The jury heard seven days of testimony in which Assistant Prosecutor Vincent Malfitano portrayed Kozic as a man too interested in growing marijuana to be doing it only for pleasure. Defense atttorney William Buckman argued that Kozic was a recovering alcoholic who became obsessed with the wrong hobby.
Kozic was arrested Nov. 6, 1991, after police said they confiscated 409 marijuana plants, including 296 seedlings, from his second-floor apartment. Police said they also found lights used to simulate sunlight and help the plants grow, drying racks and folders on which Kozic kept lengthy records of the progress of his plants.
Neither Kozic nor his attorney denied that Kozic had grown the marijuana. Kozic testified that he was never high on the drug when he went to school and that he did not sell or give marijuana to anyone.
Kozic, looking boyish on the stand with his straight brown hair, described how he made notations on a calendar to keep track of how many seedlings he planted and when he transplanted them.
He also said that he sometimes had difficulty with bugs harming the plants and that he would use lower-quality marijuana to make brownies.
During closing arguments yesterday afternoon, Malfitano suggested that Kozic was not credible. He said Kozic underestimated the amount that he had grown and overestimated the amount he had smoked. Malfitano said Detective John Silver of the state police had estimated from the investigation that Kozic grew five pounds of marijuana a year.
"It's the state's position that it's impossible to smoke this much marijuana a year and still operate as a schoolteacher," Malfitano said.
