Madison County Prosecutor Tom Broderick rejected claims by Jesse Lee Pitts that the death of Amanda Brinker was an accident during closing arguments in Pitts' murder trial Tuesday.

Pitts, 21, stands accused of murder in the death of Amanda Brinker on Sept. 20, 2007.

"The defendant attacked Amanda," Broderick said. "He struck her not once, not twice, but six or seven times."

Pitts did not take the stand during the five days of the trial, but in video interviews from the Anderson Police Department, he frequently changed his story. During interviews, Pitts variously claimed that he never saw Brinker that day, that the two were jumped at Edgewater Park, that he tripped her and caused her injuries, then that he struck her accidentally with the jack handle police identified as the murder weapon.

Broderick noted that Pitts collected Brinker's belongings, including her purse and identification, to hide her identity. The prosecutor removed the jack handle from its plastic wrapping with a latex-gloved hand and his voice rose to a shout as he rapped it against a desk.

Broderick said the prosecution need not prove motive in a murder case and instructed the jury not to dwell the absence of an eyewitness.

"We don't need the eyewitness,we don't need them to tell us what we already know," he said. "The defendant incpacitated her to the point where she was dying."