Devil's Advocate: The Final Arguments in the Shevawn Geoghegan Murder Case

By Jorge Casuso

Saturday, July 10 -- It was not Glen Mason but Jimmy "Linus" Turner who strangled 14-year-old Shevawn Geoghegan to death in an abandoned mental health facility two winters ago, the defense said in final arguments in the Geoghegan murder case Friday.

At most, Mason - known on the streets as "Jason Ballis" -- was an accessory to the murder committed by Turner, who fled after killing Geoghegan on Feb. 24, 1998 and hiding her body in the basement, said defense attorney Marc Lewinstein. Turner was accused of the murder by two witnesses and is still at large.

"The fact that he ran and was never caught is evidence you can use of his guilt," Lewinstein told the jury. "Even though he (Mason) was a scoundrel for not preventing it, under the law he is not guilty."

Playing down the Satanic ties that have cast a dark shadow on the case, Lewinstein noted that there was no ritualistic blood-letting and blamed the defense for using decapitated pigeons, pentagrams scrawled in blood, burning crucifixes and dashed "bunny rabbits" to inflame the jurors' passions.

"Do you believe by any stretch of the imagination that this was a Satanic killing?" Lewinstein said. "There was no blood-letting…. This wasn't a sacrifice. Don't you think there's a big step from putting pentagrams on walls and killing a pigeon and killing a person? The reason you have heard all of this evidence is to inflame your passions."

"This case is not about religion, it's not about anti-religion, it's not about Satanism," Lewinstein said. "It's about anti-establishment. Whatever we take and value in this society is turned upside down…. In this world where up is down and night is day, the facts have a different meaning."

What may seem odd or evil to the average person was commonplace in the squat where Geoghegan was strapped to a metal chair with duct tape and rope and strangled for not knowing the secret password used to gain entrance to the building at 1525 Euclid Street, Lewinsten said.

"Shevawn disn't mind being in a room with a crucifix upside down burning," he said. "She didn't mind having sex in a room with a headless pigeon. She didn't mind…. Is it unreasonable to believe that for not saying a password they are going to tie her up?"

In his rebuttal, prosecutor Alan Jackson noted that during a grueling three-hour-long police interrogation Mason changed his original story. At first, the suspect said he wasn't in the building when the murder occurred, then admitted he put Geoghegan in the chair, bound her and then helped to hide the body.

"The only evidence that Linus did it was the defendant's statement," Jackson said. "If you can't trust his statement, then you must toss the only piece of evidence that Linus did it."

Jackson also argued that Mason was the "squat Nazi" who controlled the abandoned building and its inhabitants. Turner would never have been able to kill Mason's on-and-off girlfriend without his consent.

"In his mind, Shevawn belonged to him," Jackson said. "She was his property. It was his squat. He was the squat Nazi. He was the leader. Linus was the follower. Would he have allowed Linus to take control in that room? No way. If he didn't want it to happen, it doesn't happen."

The reason Mason wanted to kill Shevawn, Jackson said, was twofold - she had a big mouth and had snitched on him and spread rumors, and he wanted to steal her soul for Satan. The two reasons went hand in hand.

"The reason he wanted to kill her was she had a big mouth," Jackson said. "The justification for killing her -- what made it easy - was Satan."

Mason, who referred to himself in the third person, was a devil worshipper who was known to channel Satan through bloody pentagrams and speak in strange tongues in a bizarrely high-pitched voice, Jackson said.

"He was becoming more Satanic all the time," the prosecutor said. "He was growing into his skin, his own demented skin…. Once you've mastered the killing of animals, what's the next step? You've got to steal a soul.

"This 14-year-old helpless girl was there waiting for him to make his sacrifice to his god. This was the offering…. This was the offering to his god…. Linus was his helper, his lackey, his disciple, but Jason Ballis strangled her."

The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Monday.