In his closing arguments, prosecutor Ashley Finlayson said the case hinges on the fact Thomas Svekla hauled a hockey bag containing the elaborately wrapped body of Theresa Innes from High Level in northern Alberta to his sister's house in Fort Saskatchewan, just east of Edmonton, where it was discovered.

Svekla said he was framed but that's nonsense, Finlayson told Queen's Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman, who is hearing the case.

"Your lordship should reject that explanation and find, based on the logical inferences that flow from his possession of the body, that in fact it was he who wrapped the body in three layers and placed it in the truck," Finlayson said.

Svekla, a 40-year-old mechanic, was flanked by two armed guards as he sat in the prisoner's box in the crowded courtroom. He sported a moustache and goatee, but his balding head was shaved close to the skull. He looked straight ahead - expressionless - occasionally sipping water during Finlayson's address.

The Crown lawyer noted that Svekla has offered numerous explanations for who might have killed Innes and displayed knowledge of the victim before police had even identified her.

"Whenever he's confronted or challenged on something, a very common response from him is, 'I'm a liar but that doesn't make me a murderer,"' said Finlayson.

"The lies continue to flow, so you should have no difficulty, simply based on that, in rejecting his explanation."

Svekla, who has mockingly labelled himself the "Robert Pickton of Alberta" after the B.C. killer convicted of killing six women, is charged with the second-degree murders of 36-year-old Innes and Rachel Quinney, 19. He is also accused of committing indignities to their bodies.

Both women were prostitutes working to feed voracious crack habits when they met their end.

Svekla came to the attention of police in June 2004 when he reported finding Quinney's nude and mutilated body in a farmer's field northeast of Edmonton. She was found splayed out, face up, in a stand of trees, her breasts and genitals removed.

Svekla then moved to High Level, 700 kilometres north, where, according to the Crown, he became acquainted with Innes, who had also moved there to ply her trade.

Court heard that in May 2006 he left High Level to return to Fort Saskatchewan. His truck had broken down, so he hitched a ride with a friend and took with him a black hockey bag so heavy he had to haul it rather than carry it.

He let no one near the bag. Those who asked about it were told it contained compost worms.

But when he arrived at his sister Donna Parkinson's house in Fort Saskatchewan, she became suspicious and opened the bag when he was out on an errand. She found Innes's nude body wrapped in garbage bags, a shower curtain and an air mattress secured by small-gauge wires. She called police and Svekla was charged.

The Crown has admitted its case is circumstantial.

There are no DNA matches, no confessions, no murder weapon, no eyewitnesses and no cause of death, though the medical examiner couldn't rule out soft smothering as with a pillow.

At trial, court heard police tell Svekla in an interview tape that he was a suspect in six other deaths of Edmonton prostitutes and in the disappearance of two more.

Defence lawyer Robert Shaigec did not call evidence and did not call Svekla to the witness stand.

Sanderman has had to wade through a welter of interview and wiretaps transcripts, direct and hearsay testimony and similar fact evidence. He has on more than one occasion had to decide which evidence he will consider in his verdict and which he will ignore.

Other women testified at the trial that Svekla tried to sexually assault them and threatened to strangle them. Sanderman is allowing some of that testimony, but not all of it.