Burr attorney closes argument

The defense attorney started his closing arguments Wednesday with a story about how ancient Greeks believed the god Helios drove a fiery chariot across the sky to explain the rotation of the sun.

Assistant Public Defender Jeff Compton used the Helios story to illustrate how science sometimes proves that long-held beliefs are wrong.

“The science in this particular case screams that the shooter was not Steven Burr,” Compton told the seven men and five women of the jury.

The jury deliberated for more than four hours Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque sent them home for the evening. They will return today to continue considering the fate of Burr, 56, who faces a charge of attempted first-degree murder in connection with an Oct. 7 shooting in Spokane.

Spokane police and Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz argued that Burr fired at least five shots into the home of his ex-wife, Sandra Burr, who lives at 1206 S. F Street. One of those bullets struck her fiancé, 56-year-old Terry Herzog, in the chest.

After the first shot, Herzog said he heard someone he couldn’t see say, “Payback’s a bitch, ain’t it.” Herzog later said he recognized that voice as Steven P. Burr’s.

“On this day, Terry Herzog sits with a bullet lodged in his chest. It serves to him a reminder of how close he was to death on Oct. 7, 2005,” Steinmetz said. “The bullet in his chest also illustrates the anger, the contempt and the bitterness the defendant had for Mr. Herzog.”

Compton pointed out to the jury that neither Herzog nor Sandra Burr saw their attacker and that Burr did not recognize the voice as her ex-husband.

Neighbor Ron Adamson told investigators that he saw the shooter running from the home that night and gave a description of a man several inches taller than Burr. On the witness stand last week, Adamson told Compton that his “gut reaction” was that the shooter was not Burr, whom Adamson had known for several years.

“The evidence shows that Steve Burr did not do this,” Compton told the jury.

However, Steinmetz said there was one piece of evidence that Compton could not explain away – Burr’s walking stick that was found outside of the home after the shooting.

“It’s the old conspiracy theory,” Steinmetz said of Compton’s suggestion that someone else may have left the walking stick at the home to throw blame at Burr.

Steinmetz reminded the jury that Burr had no alibi for about four hours on the night of the shooting, and Burr told Detective Mark Burbridge that he was friends with both Sandra Burr and Herzog.

Steinmetz then read excerpts from two letters written by Burr that tell a different story.

“That gutless Terry Herzog blew me a kiss,” Steinmetz read from Burr’s sealed letter found after the shooting. “I’m going to change things if I can. I’m taking it to him where he feels safe. I want to look into his eyes face to face.”

Although detectives never learned who drove the suspect from the scene in a silver car that wasn’t Burr’s, Steinmetz argued that all the evidence points to Burr as the shooter.

“This is an excuse letter as to why the defendant took a weapon and shot Mr. Herzog,” Steinmetz said. “His anger and rage kept building up until he did something about it.”