Rowland’s attorneys make their last bid in case for his innocence in closing statement

Defense attorneys for Nathaniel Rowland, charged with murdering former University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson, gave one last plea for a not guilty ruling Tuesday.

Tracy Pinnock, a public defender representing Rowland, gave the closing statement, in which she argued that while Rowland made bad decisions around the time of Josephson’s disappearance, he is not guilty of murder.

“Nobody has stood up here and said Samantha Josephson’s blood was not in Nathaniel Rowland’s car. Nobody has said Nathaniel Rowland was not driving the car,” Pinnock said. “But that doesn’t mean he was the one who killed her. And that’s what this trial is about.”

Rowland’s attorneys argued there was not enough evidence to convict him. Specifically, the defense cited the various, unidentified DNA samples found in the back of Rowland’s car and on key items such as a cryptic note that included gasoline, matches, a flip phone and duct tape and several clothing items found in Rowland’s car.

The defense also noted investigators did not find Rowland’s DNA under Josephson’s fingernails and did not find Rowland’s DNA on ankle swabs taken from Josephson, despite evidence Josephson’s body had been dragged following her death.

If Rowland had killed Josephson, one would expect to see far more blood on him, given the close proximity of the murder, Pinnock said. It’s unlikely that the killer switched from using the double-bladed mode of the multi-tool to a single blade amid a life-or-death struggle — something an expert witness said had happened — in the dark without Rowland accidentally striking himself with the blade, which points toward the user in the single-blade mode.

The wooded area where Josephson’s body was rural, had no streetlights nearby and covered in prickly vegetation, Pinnock said. If Rowland had dumped Josephson’s body in the field like prosecutors say, Rowland would have likely tripped, been scraped by vegetation or track burrs, dirt, etc., from the field.

“Nothing from the woods is on Nathaniel Rowland’s clothes,” Pinnock said.

Pinnock also attacked the credibility of Maria Howard, Rowland’s ex-girlfriend who testified she saw Rowland cleaning the alleged murder weapon in the car after Josephson’s death.

Pinnock held up a photo of the alleged murder weapon when investigators found it in Howard’s trash. The picture appeared to show blood on the knife, something Pinnock said shows Howard was lying about watching him clean off the blade.

“It’s not clean. It’s got blood, hair and DNA all over it,” Pinnock said of the multi-tool prosecutors say was used to kill Josephson. “He was not sitting down the front seat of the car, cleaning a murder weapon in the front seat of the car? That did not happen.”

“She came in here and told you something that did not happen,” Pinnock said.