The double murder case of an Oso couple now rests in the hands of the jury.
During closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutors argued that John Reed is guilty of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder.
"It was an idyllic relationship. They were in love. They'd been married," senior deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson told the jury. "But there was one problem with that idyllic lifestyle, there was a fatal mistake of geography and that was the defendant."
Both sides agree John Reed ended the lives of Patrick Shunn and Monique Patenaude. But they disagree as to how and why.
"John reed may not have gone up to Whitman road with the intent to kill Monique Patenaude. But their paths cross and something really ugly happened," Matheson said.
Reed took the stand Friday in his own defense to the 2016 killings of his neighbors who he bitterly feuded with for years, claiming the couple confronted him with a gun.
But using bloody shopping receipts and cell phone data showing each victim's physical movement, Matheson argued Patenaude was killed hours before husband.
"This guy, after killing Patrick's wife, lies in wait and shoots Patrick from behind. He doubled down. He doubled down," said Matheson.
Reed's attorney calls the state's case "fluff" and "voodoo science."
Attorney Phil Sayles portrayed Patenaude as a litigious antagonist who sparked the deadly confrontation and casts doubt about the claim that Reed would wait around hours to kill the husband after the wife.
"He's going to wait around like Rambo in there and come at the dude? What seems more outrageous here?" asked Sayles.
If the jury finds that prosecutors didn't meet the burden of proof of premeditated first-degree murder, they could still consider second-degree murder instead.
