 100 times worse," he said.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's Journal Gazette/Times-Courier.
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Judi Smith wrote on Jul 17, 2006 8:52 PM: