The prosecutor in the Beatrice Simons murder trial yesterday blamed two of her neighbours for her death.

"It was a murder and they are both guilty,'' Crown counsel Peter Eccles told a Supreme Court jury yesterday.

In the penultimate day before the ten-man, two-woman jury take Michael Eberly and Michael Pitcher's case to the deliberation room, they were left with three differing views of the December 2, 1997 incident.

And there was drama in the high court when both men declined to take the stand in their defence, with Pitcher's lawyer, Saul Froomkin, saying: "Mr. Pitcher relies on the evidence before the court presently.'' Eberly and Pitcher -- both of Victoria Row in Sandys Parish -- deny killing the 69-year-old woman.

The jury has heard the incident came after a night of drinking vodka and smoking crack cocaine.

Each man claims the pair broke and entered Mrs. Simons' home, but in witness statements point the finger at the other.

Mrs. Simons -- who was a neighbour and knew both men -- died in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital days after the brutal attack.

Mr. Eccles said it did not matter who inflicted the fatal blows or where the other person was, only that they entered the house with a common purpose and someone died as a result.

"At the end of the day you will ultimately decide what happened,'' he told the jury. "They went there to commit a burglary but were armed for trouble.'' "Mrs. Simons woke up and she was beaten,'' Mr. Eccles added. "It was murder and both men were there. That's what the evidence proves.'' He challenged the jury to ask what were the "natural consequences'' of entering someone's home surreptitiously.

It was "wishful thinking'', Mr. Eccles continued, for a burglar to assume a "partner in crime'' did not intend to fight if disturbed.

"It was a joint enterprise,'' he said. "But there are any amount of lies that you have heard and you will have to decide.'' In a relatively short summation, Eberly's lawyer, Mark Pettingill, emphasised that his client only went to the house to rob it and not to injure Mrs. Simons or even murder her.

He said Eberly only lied to cover up the burglary and later surrendered to Police and told Police that Pitcher beat Mrs. Simons to clear his conscience.

"It was a case of I just can't live with this. This is way over the line,'' Mr. Pettingill said.

He added that Eberly must have thought: "I'll go to jail. I'll do time for breaking and entering, but I can't live with myself if I stay silent.'' "What you saw on that tape was a reflection of the truth of what happened on that fateful night,'' Mr. Pettingill told the jury.

But Mr. Froomkin challenged Eberly's account of what happened and said an off-screen comment from an investigator on a video tape of Eberly's account of the crime was telling.

Mr. Froomkin said: "I'm happy that you'll have the video at hand. You hear a person say, `if you didn't do it, why did you turn yourself in?'.'' "Ask yourself the same question,'' he continued. "Yes, Eberly lied and lied and lied. It shouldn't surprise you that my client lied. These men are not angels. But Michael Eberly hasn't told the truth yet.'' Making his portly client stand up, Mr. Froomkin asked the jury to imagine Eberly's contention that Pitcher climbed through a window first and spontaneously rushed upstairs to beat the woman.

"Look at him. He's a brute!,'' Mr. Froomkin said. "He's huge and he climbed through a narrow window with an object in his hands and in Michael Eberly's size eight shoes?'' The trial continues on Tuesday when Chief Justice Austin Ward is expected to sum up the evidence and give the jury legal direction.

COURTS CTS