Compelling Evidence (33 page)

0., 4F 294 "where is the cheap fuck?" he says. A I don't think this deserves an answer, even if I had OIT* begin to move around him up the steps, keeping myselt‐,"@' Lama and Nikki, shielding her as best I can from this offense. "You gettin' a little on the side?" he says. "We know good fuck, but we only need her for an hour. I promise her back when we're finished."

This stops me dead in my tracks, and for a fleeting T,"' consider the curb a few feet away and the buses wl M‐I good clip. I would be doing humanity a vast service. *‐Ml,@ tugging on my arm. "You really should get help for that," I tell him, "What?" he says. "Professional assistance to keep the foam from irvilol‐irll your chin."

We are pitched, our necks bowed like two bucks iwl, primordial battle.

From the comer of my eye I see a figure grabs Nikki by the arm and tugs her up the steps. it Cooper, come to the rescue, removing my wife from scene.

lek, "We'll subpoena her ass," says Lama, "and serve it I's pit is still spit," I tell him. With this he pulls up close, an inch from my rrf,1'

touching me. '@One day," he says. "You've got one her. Blow it and I'll kick your ass." Coop is back down the steps, leaving Nikki on'#1T‐‐ 9104

"Jimmy," he says, his hand cuffing ‐the back of where the hair bristles.

"This is not the place." at me, playing a little matador with this mad

"IM11 two of us an honorable path of retreat. He moves inches back toward the sidewalk, where the two This is Cooo the peacemaker. One thing you :I George Cooper is that he never checks I courthouse steps.

Lama shrugs Coop's hand off his shoulder back of Lama's coat, and he is hoofing it @.7i't'v;(", the corner. Coop is back to me now. "You don't want to one," he says. Coop's eyes are dark and serious. big trouble." 1

on shaking with anger. Cooper and I move to Nikki waiting T,I,. top of the steps. She's looking at Lama in the distance. ,Lovely man, 11 says Nikki. #,Yeah, a real prince," says Coop. burning to the tips of my ears. Mason Canard had been up and down, in and out, in flash of an eye during the. preliminary hearing, a seeming im sandwiched as he was between the evidence tech With only O'Shaunasy to judge the evidence in the I@ti, Nelson's emphasis and order of presentation were geared 't,7.'

technical legal eye..4 e box, Canard has @roll, with twelve new scorekeepers in th Iin the lineup in the leadoff position. IF, d, and well ‐is of medium height, slender, well manicure His worsted suirhangs nicely on his lean frame, The silver‐gray hair is combed back and off to one side, in 4: R%.Tr: reminiscent of British royalty in the thirties.

If personal Ai_ I.Ipiw;o counts for much, it is easy to see how Mason Canard ),ia ositioinof authority in the department, and why Nelson his I eup in front of the jury. The cardinal rule: Lead le with ss state his name for the record and launches Abackground. 77 is a thirty‐year veteran of the police department, the 7*77,rw.,@ heading up homicide's special section, a group of I*Irnhu* who take the cream. of the cases.

Given the social of the victim, and the early interest of federal authorities crime, Canard took charge of the scene in Ben's office '"@

Nelson the night they found the body. He has been the investigating officer in charge, delegating most of the .1=7 @@ to subordinates. not the first on the scene, then, Detective Canardt' XI sligs' I arrived there were already three patrol cars, and 4L@ the emergency medical technicians, had arrived. There ‐KTA a few other people, employees in the building." 11 took charge of the scene." correct. I was the senior law enforcement officer presthen takes the jury on a verbal tour of the procedures 1,4, MU, if‐0; to secure the building, to ensure that any evidence _‐, @7 Preserved, pristine. 0‐* se '00, According to Canard there was a veritable , ‐i , tape and positioned guards, all with an eye toward entrance and exit of the building. "Do you know who discoveredthe body?"

There are no surprises here. Canard identifies YA the young janitor.

"Did you personally question Mr. Hampton and Is ers to determine if anything had been moved or scene before your arrivait' "I did. I was assured that the victim and his roundings were precisely as they had been Hampton."

"Did you supervise the taking of photographs at

"I did."

Nelson retreats to the counsel table, where Mee large manila envelope.

