CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A serial predator already convicted of crimes across the South is now waiting to learn if a jury will find him guilty of murdering a woman in metro Atlanta.
Channel 2 Action News has been following Douglas Christian's case for years and was in the courtroom Wednesday as both sides made their final pushes to convince the jury.
[READ MORE: Rape, drugs & murder: Convicted felon's jailhouse interview and a twisted tale of crime]
Defense attorney Anastasios Manettas said though Christian has a criminal record touching on every decade starting with the '70s, with many cases involving women or drugs, that doesn't make him guilty of killing Makenzie Puyear -- or any of the other charges he's been on trial for in recent days.
Clayton County Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney John Fowler said Christian killed the woman who turned to Backpage.com prostitution after becoming addicted to drugs.
Manettas said Christian is innocent of the crimes in the indictment.
"Yes, he’s got a checkered past. Yes, you might think that he’s a monster or a cretin or a pervert. And he may very well be all of those things, but it's not for this judge to decide and it's not for jurors to decide," Manettas said.
"He knows that the heroin is not going to be enough, so he laces it with fentanyl," Fowler said.
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Fowler said Christian provided Puryear a deadly drug cocktail including heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine, and that his motive was to knock her out or debilitate her to have sex with her.
Manettas said Puyear could have gotten the drugs that killed her from someone else and that Christian was not in the motel room when she died.
Fowler indicated the prosecution knows about at least eight women Christian victimized in some way; the first in 1970. In some cases, he was charged with crimes, but in some, he was not.
On Friday, Judge Aaron Mason granted a defense motion for directed verdicts on four counts; two of them are felony murder counts involving criminal attempt to commit rape or aggravated assault allegations.
The jury began deliberations but went home for the night Wednesday.