Jurors will get the case of a man accused of killing his wife, dismembering her and disposing of her body parts across three counties.

Closing arguments were held late Wednesday afternoon in the case of Nicholas Kassotis, who is charged with killing his wife Mindi in late 2022. Judge Paul Rose is expected to give his charge and instruction to jurors when court reconvenes Thursday morning.

The state rested its case Wednesday morning and the defense called Kassotis as its sole witness. Kassotis, who has changed his name to Nicholas Stark, said he did not kill his wife Mindi and did not dismember her and dump her body parts on timberland used by a hunting club.

Kassotis told jurors that he was told that Mindi died at a medical center. In direct testimony, he said he did not know the name of the man who told him Mindi was dead and he testified he was not allowed to see his wife’s body.

He also said he was told not to visit his wife while she was in the hospital.

“I did not physically go because I did not think it was safe,” he said.

The Kassotises were living in Savannah at the time. It was their last stop on a trail that started in Virginia and went into South Carolina because they believed they were being targeted, he testified.

Under the advice of a man named Jim McIntyre, who Kassotis at first believed was a FBI agent but later revealed himself to be a major investor in the company Kassotis worked for, he told jurors, the Kassotises moved frequently.

McIntyre also had control of the Kassotises’ finances, including their bank accounts.

The state rested its case Wednesday morning, and Weinstein asked Judge Paul Rose for a directed verdict, stating the prosecution did not produce evidence beyond circumstantial evidence to link his client to Mindi’s death.

Mebane’s family members testified that Nicholas Kassotis told them Mindi died in a hospital.

Kassotis said Mindi, whom he believed to be pregnant, had picked out a birthing center but he didn’t know her doctors. While he was out from their Savannah residence, she sent him a text message that she was going to seek treatment, he said. For the next three days, he received messages he believed were from her on the Signal app.

On Thursday, when he went to pick her up – he said he could not remember the name of the facility – he was met and told that Mindi had died suddenly.

Kassotis said they looked at moving to Missouri next and on his way to St. Louis, he stopped in Alabama. He testified he was instructed to pick up Mindi’s ashes in Alabama but he said he did not know the name of the man who turned over what he believed to be Mindi’s ashes. He also did not receive a death certificate. He said because the couple did not have life insurance he did not think it necessary at the time to get a death certificate.

Kassotis, who testified he is not a hunter, bought a deer processing kit but said he bought that as a Christmas gift for his nephew.

Law enforcement authorities also pinged Kassotis’ Ford Explorer to the Liberty County woods in late November 2022. Hunters discovered Mindi Kassotis’ torso on December 2, 2022. Her legs and head were recovered later.

A Georgia Bureau of Investigation autopsy revealed Mindi Kassotis was not pregnant. Investigators also found storage bins on the hunting club property and found traces of Mindi’s blood in a bin.

Her remains eventually were identified in May 2023. Kassotis, who had remarried in the interim, was arrested the next day in Pennsylvania.

Kassotis turned his cell phone off for about two hours while his vehicle was near the Portal Hunting Club. He said he had been instructed, by McIntyre, to turn off his phone on occasion.

Kassotis testified that McIntyre told him it was his family that was after him because they wanted him back in the fold. He also testified that his father and his uncle showed up at the door of his Savannah home when his in-laws, who were living with him, were in Hilton Head.

“I was terrified,” Kassotis said.

McIntyre said he believed Kassotis’ family was after him, Kassotis told the court.

Kassotis testified that the Virginia home he shared with his first wife Heather was vandalized. He also said he was attacked from behind by an unknown assailant.

McIntyre came to his home after Kassotis’ name appeared in a Washington Post article after he had written a legal review on Marines’ action in Afghanistan.

It was after looking at other leads that McIntyre focused on the immediate families as the threat, Kassotis testified.

Kassotis, who had been assigned to the Navy Judge Advocate General and worked with other federal agencies, said he had no reason to doubt McIntyre was a federal agent.

“I’ve asked myself that a million times,” he said. “There was nothing that concerned me. There are a lot of mistakes over the last seven years of my life I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about.”

Kassotis said he now believes the man he testified portrayed himself as Jim McIntyre was not who he said he was. Kassotis testified he felt “angry, betrayed … frankly dumb.”

Kassotis said he does not know who killed Mindi.

In closing arguments, defense attorney Douglas Weinstein lauded the GBI and investigators for their thorough work. But nothing they uncovered ties his client to Mindi Kassotis’ death and Weinstein said the investigation zeroed in on his client from the start once Mindi’s identity was confirmed.

“This isn’t a trial about Jim McIntyre,” Weinstein said. “This is about Mindi Kassotis and who killed Mindi Kassotis.”

Kassotis moved nearly 50 times in a few years, and he was led to believe he had $32 million in his account. Kassotis said the software company he worked for after leaving the Navy paid him in stock options.

Kassotis had to pay his first wife $1.5 million as part of their divorce decree, and Kassotis said he thought McIntyre paid that for him.

“This was the crazy, Kafka-esque world he lived in, with someone named Jim McIntyre plaguing him,” he said. “He didn’t do these things. Mindi Kassotis was viciously murdered and butchered. I don’t have the right words for how terrible that is.”

Assistant District Attorney Laurie Baio, who delivered the opening arguments for the prosecution, said in her closing that Kassotis was looking to avoid paying the divorce settlement.

“Not one penny,” she said.

Wednesday’s closing arguments concluded seven days of testimony and evidence.