He has been heading heree from the start. A little gore for the jury. He pulls out three sets of photographic prints, @4p,! the top by a large spring clip. He hands one of another to the bailiff for delivery to Acosta. Talia is at my shoulder, all eyes. I have semven before, delivered during discovery, but I' n t ve 0 benefit of a preview. It would not do, before e i g ‐tin view these scenes of carnage with seen The first is a full shot of the office from the door, angle lens, a little too far back for any real detail. It desk, some disarray, papers on the floor, and his 4 canted at an angle away from the camera. I take off the clip and go on to the next. This is a grisly eight‐by‐ten, a glossy color print, Ben, from the top of the desk up‐muted s blood, the color of rust. Talia sucks some heavy air, her fingers to s ‐ W, sion of stark horror. It is all I could have ho d for., tender care for my client, an arm on her shtulder, word in her ear. While these concerns are real, i4k a death case to humanize the defendant before Is stage, to demonstrate that she has real emotions. It women suffer the death penalty, not that they are 1P fragile sex, but that they are capable of exhibiting in open court. Unlike men, they are fftreed by to flood the court in tears. Juries don't like to !V e callous, those who utterly lack any sense of feeling or gip to the next photo. Another close‐up, head and shoulder These are what Nelson wants, to enflame the jury.

There real semblance of Ben in this photo, but the image of a and disfigured head, a picture of what the emergency docs would call

"massive tissue loss"‐a vast portion of top of his head gone, facial features stretched and distorted some torn rubber mask. , tr s getting sick. lvw Honor, could we havela moment."

She's up and moving, @@S‐ the help of one of her female friends, toward the door and room. She has set the stage for me. ,?L'coi Honor, I would request a conference in chambers."

"Acosta goes off the record. @:,W,

the defendant gone, the court has little else to do. Acosta, A, d I retire to the back, along with the court reportz , 111 an 4 ,4_ her stenograph. I leave Harry at the table to enter‐ @a@ Talia when she returns, to keep her from commiserating Tod. "V@co is closed. Acosta's looking at me. ,.Laml Mr. Madriani, the jury's off on another coffee break. If meeting like this, this trial's going to bust their kidneys."

tap the copies of the photographs in my hand. "Your Honor, 7(4w;@ will stipulate that the victim is dead." laughs a little at this. 'a many photographs?" he says. He s nodding his head likèNi.@"Al with the obvious answer to his own question. has done what every good trial lawyer does when with od them in abundance, offer thirty pictures, pr uce .Imh, hope to get three. ZT ‐not just the number," I tell him, "but the content of some '@i‐ photographs that troubles me. Not terribly probative and prejudicial," I say..41*4 is the picture of exasperation.

@;&;""Honor, it's not a coffee klatch. It's the crime scene of Mu er. If the defendant wants nice pictures, she should a wedding." k state judges have broad latitude regarding the admissievidence. Under provisions of the evidence code, cumu‐ 'vi@ of documents all tending to prove the same argument e je may be distilled down to a single document or a %w save time. More to the point, evidence which may be of ‐io@ii in proving a matter in the case, but which is highly tending to prejudice the jury, may be excluded ;wr nill the judge is God. "Even the most fair‐minded jury," I tell Acosta, "is look with kindness on a defendant ch with such 3 I remind him that these photographs fail in all Ani". establish any link between my client and the crime in

"Let me see them," he says.

Acosta's left his own the bench. I give him mine. He flashes the wide‐angle at Nelson, little detail ‐w`f office furniture. "If you want crime scene, this one rot;, S he says. He starts making a stack with the other close‐ups, At on his desk. He finds another, a picture of the 4s s the floor, just Ben's shod foot in a comer of the shot. OK," he says.

He's toying with the next. A hard ‐i blood, but so far the cleanest of the bunch. Nelson's fuming. "One picture of the victim acilrli he says.

"So they can remember it wasn't a ‐‐ittit Mis MM, Acosta looks at him with mean eyes ; He drops the ‐,‐'! the stack of rejects, a victim of Nelson s sarcasm QN *7 a 14 Back out before the jury, and Nelson has had his ‐.@, pictures butchered by the Coconut, though Acosta 17' his bets.

He's severely limited the photographs the at this point in the trial,

‐but left open the use of ‐077 if the state establishes a compelling nexus between and the crime. Talia's in her seat, fragile, a gray pallor in her her stomach with one hand. I think she's lost her 717A From a stack of twenty‐six prints, Nelson has *)4 to show Canard for purposes of identification. These tively harmless, long‐distance shots of the office, QLK@.,' killer may.have come and gone from the building, exit signs, a sanitized album. They are quickly witness and marked. "Your Honor, the people would move the i@iw@ll giaphs into evidence."

Nelson will take what he *in for the time being.

