Cape Cod Murder

The mysterious 12:03 a.m. phone call from state police

With jurors in the Worthington trial deadlocked and sequestered on the same day, it would come as no surprise for the case to end in a hung jury, followed by a retrial. And with a retrial, one of the holes in the prosecution's case to be patched is the mysterious phone call to Jeremy Frazier from the Yarmouth state police barracks at 12:03 a.m. on Saturday Jan. 4, 2002.

Defense attorney Robert George made frequent references to the call as part of a broad strategy of raising doubts about the state's case against accused killer Christopher McCowen. Frazier, when he testified, denied receiving any call from state police that night, nor that he had any relationship with police.

But jurors also heard testimony from Shawn Mulvey that he suspected Frazier of setting him up to be charged with selling drugs, as well as testimony from two police officers that McCowen told them Frazier was a drug dealer, a tip conveyed to police more than three years before McCowen was charged in Christa Worthington's murder.

While jurors wrestle with reasonable doubt as they head into a sixth day of deliberations, there's little doubt around Barnstable Superior Court that Frazier and the police had some type of relationship as of January 2002, and the alleged basis for this was illicit drugs.

Seen through this prism, the most plausible explanation for the 12:03 a.m. phone call to Frazier from state police becomes clear -- and it has nothing to do with Worthington's murder.

Recall, for example, the testimony of Tom Bilbo, the young man who hosted the party at his house in Eastham on the night of Friday, Jan. 2, 2002. Bilbo testified that he saw McCowen, Frazier, Mulvey and Chris Bearse arrive at the party sometime between 11 and 11:30 p.m. Shortly thereafter, a fight broke out, one indisputably involving Frazier and Mulvey.

Something else happens shortly thereafter -- the phone call at 12:03 a.m. to Frazier's cell phone from state police. This was established by attorney George obtaining copies of Frazier's phone records and entering them into evidence (George also sought to establish that Frazier tried to call state police 25 times on Jan. 4 and 5, but was less successful on that score).

What is known beyond dispute is that Frazier, drinking heavily that night, was looking for a specific person at the Bilbo party, and became embroiled in a fight soon after arriving between 11 and 11:30 p.m. --  and within an hour, someone at the Yarmouth state police barracks was calling Frazier.

Is it such a stretch that state police were calling Frazier in response to Frazier calling them to implicate the subject of his wrath as a drug dealer, real or imagined?

Recall also, if you will, the scenario outlined by George in his closing argument to the jury -- Worthington stabbed to death between 1 and 3 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 4, with the killer fleeing in the large dark vehicle that catches the attention of Girard Smith. But if the person seen by Smith was Worthington's killer, the call to Frazier from the state police went out well over 12 hours before Worthington's death.

Just who was calling Frazier, and why, are two questions that a new trial might answer, as well as the identity of the motorist in the large dark vehicle.