The prosecution and defense took different styles into their closing comments in the trial to determine whether Richard Forsberg of Rancho Santa Margarita murdered his wife of 39 years, Marcia Ann Forsberg.
Her death in the early morning hours of Feb. 9, 2010, came on the 42nd anniversary of the couple's first date as sweethearts at Ventura College. Marcia was 60 at the time of her death.
Forsberg, now 63, confessed to pummeling his wife with a one-pound nightstand figurine—a six-armed Hindu goddess. He said she lay in bed and said something dismissive to him and turned away from him after an argument, he cut up her body and burned the parts at Lake Piru, then told friends and family that she was visiting a friend in Arizona to work things out while the couple underwent marital discord—a ruse he maintained for six months until friends filed a missing persons report.
Marcia's body was never found; her only remains appear to be DNA on a cotton swab recovered from the inside of a freezer seam.
Forsberg was defended by Calvin Schneider III and prosecuted by senior deputy district attorney Ebrahim Baytieh.
The jury, which heard more than eight hours of audio and video interviews with Forsberg during the trial, continues deliberation on Monday.
Watch a portion of Baytieh's closing argument in the video.
