Pawtucket man’s murder trial wraps up, jury deliberating

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – After weeks of witness testimony, the murder trial of the man accused of killing a Pawtucket man during a home invasion has wrapped up.

Prosecutors are trying to prove to the 13-person jury that Juan Gibson killed 41-year-old Jeffrey Lebrun in his Dawson Street home in Pawtucket during a home invasion in July of 2013.

They are also trying to prove that he’s guilty of committing another home invasion at the same house two months prior to the murder.

“Two and a half weeks, 14 witnesses, 96 exhibits. It appears like a lot… But it’s not complicated. It’s as simple as it sounds, as it showed, as it proved,” said Assistant Attorney General Ania Zielinski.

Gibson was charged back in 2014 with burglary and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon for the first home invasion at the Lebrun’s in May of 2013, but was never convicted. He only spent time in prison as a probation violator.

“It’s impossible that Juan Gibson was in that house on May 19th, 2013, or on July 28th, 2013,” said Gibson’s defense attorney David Morra.

Morra, while addressing the jury during closing arguments Tuesday, said things don’t add up. He pointed to the descriptions of the intruders that neighbors and Lebrun told police after the May home invasion.

He said they reported the two intruders to be under 6 feet tall, but Gibson is 6’1″.

“Juan Gibson was a means to end this investigation,” said Morra, fighting the fact that the case was unsolved until 2019 when DNA advances linked Gibson to the crime.

But prosecutors say there is no conspiracy, and all signs point to Gibson as guilty.

“There are no coincidences in this case. The defendant is not the unluckiest person in the world of just shy of 8 billion people,” said Zielinski.

Zielinski said there’s no arguing with the evidence. Gibson’s DNA was found on a sweatshirt thrown into a neighbors yard after the first home invasion, and under Lebrun’s fingernails after the murder.

Gibson was also found walking in the area of Lebrun’s home after the May home invasion and was stopped by police. Prosecutors say he told officers he was walking home from a girlfriend’s house, but during his arrest a year later, he said his car broke down in Attleboro and he didn’t want to wait for AAA to arrive.

Tuesday, state prosecutors said Gibson never actually made a call to AAA and wasn’t even a member.

“Find this defendant guilty of all six counts, not because you have to, not because there was a plan against the defendant by the Pawtucket Police Department, but because that’s what the evidence shows,” Zielinski said as she closed.

The jury went into deliberations around 3:30 p.m. and are expected to continue deliberating Wednesday.

© WLNE-TV 2019