Prosecutors and defense lawyers are set to make final arguments as to when a trial should begin and what evidence should be used in the case of a former Waltham man accused of murdering his wife.
Yesterday marked the seventh and final day in a series of hearings attempting to suppress evidence in the case of James Keown, 33, a former radio personality in Missouri who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Julie Keown.
Authorities allege Keown poisoned his wife, while the couple was living in Waltham, by spiking her Gatorade with antifreeze so he could collect on her $250,000 life insurance policy during the four months the couple lived in Waltham.
Following yesterday's hearing, prosecutor Nat Yeager said that by mid-September he and Keown's defense attorneys will submit final memorandums of to Judge Sandra Hamlin of what evidence they believe should be used during Keown's trial.
A Sept. 18 hearing was also scheduled yesterday in Middlesex Superior Court to determine when Keown's trial will begin.
According to Yeager, he is pushing for the trial to begin Nov. 13. Keown's attorneys, Matthew Kamholtz and Matthew Feinberg, want the trial to start later. Yeager said if they try to push the date back, he will object to that in court on Sept. 18.
Yesterday, Massachusetts State Trooper David McSweeney and James Schwab, a former computer forensic investigator for the Middlesex District Attorney's office, testified about procedures used during searches of Keown's computers.
The hearing involved another lengthy analysis in computer science with Yeager seeking to prove the validity of computer evidence seized in the case and Kamholtz and Feinberg questioning methodology used in procuring data.
Both Schwab and McSweeney searched two of the same laptop computers for evidence.
According to McSweeney, who is a computer forensic investigator for the state police, he searched over 218,000 computer files during his investigation of the case, which began in February 2005.
Neither Schwab nor McSweeney spoke specifically about the content from searches of the seized computers.
On Friday, Andrew Winrow, a computer forensic investigator who previously worked for the Middlesex District Attorney's office, testified that Internet searches recovered from at least one of James Keown's computer hard drives revealed a search for The Anarchist Cookbook and " homemade poisons" allegedly occurring on Aug. 17, 2004 and Aug. 18, 2004, less than a month before Julie's death.
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or jgilbrid@cnc.com.
