Just Take My Heart (5 page)

The tedious task of selecting and swearing a jury took three days. At nine a.m. on the fourth day, the judge, the jury, the attorneys, and the defendant were assembled. Judge Stevens told the jurors that the attorneys would now be presenting their opening statements. He gave them general instructions and explained that since the prosecutor had the burden of proof, she would proceed first.

Taking a deep breath, Emily rose from her chair and walked over toward the jurors.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As Judge Stevens has told you, my name is Emily Wallace and I am an assistant prosecutor in the office of the Bergen County Prosecutor. I have been given the responsibility of presenting to you, for your review and your consideration, the evidence that the state has gathered in the matter of State versus Gregg Aldrich. As Judge Stevens has also told you, what I say now and what Mr. Moore may say in his opening statement is not evidence. The evidence will come from the witnesses who will testify and from the exhibits that are marked into evidence. The purpose of my opening statement is to give you an overview of the state's case so that as each witness testifies, you will have a better understanding of where that testimony fits within the total scheme of the state's case.

"After all of the testimony is completed, I will have another opportunity to speak to you

--in my summation--and, at that time, I respectfully submit to you, I will be able to say to you that the state's witnesses and the physical exhibits have demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that Gregg Aldrich brutally murdered his wife."

For the next forty-five minutes, Emily meticulously detailed the investigation and the circumstances that had led to Aldrich's indictment. She told them that by all accounts Natalie Raines and Gregg Aldrich had been very happy early on in their five-year marriage. She spoke of Natalie's success as an actress and of Aldrich's prominence as her theatrical agent. She explained to them that the evidence would show that as time passed, the demands of Natalie's career, including long separations when her shows took her on the road, began to cause substantial strain.

Her voice lowered, she sketched Aldrich's growing frustration at these circumstances and his disappointment, which evolved into deep anger, that Natalie was not home much more often with him and his young daughter. With a tone of sympathy, she related that Aldrich's first wife had died when his little girl, Katie, had been only three years old and that he had hoped and expected that Natalie would be a second mother to her. Katie had been seven years old at the time that they married. Emily indicated that she would produce witnesses who had been friends of the couple who would testify to Gregg's repeated statements of anger and frustration that Natalie was consumed by her career, and was not there emotionally for ei-ther one of them.

She then informed the jury that Natalie and Aldrich had a pre-nuptial agreement which kept their finances generally separate. However, she stated, much of Gregg Aldrich's income was earned as Natalie's agent. When, a year before her death, she had separated from him, she told him that she still cared deeply for him and wanted him to continue as her agent. But as the months went by, and Natalie became convinced that because of Aldrich's resentment a total break would be necessary, he faced the loss of the substantial in-come from his most successful client.

Emily related that the evidence would show that Gregg made repeated requests to Natalie to reconcile but was rebuffed. She told the jurors that after the separation, Natalie had bought her childhood home in Closter, New Jersey, a thirty-minute drive from the midtown Manhattan apartment where Gregg continued to reside with his daughter. Emily explained that Natalie was comfortable and happy in her home, which provided close proximity to the New York theatre, but both emotional and physical distance from Gregg. Shortly after this move, and sure of her decision, Natalie filed for divorce. Witnesses would testify that Gregg had been devastated, but still not convinced that the marriage was over.

Emily continued. The evidence would demonstrate that Gregg Aldrich, growing more desperate, began to stalk Natalie. On the Fri-day night prior to the early Monday morning death of Natalie, he attended the final Broadway performance of A Streetcar Named De-sire, sitting in the last row so that she could not see him. He was observed by others who would testify that he had appeared stone-faced throughout the performance and had been the only person in the audience not to rise for a standing ovation at the end.

As the jurors listened intently, their eyes shifting between Emily and the defense table, Emily continued. "Telephone records reveal that on the following morning, Saturday, March 14th, Gregg received what would be his last phone call from Natalie. According to his own statement to the police after her body was found, Natalie left a message for Gregg that she had gone to her Cape Cod home for the weekend. She told him that she still intended to be present at the scheduled three o'clock transition meeting on Monday in her new agent's Manhattan office."

Emily related that Aldrich explained to the police that this meeting had been scheduled so that he and the new agent could review her contracts and pending offers in Natalie's presence. Gregg admitted to the police that in the message Natalie told him she needed to be alone, and implored him not to contact her for any reason during the weekend.

Emily then turned toward Gregg, as if to confront him. "Gregg Aldrich responded to that request," she said, her voice rising. "Although he initially denied that he had any further contact with Natalie prior to her death, the police challenged him with the records they quickly obtained. Within a half hour of that phone call, his credit card was used to rent a vehicle, a dark green Toyota sedan, which he kept for two days and drove a total of 680

miles. The rental itself was particularly important because the defendant already owned a car, which remained in the garage of the apartment building where he lived."

Turning back toward the jurors, Emily argued that the mileage was extremely significant because the round trip to Natalie's Cape Cod home from Manhattan was five hundred and forty miles. Only after being confronted by the police with the fact that a Cape Cod neighbor, who lived around the corner from Natalie, had seen him driving a dark green Toyota past his home on the Saturday night prior to Natalie's death, did Gregg Aldrich admit that he had been there.

"And what did he say about why he had gone there? He would have this jury believe," Emily argued, "that his sole purpose in mak-ing the trip was to see if his estranged wife was with another man that weekend. Aldrich would also have you believe that if he had seen anyone else with her, he would have given up his efforts to reconcile and accept the divorce."

