Distaso's scorn showed his ignorance

Distaso, in his rebuttal closing argument, scorned the notion that Deanna Renfro only got $20 for a very expensive Croton watch.  

But first he made a total fool of himself with this statement:  "They brought in this pawn slip from Deanna Renfro, where supposedly she, does say brand Croton? I'm looking for a second. Wait a minute. It's not even a Croton watch. The brand name is, Croton on this pawn slip."  

Yes, Mr. Distaso, it was indeed a Croton watch.  Croton is given for the brand and Croton is given for the make -- how many times does it have to say Croton for it to be a Croton watch?

Then he said: "The reserve is 750 bucks. Look at it.  It's a nice gold diamond watch.  Now, I know you don't get a lot of money when you pawn things, but you get better than twenty bucks on 750."  

Pawnshops typically pay about 10% of the resale value of an item.  $20 would be 10% of $200.00.  Was that reasonable for a $750 watch?  Yes, because $750 is the assessed value of the watch, but resale value is something entirely different -- that depends entirely on market demands.  Scott and Laci offered this item twice on Ebay, during the Christmas shopping season, and the highest bid was $100.00.  Scott and Laci chose not to sell the watch for the current resale value of $100.  To make the anticipated profit on the item, The Pawn Shop would have to sell it at $200, more than twice the highest Ebay bid.  

As for the scratches on the watch -- that's evidence that Laci struggled with her abductors.