Evidence of Blood (15 page)

SNOW:
No, sir.

TALBOTT:
Did he ever mention Ellie Dinker?

SNOW:
No, sir.

TALBOTT:
To your knowledge, had he ever met Ellie Dinker?

SNOW:
I wouldn’t know about that.

TALBOTT:
Well, you never saw them together, did you?

SNOW:
No, sir.

TALBOTT:
So all you know, Mr. Snow, is that Charlie Overton said he was having trouble with a woman, is that right?

SNOW
: That’s right.

TALBOTT:
Have you ever had any trouble with a woman, Mr. Snow?

SNOW:
I guess so.

TALBOTT:
Did you ever kill a woman?

SNOW:
No, sir.

TALBOTT:
Do you know any man who’s never had any woman trouble?

SNOW:
I guess not.

TALBOTT:
I don’t either, Mr. Snow, not a single one. Thank you.

The prosecution had rested its case with Luther Snow’s testimony, and so after concluding his cross-examination, Talbott began the case for the defense.

His first witness was Dave Halgrave, another of Overton’s co-workers at Thompson Construction, but, unlike Luther Snow, a man who thought of Overton as a friend.

TALBOTT:
How long have you known Charlie Overton?

HALGRAVE
: Since we was kids, I reckon. Thirty years, something like that.

TALBOTT:
And you worked together, did you not?

HALGRAVE
: I been at Thompson’s for near on to twenty years now. Charlie come on about two years ago when we was hiring people to help build the courthouse.

TALBOTT:
Would you say that you know Charlie Overton pretty well?

HALGRAVE
: Well as anybody.

TALBOTT:
Is Charlie Overton a killer, Mr. Halgrave?
(WITNESS LAUGHS.)

TALBOTT:
Could you answer the question? We need a response for the court reporter.

HALGRAVE
: No, Charlie ain’t no killer. He ain’t mean like that.

TALBOTT:
Is it within his capacity to take the life of a young girl?

HALGRAVE:
N
O
, sir, it ain’t.

TALBOTT:
Even if that young girl was pestering him, Mr. Halgrave?

HALGRAVE
: She could have been setting him afire, and he wouldn’t have done her no harm. It ain’t his way of doing things.

TALBOTT:
Mr. Halgrave, did you see Charlie Overton on July 2, 1954, the day of Ellie Dinker’s murder?

HALGRAVE
: We was working together.

TALBOTT:
In his Statement to the police, Mr. Overton said that he’d gotten sick that morning and had had to leave the courthouse construction site. To your knowledge, was Charlie Overton sick on the morning of July 2?

HALGRAVE:
Yes, sir, he was.

TALBOTT:
You know this for a fact?

HALGRAVE:
Well, I seen him throwing up.

TALBOTT:
Where was this, Mr. Halgrave?

HALGRAVE:
At the courthouse. He was over by his truck, and he was all bent over, and he was, well, you know, he was heaving up.

TALBOTT:
You saw Charlie Overton vomiting beside his truck on July 2, is that your testimony?

HALGRAVE
: Yes, sir.

TALBOTT:
And shortly after that, he came to you and said he was sick and needed to go home, is that right?

HALGRAVE:
Yes, sir.

TALBOTT:
And what happened after that?

HALGRAVE
: Charlie went home. He was white as a ghost.

TALBOTT:
Thank you, that is all.

In his cross-examination, Warfield proved just as effective as Talbott had been, transforming words offered in defense to accusatory references.

WARFIELD
: And you said you’ve known Mr. Overton almost all your life?

HALGRAVE:
Yes, sir.

WARFIELD
: And you consider him a good friend?

HALGRAVE
: Good as any.

WARFIELD
: Would you say that good friends often try to help each other, Mr. Halgrave?

HALGRAVE:
I guess.

WARFIELD
: That if a friend were in trouble, they might try to get them out of it?

HALGRAVE:
I guess so.

WARFIELD
: Would you say that a person who was on trial for his life, would you say that that person was in trouble?

HALGRAVE
: ’Course they are.

WARFIELD
: I’d like to go on to something else, if I may, Mr. Halgrave. You testified that Charlie Overton was not a violent man, isn’t that right?

HALGRAVE
: That’s right.

WARFIELD
: And that he was very sick on the morning of July 2?

HALGRAVE
: He was throwing up by his truck.

WARFIELD
: Yes, I heard your testimony. I believe you also stated that Charlie Overton …here it is in my notes …that Overton looked “white as a ghost.” Were those your words?

HALGRAVE
: That’s how he looked, yes, sir.

WARFIELD:
Mr. Halgrave, would you say that a man who was not normally a violent man, but who was planning on murdering a little girl in just a few hours, would you say that such a man might look a bit shaken?

TALBOTT:
Objection, Your Honor.

WARFIELD
: That he might look sick, that he might be …

TALBOTT:
Objection!

WARFIELD
: “White as a ghost”?

COURT
: Sustained.

WARFIELD
: No further questions, Your Honor.

Nor any need for them, Kinley thought, considering how effectively Warfield had dismantled the already frail vessel of Halgrave’s testimony, turning positives into negatives in a case where there had been few positives to begin with.

Kinley flipped back to the beginning of the volume and let his eyes sweep down the witness list to make sure he’d read it correctly the first time, that Talbott had called only three witnesses on Overton’s behalf. A quick glance confirmed
his original conclusion. Only three witnesses to save Charles Overton’s life.

He returned his attention to the transcripts and began reading at the Court’s instruction to Talbott:
Call your next witness, sir
.

Her name was Betty Gaines, and almost from the moment he began reading her testimony, Kinley realized that she’d been a reluctant witness. Her answers came haltingly and with a strange, vaporous insubstantiality, as if she were testifying to the contents of a dream. It was the kind of testimony Kinley had become familiar with, and in his experience it had always signalled either that the witnesses were afraid of the testimony, or had some doubts about its veracity.

TALBOTT:
You’re acquainted with Charlie Overton, aren’t you, Miss Gaines?

(WITNESS DOES NOT RESPOND)

TALBOTT:
Miss Gaines?

GAINES:
Yes, sir.

TALBOTT:
Did you hear the question, Miss Gaines?

GAINES:
Would you repeat it, please?

TALBOTT:
I asked if you knew Charlie Overton.

GAINES:
He works at Thompson’s, like I do.

TALBOTT:
And did you see him on the morning of July 2 at the courthouse construction site?

GAINES
: It was a pretty day, I think. It was sunny.

TALBOTT:
Why were you at the site that morning, Miss Gaines?

GAINES
: I came down with the orders. Deliveries. Things come down there. Things are delivered.

TALBOTT:
And the workers at the site, they have to be ready to unload these things, isn’t that right?

GAINES
: You got to be ready when things come around.

TALBOTT:
And so you went down to the site to let the foreman know what deliveries he could expect on that day?

GAINES
: I let Luther know.

TALBOTT:
You spoke to Luther Snow, is that right?

GAINES
: I gave him the orders, you know, what was coming.

TALBOTT:
And while you were there, did you see Charlie Overton?

GAINES:
Yes.

TALBOTT:
Where did you see him?

GAINES
: At the hole where the flagpole was going to be. The ground was still mushy-like, and he was complaining about it, ’cause it was going to be a week before it was dried out.