Canard takes on a more thoughtful expression. "She rather casually," he says. "Casually?"

"Yes, no outward emotion:' says Canard. "No tears? The defendant didn't break down and cry?"

"Not immediately," he says. "She waited awhile?"

"Objection, Your Honor. Leading and suggestive. '17‐M attorney is trying to put words into the mouth of the %oitr‐i

"Sustained."

"What did the witness say when you told her that her 70 was dead?"

"She asked how it had happened."

"What did you tell her?"

I told her he died as a result of a gunshot appeared at that time to have been a possible suicide."

"And what was her reaction to this?"

"She didn't have much reaction. It was almost like .4, have expected it."

"Objection, Your Honor. Move to strike the second answer as unresponsive to the question, speculativel"

"Sustained. The witness is advised to confine IT'Mrquestions asked."

Acosta's looking down his nose at V‐7 "The, reporter will strike the second part of the response. The jury will disregard the opinions of concerning what the defendant might or might not ZT77 This is not evidence," he says. "When you told her that her husband might have suicide, did the defendant start to cry at that time?"

"No," he says. Nelson's trying to make of this lack of emotion is not, that Talia knew more than she did, that she 7 already dead when she arrived home. "In fact did she cry at any time in your. !,a‐":,aj‐, initial interview at the victim's residence?"

"No," says'canard. "During that interview did you ask the i r4 M PTO had been that evening?"

I did," he says. This will all come in. Talia, when she talked to not in custodial interrogation, not the focus of im‐fr@; was no need to Mirandize her, no way I can kee@ 117 from the jury, the false information she gave the police. "And what did she tell you ?"

"She said that she had been on a business trip, having left her office earlier that day and traveled to Vacaville to inspect, or I think she said 'tour,' sorn'e property. A house that was for sale."

Il'be defendant was in the real estate business?" ,As far as I know, that's correct."

"According to the information given to you by the defendant, she went nowhere else, only to Vacaville to tour this property and back home?"

,That's correct."

"Detective Canard, can you tell us how far it is, in miles, between Capitol City and Vacaville, roughly?"

"About fifty miles, to the property in question. It's out of town a little ways."

"You've chocked thig?"

"On my odometer," he says. "How long would it take to drive that distance and back, in your estimation, doing the speed limit?"

"Two

hours, less perhaps, depending on traffic."

"Did you ask the defendant what time she left on this trip?"

"She told us it was about four o'clock, four P.m.," he says. "So it was possible that the defendant, if she left at four in the afternoon, could have driven to the property in Vacaville, toured i( perhaps briefly, and returned to Capitol City by, say, what'@Nelson shrugs‐‐‐‐@"six‐thirty in the evening?"

"Possible," says Canard. "Detective Canard, did you or your staff take any action to ndently verify the whereabouts of the defendant on the day questiont' "We did. We obtained copies of the defendant's credit card ments for the period in question and looked for gasoline hases, restaurant purchases, items she might have purchased in transit between Capitol City and Vacaville."

"And what did you find?"

"We found no purchases made by the defendant by credit card een Capitol City and Vacaville on that date." you make any other inquiries?"

subpoenaed checking account records belonging to the 1, to see if she might have drawn any checks to estabalong that route on the date in question." you find anyti o' 292 "No."

Talia's squirming next to me in the chair. She _rrwl toward me. "They know," she says. I smile at her, for the benefit of the jury, like she I something amusing, a little wit to take the edge off the Then I nudge her with my knee, hard under the r1lent acquitted, Talia. could still be bruised for life. "What other action, if any, did you take to verify

"According to the defendant she kained admission rilk, erty in Vacaville by use of a realtor's lockbox. The was given to her by the listing real estate agent in We dusted that box for prints, to see if we could 'zi ;. defendant's fingerprints on the box."

"Did you find her fingerprints on the lockbox?"

"No, we did not."

"So you were unable to establish any independent that the defendant was in fact in Vacaville on the 4., Potter died, is that correct?"

"That's correct."

This is the high‐water mark of Canard's M a mosaic, a flood of circumstances from which. I, infer that Talia was not surprised by Ben's death had participated in it, that she in fact lied to the police her whereabouts, that she possessed the opportunity murder. Nelson looks at me. "Your witness." For a lawyer, in trial there is nothing more dffitfflff_1!' with a lie by your client to the authorities. I cannot the stand to refute this. To do so would be to suborn te left to nibble around the edges at the inferences and drawn by the cops based on this erroneous )II "Officer Canard.. "Detective," he says, a little shot for