Thomas Liming's Islip murder trial goes to jury soon

Four years after two young Islip men walked into the dark, damp woods off Brook Street, Suffolk jurors will soon decide who started their deadly confrontation: the one who walked out without a scratch or the one left buried alive in a marshy hole.

Attorneys made their closing arguments Friday in Riverhead in the trial of Thomas Liming, now 23, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of his high school friend, Kyle Underhill, 18.

Liming's attorney, Joseph Corozzo of Manhattan, argued that his client defended himself against a well-planned surprise attack by Underhill.

"Tom was in those woods," Corozzo told jurors. "You can't convict a man for surviving. I submit to you that Tom is lucky he's alive."

Assistant District Attorney Raphael Pearl argued that the brutality of the attack -- and a cover-up afterward orchestrated by Liming's family -- made clear who the attacker was.

"Not only is the defendant the initial aggressor, he's the only aggressor," Pearl said.

State Supreme Court Justice Mark Cohen will instruct jurors before they begin deliberating Monday, the fourth anniversary of Underhill's slaying.

Corozzo said Underhill was simmering with anger toward Liming, who had distanced himself after they graduated from Islip High School in June. A week before he died, Underhill posted on Facebook, "A word of advice, don't sneak up on someone who thinks about killing someone for fun."

Corozzo argued that was a threat to Liming, while Pearl said it was an innocuous reference to "Humans vs. Zombies," a game he had begun playing at Farmingdale State College.

Underhill also muttered to himself the night he died that he was "going to kill this kid," Corozzo said.

"They know Kyle is the initial aggressor," Corozzo said of prosecutors. "They know Kyle chased Thomas through the woods on that dark night."

He disputed testimony from the medical examiner's office that Underhill was buried alive. He also dismissed sticks discovered in Underhill's mouth as a "red herring."

Corozzo suggested Liming inflicted all the injuries on Underhill quickly in the act of defending himself. He also urged jurors not to read anything into the fact that Liming stayed with relatives in New Jersey for several weeks afterward, and that his family immediately hired a defense lawyer and a private investigator.

"Just because someone is in fear of being arrested doesn't mean they're guilty," Corozzo said.

Underhill's extensive injuries are proof that he was never a threat to Liming, Pearl said.

Pearl said Liming first hit Underhill in the back of the head. But instead of fleeing, Pearl said, Liming jumped on top of Underhill, snapping several ribs and his sternum, and strangled him. By then Underhill was no threat, Pearl said, but Liming hit him more than a dozen times in the head, then dug a hole and dragged Underhill into it.

As for the sticks, Pearl said, they are "the most devastating evidence against him."

He urged jurors to think about Underhill gasping for air or moaning for help while Liming dug a hole. "Maybe that's why those sticks were jammed in his mouth," Pearl said.

Liming had no visible injuries when a police officer interviewed him about what he said was an assault.

There's no way to prove why Liming did it, Pearl said, but he said there "was a level of intimacy that went beyond mere friendship," and that Liming -- unlike Underhill -- hid that from his family and friends.