Attorneys and families are still waiting on a verdict for Andrew Lee, a former Ohio State football recruit, in the murder trial of a 20-year-old woman.
Lee, 21, is charged with several felonies, including the rape, murder and kidnapping of Shauna Sandercock, a clerk at Game-Arama, a used video game store located at 3101 W. Broad St. Her body was found behind the counter by customers on March 25.
The prosecution and defense made closing arguments Wednesday, wrapping up a nearly two-week-long trial under Judge Michael H. Watson.
“What happened to Shauna Sandercock … was very tragic,” said Frederick Benton, one of Lee’s attorneys, in a lengthy statement. “But we have not made a single presentation to diminish that fact.
“But I would suggest to you that it would also be tragic to convict the wrong person for this crime,” Benton said. “Andrew Lee … did not kill Shauna Sandercock, and the state of Ohio has failed to prove that in this case.”
Prosecutor Stephanie Gussler listed all the evidence presented last week against Lee. The prosecution’s proof included a bracelet found in Lee’s jacket at the time of his arrest — a bracelet which prosecutors said belonged to Sandercock — and testimony from witnesses who identified Lee as being in Game-Arama when Sandercock’s body was discovered.
“In order to believe this defense case … you (would) have to believe, after hearing all this evidence, that frankly, this defendant has got to be the most unlucky man alive, a victim of a horrible mounting set of circumstance,” Gussler said.
“Coincidence? Bad luck?” she asked. “It is an overwhelming presentation of evidence of this defendant’s guilt. Nothing else can be said about it.”
During his statements, prosecutor Richard Tremuhlen said he might have previously misspoken.
“I said (the defendant) robbed her of all the human dignity she had, but maybe that is the one thing he couldn’t take away from Shauna, because we know Shauna has left behind a lot of people who loved her,” he said.
Besides her immediate family, two of those left behind are her fiancé, with whom Sandercock owned Game-Arama, and her two-year-old son.
Lee, who was a highly-touted football recruit for the Buckeyes, was redshirted as a freshman. But after being charged with disorderly conduct in the fall of 2000, in which he allegedly beat a delivery man from Apollo’s restaurant, he was kicked off the team and later left OSU.
