WOBURN, MASS. (WHDH) - Closing statements were delivered Monday in the trial for Stephen Paul Gale, a man accused of raping two women inside a Framingham clothing store in 1989.
During the trial, prosecutors laid out details of the alleged crime that took place on December 27, 1989 at a store in the Shoppers World Plaza.
Gale was allegedly armed when he demanded the women hand over cash from the store’s register. Prosecutors said he forced them into separate rooms where he sexually assaulted them at gunpoint.
Investigators collected DNA evidence at the time, but it wasn’t until advances in forensic testing decades later that they were able to connect Gale to the case.
Gale pleaded pleaded not guilty to charges including rape, kidnapping, and armed robbery.
Thirty-six years later, prosecutors told jurors this case is about choices. Prosecutor Katharine Folger said it was the choice of one of the victims to collect critical evidence after the attack.
“He chose the day, he chose the place, he chose how, he chose the weapon he would use to get what he wanted,” Folger said. “His biggest misstep? He didn’t account for the women that he chose.”
Gale’s defense team instead focused on what was not found at the scene of the crime. They said clothing, doors, and rooms Gale is accused of touching do not have a trace of him, and Gale’s DNA was also not on the survivor’s bodies.
“We know that there’s no fingerprints. Now you also know that the women said that the assailant was not wearing mask and the assailant was not wearing gloves,” said Debra Dewitt, Gale’s Defense Attorney. “Mr. Gale’s DNA was not found where it should of been.”
Dewitt told jurors there has been a lot made of Gale’s multiple alias and the pursuit he lead police on when they came to arrest him.
“He may have been a sleezester, or a fraudster,” she said. “But that in and of itself does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Gale committed offenses for which he stands charged.”
The jury deliberated for nearly four hours and will continue Tuesday morning.
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