During that time, Myron Britt's lawyers attacked the police's work in the case, using words like "botched" and "debacle" to describe it. They also said officers did not contain the crime scene well and did not keep good records of follow up on all leads in the case.
Britt is accused of shooting his wife Nancy, a popular Wake County teacher, in 2003 at her mother's home in Lumberton.
Attorneys also questioned the forensic evidence in the case and claimed that the findings from their experts do not match up with some lab results. The defense argued someone taller than Myron Britt killed Nancy Britt because of the path the bullet took.
The defense also focused on certain weaknesses in the prosecution's case, including no eyewitnesses, no confession, no murder weapon and no motive.
Prosecutors have argued during the trial that Britt killed her for $800,000 in life insurance to solve severe financial problems. ...
"Why, you could be looking at a net worth of these two individuals of something approaching half a million dollars," said defense attorney Woodberry Bowen. "That ain't chump change folks. And it ain't financial desperation."
The trial also took two unexpected turns, first, when someone lost a piece of photographic evidence, but both the prosecution and defense decided they could move on with the trial without it.
In a second turn, one of Britt's lawyers, Joe Freeman Britt, caught the prosecutor smiling and reprimanded him to the jury.
"There's no room for smirking and chuckling and laughing and carrying on in something as serious as this case," Joe Freeman Britt said
If convicted, Britt could face the death penalty.
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