No acquisitions, no mergers, no Marylin Star, but a jury in Key West is determining whether Sherri Lynn Jett was killed when an 18-inch rubber penis penetrated her rectum. Joseph Geibel, a maintenance man, is on trial for first degree murder for allegedly wielding the deadly weapon..
Jett's body was found April 27, 1998, on a Key West parking lot steps from where she spent her last day drinking, drugging, and, according to testimony, having sex with Geibel. Prosecutors claim Geibel raped and murdered Jett, 39, by pushing the sex toy through her colon. Geibel, 59, has maintained that the injury was accidental and that he did not know Jett was dead until long after they had sex, at which point he says he panicked.
Defense attorney Richard Wunsch also displayed for jurors two other rubber sex toys belonging to Geibel, which DNA tests showed had been used on Jett.
Called in as an expert witness, Dr. Michael Hellinger told jurors that he had extracted a similarly sized object from one of his patients. "We actually had to open the patient's belly to extract the device," the surgeon told jurors. "There was no injury whatsoever" afterward. Hellinger also contradicted the prosecution's contention that bruises discovered between Jett's legs must have been the result of a sexual assault by Geibel.
"I have seen things that have been much more extensive around the anal area than this,'' Hellinger told jurors as they viewed a post-mortem photo of Jett's bruised behind. Hellinger told jurors that it was "very unlikely" because of the way that anal muscles contract that Geibel could have pushed the object into Jett without her consent. He also said that it would have been possible for Jett to have punctured and ripped her colon without feeling much pain if she were drunk, as toxicology tests showed.
A female friend of Geibel's whose blood was found in his apartment from a cut she suffered two days before the murder was scheduled to testify at the prosecution's request but did not. Defense attorneys said she appeared "intoxicated" prior to her anticipated appearance.
Both sides will be making their closing arguments Tuesday afternoon. Though Geibel is charged with first-degree murder, jurors will have the option of convicting him of second-degree murder or manslaughter.
That outcome will probably hinge on whether they believe Geibel is guilty of a sexual battery charge they must also consider. Jurors will also be given the option of convicting Geibel on lesser assault charges. Geibel has maintained his innocence.
