Mark P. Howerton arrives in court for the first day of his murder trial on May 23. Howerton was tried in 2019 for the October 2017 death of Trinity University student Cayley Mandadi, 19, but the jury was deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial.Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday and the jury has been listening to defense witness Jason V. Wallach, a professor at St. Joseph's University in Pennsylvania who teaches in the department of pharmaceutical services.
"MDMA has caused subdural hemorrhaging," Wallach told the jury. "Generally, if someone ingested those drugs, you would want to examine cerebral complications, and do brain imaging, for instance." Testimony established that Howerton told authorities he and Mandadi had either snorted, ate or drank the drug, also known as"molly" or"ecstasy," in the days leading up to her death.
Prosecutors said Wallach is a professor, not a medical doctor, and was basing his testimony on several studies on the abuse of drugs like MDMA.