Mullin continued in her defense of Santiago by saying that Brown was prevented from crying out because duct tape was used on her mouth, while Rodriguez was beating her. Mullin then held up a picture of Nixzmary's battered body and said "What he was doing was this." She used this in her closing argument, stating that Santiago had no idea that Rodriguez was beating Brown to her death. Mulin backed up her defense by using the physical evidence that the tape marks on Brown's face were fresh; that there was a "ball of rolled-up tape in the bathroom garbage pail"; that Santiago couldn't hear Brown crying out because of the duct tape and because the door to the back room was shut. Assistant D.A. Dwimoh argued against this defense saying that the girl was "unrecognizable" in death, then stated that "Someone in this courtroom had a duty to help, and that someone is Nixzaliz Santiago." Dwimoh said that while Brown was dying, Santiago was plotting her defense that Rodriguez was solely responsible.