Authors: Derek Blass
He and Sandra pushed out of the hotel at about eight in the morning. Most members of the media were already awake, or never slept to begin with. They sat in the hotel restaurant, sipping coffee while ignored cigarettes burned in ashtrays next to them.
The streets were packed. Not with awake people. Most of the people were still asleep. The rustling from the night before must have been the setup of this makeshift village. Some people had no tent, just a sleeping bag. They lined the sidewalks of every visible street. It wasn't until Cruz and Sandra got a few blocks away from the courthouse that people were awake, packing up their gear and starting to meander with the rest of the herd.
Two blocks away from the courthouse, the crowd was at a dead, packed standstill. Martinez had run to catch up with them and they all looked at each other silently. Cruz could see over some of the crowd, but the bottom quarter of the courthouse was cut off by heads. Martinez shrugged his shoulders and started to push through. When people got pissed he just flashed his badge. Cruz and Sandra followed behind Martinez for as long as they could until they eventually got split up by people filling the space left by Martinez.
Cruz looked at his watch and saw they had fifteen minutes until the trial was supposed to restart. He figured Mason was losing his mind with Martinez not being there. He looked up and saw they still had at least half of a block to go. The people standing around had grown so cramped and pressed together that they couldn't move even if they wanted to. Cruz yelled out to Martinez who screamed back. He was stuck too.
When they stopped, the pressure from behind began to build. More and more people were arriving and pressing against those in front.
“
Cruz, this is getting tight,” Sandra said. He nodded, acknowledging her while looking around for a solution. A woman screamed out to stop pushing. Cruz saw a man next to him who looked pale and weak. He watched as the man's knees buckled and he lost consciousness. The man didn't completely fall to the ground. Instead he was supported by the people packed in around him. Someone yelled for a doctor.
“
Martinez,” Cruz screamed, “Need you to do something!!” The people around him looked back and then two roaring shots rang out. The crowd's natural instinct was to move backwards, toward the empty space behind it. Cruz grabbed onto Sandra tightly and they cut across people to where he thought Martinez was. They saw Martinez running ahead of them, brushing off people moving the other way, and holstering the gun he just fired.
They started sprinting toward Martinez. Sandra kicked off her shoes and was able to keep pace with Cruz. The courthouse was within distance now, but the crowd started to slow in its retreat. Once the imminent danger was gone, the empty spaces started to fill back up. The crowd had spread as if a bomb went off in the middle of it, but was now congealing around the empty center. The pathway to the courthouse was quickly closing, and Cruz saw Martinez bent over on the first courthouse step catching his breath.
“
We've got to hurry!” Cruz yelled to Sandra. He tucked his head and grabbed her forearm, essentially dragging her along. He reached the edge of the crowd just as it closed, his arm still clasped onto Sandra's. Sandra was behind two men who he shoved aside.
“
What the fuck...” Martinez said.
“
I don't know,” Cruz answered. He looked at Sandra whose face was smeared with a mixture of sweat and tears. She looked much more delicate without shoes on. “Let's get in there.” He shot a glance to his right and saw a commotion on the street next to the courthouse. Smoke was rising in various areas along the pavement.
Martinez flashed his badge and they moved through a thick wall of national guardsmen. The halls of the courthouse were empty and silent. Their steps rang off of the marble floors and echoed down the hall. Sandra's little feet slapped along on the cold surface. Mason was standing outside of the courtroom, with a stern look on his face.
“
Why aren't you in there?” Cruz asked.
“
Where the hell have you guys been?” he responded. Sandra stepped out from behind Cruz and put a hand on his shoulder to balance while she put her shoes back on. It clicked with Mason when he saw Sandra. “Man, what happened?”
“
When did you get here? You didn't have to deal with the crowds?” Sandra asked.
“
No, not really. Most people were asleep, camped out, when I got here. Probably about six in the morning.”
“
Well, that explains it,” Sandra said, drifting off.
“
It was...difficult...to get over here,” Martinez said.
“
You guys are lucky. The jury hasn't arrived yet. Apparently they were held up too.”
“
You know, I saw some commotion and smoke rising on the street over there,” Cruz said, pointing behind him.
“
That smoke is probably some sort of tear gas,” Martinez said.
“
They'd use that on civilians?”
“
Sure, whatever works.”
Mason opened the door to the courtroom. Cruz adjusted his suit and tie, then turned around to see if Sandra was all right. She pulled down her skirt a bit and ran her hands down the front of her suit jacket then smiled at him. They walked into the courtroom and took a seat behind Mason's setup. The judge was sitting at his bench.
When they settled in, Mason came and knelt by their side. Cruz saw that his hair was bushy and wild, untamed from last night's sleep. His blue eyes looked sharp, focused. “I want to introduce you to someone,” he said. “Right behind you is Dr. Rajeed Ganesh.” They all turned around to look at a small Indian man sitting there with a notebook clutched to his chest. He looked very nervous.
“
Pleasure to meet you, doctor,” Cruz said, extending his hand. The doctor shook his hand with a limp, damp hand. Cruz looked at Mason and they exchanged a thought without any words. A bailiff came out from the judge's chambers and whispered something to Judge Melburn. Cruz could see the judge nod his head and then return to the distractions in front of him. Mason took his seat at counsel's table and leaned back. The old chair creaked under the new weight.
The courtroom door cracked and then opened fully. The jurors stood in a line behind a bailiff. Cruz saw that the short man, the one who had identified himself as a jockey, was standing at the front of the line. He wondered if they had already selected him as the foreman. Cruz studied each juror as they came into the courtroom. The only one that made eye contact with him was a pudgy woman, fidgety. Redknight was her last name. That much stuck with him.
