Summations begin in Rutgers webcam spy case

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- His defense lawyer says Dharun Ravi is a "kid" who didn't have "ugliness" in his heart. A prosecutor says "there wasn't one thing about the defendant's actions that were good-natured."

It will be up to a jury to decide Wednesday whether it was a crime when Ravi viewed a few seconds of his roommate's intimate encounter with another man and told people about it in text messages, tweets and in person.

Lawyers gave their summations Tuesday in the case that has drawn enormous attention since September 2010, when Ravi's roommate, Tyler Clementi, jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.

The trial focused on a few days in the dorm where Ravi and Clementi, both 18 and from well-off suburbs, were randomly assigned to be roommates for their first year at Rutgers University.

Defense attorney Steven Altman told jurors that Ravi was surprised to turn on his webcam and see his roommate in an intimate situation with another man. He emphasized that there was no recording, broadcast or YouTube video of the Sept. 19, 2010, encounter.

And he said Ravi was not acting out of hatred of his roommate or gay people in general when he saw the image from his webcam on the computer of another student.

He said Ravi tweeted and talked about what he saw, but that he did so because he was young, had never before seen men kissing and did not know what to do. And he'd turned on the webcam in the first place, Altman said, because he was worried about what was happening in his room after seeing Clementi's guest, whom Ravi described as "older" and "sketchy."

Middlesex County First Assistant Prosecutor Julia McClure disputed that characterization. She reminded jurors of testimony from some of Ravi's high school friends that even before Ravi moved into the dorm, he was concerned about having a gay roommate.