James Cooke Jr.WILMINGTON, Del. (AP)- Closing arguments are under way in the penalty phase of the trial of a man convicted of killing a University of Delaware student in 2005.
A New Castle County jury must decide whether to recommend that James Cooke Jr. be sentenced to death for the murder of 20-year-old Lindsey Bonistall. Cooke was found guilty last month of first-degree murder, rape, arson and other charges.
Prosecutors say he broke into Bonistall's off-campus apartment and raped and strangled her before placing her body in a bathtub and setting the apartment on fire.
Cooke was sentenced to death in 2007 for Bonistall's murder, but the Delaware Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2009 because his lawyers, without Cooke's consent and despite his repeated claims of innocence, argued he was guilty but mentally ill.
