Ashanti stalker Devar Hurd ‘terrified’ singer and her family, prosecutors tell jurors

Don't be fooled by his excuses.

Prosecutors told jurors Thursday in the third trial of Ashanti stalker Devar Hurd that the delusional nut — who is representing himself — has been tormenting the singer's family for years in spite of his lame attempts to justify the contact.

"The family was upset. They were terrified," said Assistant District Attorney Carolina Holderness in her summation.

"This is not about a vendetta. This is not about her celebrity status."

Hurd tried to get jurors to believe he had a romantic fling with the famous Grammy-winner and that the family is out to get him although they did not even know him until the crimes began.

"This defendant thinks the rules do not apply to him," Holderness said.

 

Ashanti Douglas has been called to testify three times in the past two years as this case has been pending.

The first attempt to convict Hurd resulted in a mistrial because a juror got ill during deliberations.

The second trial, in October, resulted in a partial conviction but the jury could not reach a verdict on the top count, felony stalking.

 

Holderness argued that the trial "has given the defendant an opportunity to do some really insulting things to Ms. Douglas to her face."

In his summation, Hurd rambled on for nearly two hours, posing nonsensical claims about why the tweets he sent to the star, in violation of restraining orders, were innocent despite the fact that there were hundreds, including some that were very graphic and sexually-explicit.

Hurd, who fancies himself a colleague of hers in the music business, tried to use that fantasy as justification for his creepy messages.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the business we work in is sexually explicit," Hurd blabbered on. "What adult things you may be involved with — that's your business."

"She's trying to take any explicit stuff and make it look criminal," added Hurd, who donned a lime green button-down shirt, apparently by chance.

"I see Mr. Hurd, you're appropriately attired for St. Patrick's Day," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice A. Kirke Bartley mused before the jury entered the courtroom for the morning.

"I had this shirt already," Hurd told Bartley. He had already heard a comment on his loud outfit, he said.

"Oh, it's St. Patrick's Day?" he told the person. "I wasn't even aware of it!"

 

Hurd, who was sprung from jail in 2010 after a prior conviction for stalking and harassing Ashanti Douglas and her family through the singer's mom and manager, claimed there was reconciliation.

"As far as we moved on we moved on from it — we'll let it be," he said.

The jury will be deliberating through the afternoon. Hurd faces up to four years behind bars.