UPDATE: On Tuesday afternoon around 3:00 p.m., the jury officially began deliberating. There is no timeline for when the court will reach a verdict.
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — On July 26, the seventh day of Jason Williams’s tax fraud trial began. Williams was accused of tax fraud involving hundreds of thousands of dollars along with his former law partner Nicole Burdett.
On Tuesday morning, just before noon, the government and the defense rest their case. Neither Nicole Burdett nor Jason Williams took the stand.
In the trial, prosecutors tried to prove that Nicole Burdett and Jason Williams called all the shots in the tax fraud case. Prosecutors also said that Henry Timothy was a tax thief and asked the jury to think if it would take them seven years to realize that as it did for Williams. In addition, prosecutor Kelly Uebinger said that Mr. Timothy was a “pawn” to Williams and Burdett who were the ones calling the shots. She added, that the three of them were birds of a feather who cheated together.
Closing arguments were made after the defense was rested. In the closing arguments, Williams’s lawyers said that the case was about trust in their tax preparer and they argued that they put their trust in Mr.Timothy who lied that he was a CPA.
The defense stated that prosecutors did not thoroughly investigate there was knowledge of any tax fraud. They said that there were no phone records, computers, or other tax clients of Timothy’s that were interviewed as part of the investigation because they said the government had blinders on.
The defense also asked the jury “If someone is trying to defraud the government, would you give them the details of your income?” The defense never tried to paint the picture that Williams’ and Burdett’s taxes were done correctly, but what they were trying to prove is that they did not knowingly and willfully take part in tax fraud.