Closing arguments are scheduled Monday in the central Pennsylvania trial of a third man charged in a home invasion slaying a year ago.
Prosecutors in Lancaster County are seeking a second-degree murder conviction against Stephen Harmer, 27, in the August 2012 slaying of Douglas Herr, 62, in Drumore Township,the (Lancaster) Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era said
.
Two other men, Kyle Wunder, 23, and Cody Wunder, 25, pleaded guilty in the case and face life terms. Prosecutors contend that Harmer is just as responsible because the slaying occurred during a planned robbery.
Defense attorney Christopher Lyden argues that Herr was alive when the robbers fled with $211,000 cash but Kyle Wunder later returned and shot him.
Jurors heard a tape Friday in which Kyle Wunder told a state trooper that he and his accomplices had fled but he returned and shot Herr at close range.
Asked why he did so, he was heard to reply “No strings attached. No loose ends.”
Cody Wunder earlier testified that he told his brother to shoot Herr after Herr shot him in the leg.
“It was an act of retaliation. It was done out of anger,” Lyden said.
In the recorded statement, Kyle Wunder acknowledged that he was upset that his brother had been shot, but he “mainly did it to cover my tracks.”
Kyle Wunder took the stand Friday but declined to testify, asserting his right against self-incrimination.
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