The suspect in a series of stabbings in Virginia, Michigan and Ohio is not mentally ill, a prosecutor says.
Elias Abuelazam is on trial in Michigan, where he is charged with three murders and six attempted murders in the Flint area, although authorities believe he's responsible for as many as 14 stabbings.
Prosecutor David Leyton is telling jurors that DNA evidence and the opinions of mental health experts are grounds for convicting Abuelazam of murder.
Leyton says Abuelazam, an Israeli immigrant, was not mentally ill at the time of the stabbings. He says a fatal attack on a 49-year-old man in Flint, Mich., took planning and trickery.
Defense lawyers say Abuelazam was insane and therefore not criminally responsible.
Jurors are hearing closing arguments Tuesday in Genesee County court, 60 miles north of Detroit.
Fourteen people were stabbed in and around Flint two summers ago, and five died. Abuelazam is charged in nine of those stabbings, including three deaths. He's charged with attempted murder in Toledo, Ohio.
Abuelazam is also suspected, but has not been charged in similar attacks in Leesburg, Va. Authorities are also considering him as a possible suspect in the 2009 death of Leesburg resident Jammie Lane.