“
Who does the State call as its first witness?” Judge Melburn asked before the jurors were situated. Cruz looked over at Sandra who was texting something furiously. The crowd outside screamed and Judge Melburn's face contorted. He screamed something to the bailiffs about confiscating phones, about how the gallery was communicating to the outside. Sandra looked mortified until she saw Cruz grinning. He made a motion to her for her to hide the cell phone in her blouse.
Judge Melburn repeated his question to Mason who then called Dr. Ganesh. The man virtually stumbled over his feet to get to the witness box. His voice cracked when he answered “yes” to the swearing in.
“
Dr. Ganesh, please introduce yourself to the jurors.”
“
Dr. Rajeed Ganesh. That is R-a-j-e-e-d G-a-n-e-s-h,” the doctor said, spelling his name out for the court reporter.
“
Dr. Ganesh, begin by telling us a little bit about your education.” Cruz searched through his jacket pockets for a pen while the doctor listed his education and qualifications. Washington University undergrad, M.D. at Duke. He was now the city's forensic pathologist.
“
Just what is a forensic pathologist, Dr. Ganesh?”
“
Forensic pathology is a specialization,” he started. “I do things such as autopsies to figure out the cause and manner of death. When, for instance, you see that someone committed suicide on television,” he said, turning to the jury, “I will usually be investigating a case such as that.”
“
Do you investigate homicides?”
“
Oh yes, that is one of the most common investigations that I perform. Although, the most common of my investigations are simply related to natural deaths.”
“
How many homicides do you investigate, say, on a yearly basis?” Mason asked.
“
In this city?” Dr. Ganesh asked while he thought about the answer. “Probably about fifty a year, give or take.” The doctor reached for his glass of water. Cruz listened as Mason went through the steps to qualify Dr. Ganesh as an expert. Sphinx chose not to
voir dire
Dr. Ganesh, which surprised Cruz some.
“
When did you get involved in this case?”
“
Sometimes I will go to the scene of an incident, which I did in this case. I was called out soon after it occurred actually. I studied the scene and rode back to the morgue with the body.”
“
Did you notice anything unusual during your initial investigation?”
“
No. The older man had apparently suffered gunshot wounds, although I did not know for sure how many at that point because he was still clothed. The man had nothing in his hands or around him that would constitute a weapon. He was just lying in his bed and...”
Sphinx jumped up and bellowed, “Objection! Your Honor, what the man had around him or did not is irrelevant!”
“
Your Honor,” Mason said, “the State has a right to put some flesh onto the bones of this story. The Defendant cannot expect to try this case in a vacuum.”
“
Overruled.”
“
You can finish your sentence doctor,” Mason said. Cruz watched as Sphinx stewed over his pad of paper. Shaver looked remarkably calm, staring into oblivion. His hands were placed neatly on the table in front of him.
“
He was just lying in his bed and appeared not to have moved before being shot.”
“
How do you know that?”
“
Oftentimes, people will be frozen in contorted positions when the victims of a violent crime...”
Sphinx shot up and objected again. The judge overruled him again.
“
...but this gentleman, Mr. Rodriguez, was just laying on his back, looking quite peaceful actually. We recovered the spent shells to conduct a ballistics analysis and transported Mr. Rodriguez to the city morgue.”
“
What do you do once you have a corpse back at the morgue?”
“
We do an intake—name, age, address,
et cetera
—
and then we find a storage unit for the body until I am able to perform an autopsy.”
“
How long until you start the autopsy?”
“
Generally pretty soon after the intake. It is important to perform the autopsy relatively quickly. The process usually takes a couple of hours, especially in a case such as this where there were three gunshot wounds.”
“
Dr. Ganesh, can you please describe to the jury what you found when you performed the autopsy on Mr. Rodriguez?”
“
It was relatively simple. He suffered three, close-range shots to his chest. The bullets caused a tremendous amount of damage. Any one of the bullets on its own most likely would have been able to kill Mr. Rodriguez. He died immediately.”
“
Were you able to tell where the bullets came from?”
“
You mean, directionally?”
“
Your Honor, I am going to object to this line of questioning. Dr. Ganesh was admitted to testify as an expert in forensic pathology, not ballistics or crime scene investigation,” Sphinx said. He moved to the podium and blocked Mason from the microphone.
Mason laughed and said, “Your Honor, despite defense counsel's suggestion, I went through Dr. Ganesh's qualifications both as a forensic pathologist and a ballistics expert. He has been qualified as an expert in both areas in courts of this state on many occasions.”
“
I didn't hear that testimony, Your Honor...”
“
Mr. Sphinx,” Judge Melburn said in an agitated voice, “Overruled! You will allow this witness to continue to testify without these baseless objections. I heard the testimony as well and accepted his expertise in both specialties.” Turning to Mason, he said, “You may proceed.” Cruz liked the exchange. The more Sphinx irritated the judge the better. A judge could not directly decide the case, but if Sphinx pissed Judge Melburn off, that would only help rulings turn more in Mason's favor.
Mason flipped through his notes. “Can the court reporter please read back the last question?” Mason asked. The court reporter stopped typing and read Mason's last question back to him. “Okay, so I meant directionally to begin, Dr. Ganesh.”
“
The three shots all came from above Mr. Rodriguez, and from close range.”
“
Now, could you tell what weapon they came from?”
“
Yes. The police department issues two types of weapons primarily. The first is a standard issue, Glock 23 handgun. The second is a weapon only issued to members of the department's Special Weapons and Tactics team. It is a submachine gun called the Heckler and Koch MP5. The evidence indicated that the three wounds were made by rounds from a MP5.”
“
Taking a step back, doctor, was the Defendant a member of the S.W.A.T. team?”
“
Sergeant Shaver was a member of the S.W.A.T. team and the leader of his sub-team. I pulled records from the personnel division to confirm both of these facts.”