Emily rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. "Just like that," she said. "After begging her to come back to him, the same man who was literally stalking her in a rented vehicle that gave him cover, was going to pick up his marbles and go home. But he didn't count on a neighbor seeing him behind the wheel of that rented car.

"Gregg Aldrich lives very well. There are fine inns on Cape Cod, but he stayed in a cheap motel in Hyannis. He admitted that he drove past Natalie's house twice on Saturday and did not observe any other car or person there. He further admitted that on Sunday he drove by her house three times, the last time at eight o'clock that evening, and that it appeared to him Natalie was alone. He claimed that he drove five hours back to New York and immediately went to bed. He stated that he awoke at seven a.m. on Monday morning, left about seven twenty for a jog in Central Park, jogged or walked for well over two hours, and returned the Toyota to the rental office six blocks from his apartment at ten a.m."

Emily's voice grew increasingly sarcastic. "And what did he tell the police about why he rented a car, as opposed to driving his own luxury vehicle? He stated that his own car was past due for servicing and he didn't want to put this much more mileage on it at that time." She shook her head. "What a pathetic story. I submit to you that Gregg Aldrich rented a vehicle that would not be recognized by Natalie if she had happened to look out her window. He did not want Natalie to know that he was stalking her."

Emily took a deep breath. "But he did know her habits. Natalie hated to drive in traffic. She didn't mind driving late at night or very early in the morning. I submit to you that Gregg Aldrich knew Natalie would be back home in Closter sometime early-to midmorning Monday, and he went there to confront her. He arrived before her. You will hear from a neighbor's housekeeper, Suzie Walsh, that she saw Natalie getting out of her car in her garage at a few minutes be-fore eight. She will tell you that five hours later, at one o'clock, when she drove past Natalie's home, she saw that the car door was still open, and sensed something was wrong. You will hear that she decided to enter the home and found Natalie dying on the kitchen floor. You will hear from the detectives that there was no sign of forced entry, but Natalie's mother will tell you that Natalie had kept a key to the back door, which had a separate lock, in an imitation rock in the backyard. That key was missing. And very significantly, Gregg Aldrich knew where to look for that key since he had bought that imitation rock for Natalie."

Emily continued, "The state acknowledges to you that no evidence physically connecting Gregg Aldrich to the murder scene was recovered. Hence, in the first two years of this investigation, though substantial circumstantial evidence existed regarding Gregg Aldrich, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office recognized that even great suspicion is not enough. Gregg Aldrich was not arrested until six months ago. He was arrested after the break that was needed occurred. That break came in the person of Jimmy Easton."

This is the toughest part, Emily thought, as she took a sip of water. "I will begin my reference to Mr. Easton by telling you immediately that he is a career criminal. He has numerous felony convictions over a twenty-year span and he has served several terms in prison. Six months ago he did again what he has done most of his adult life--he committed another crime. He broke into a home in Old Tappan, but was caught running from it with money and jewelry. The police were alerted to this burglary by a silent alarm that had been tripped. When he was being processed at the local police department, no doubt he knew he was facing a long prison term. He told the police that he had important information regarding the murder of Natalie Raines. Detectives from the prosecutor's office immediately responded and spoke to him."

The jurors were all listening intently. She sensed their negative reaction when she detailed Easton's prior record of burglary, theft, forgery, and sale of illegal drugs. Before going into all of what Easton had told the detectives, she prefaced it by saying that she would never expect a jury to believe him unless there was substantial corroboration to what he was saying. She stated that there was.

Emily bluntly told the jury that, as they might expect, Mr. Easton a not cooperating simply out of the goodness of his heart. In exchange for his testimony, the prosecutor's office had agreed to limit his prison term on his plea to burglary to four years in prison, which six years less than the ten-year term he could have received as a habitual offender. She told them that sometimes plea agreements like this were necessary to obtain information in a more serious case. She emphasized that Easton would still receive a prison term, but also would benefit from his cooperation.

Emily drew in a deep breath. She was well aware that the jurors mere totally engaged and listening to every word. She told them that in had informed the detectives that he had had a chance meeting in a bar in Manhattan with Gregg Aldrich two weeks before Natalie Raines was murdered. Easton said that Aldrich was drinking heavily and appeared very depressed. He stated that Aldrich started talking to him as they sat at the bar and indicated that he wanted to set rid of his wife. Easton explained to the police that he had recently been paroled and could not get a job because of his criminal record. He was living in a rented room in Greenwich Village and kicking up odd jobs.

"Ladies and gentlemen of this jury, Jimmy Easton told Aldrich about his criminal record and he further told him that he would be happy, for the right price, to take care of his problem. Aldrich offered him five thousand dollars up front and twenty thousand dollars after the crime was committed. You will hear Mr. Easton testify that the agreement was made and that Aldrich gave Easton many details about Natalie's schedule and where she lived. You will also hear, ladies and gentlemen, that telephone records indicate a call was placed from Aldrich's cell phone to Easton's cell phone. You will learn that Jimmy Easton went to Gregg Aldrich's apartment, the interior of which he will describe in detail, and accepted the five thousand dollar down payment. Mr. Easton will tell you, however, that he thereafter became very afraid of getting caught and spending the rest of his life in prison. He will also tell you that he then wrote a letter to Mr. Aldrich informing him that he couldn't go through with it. Ladies and Gentlemen, I submit to you that, tragically for Natalie Raines, it was at that point that Gregg Aldrich decided to kill her himself."

Emily concluded by thanking the jurors for their attention. As the judge was telling them that Mr. Moore would now speak, she walked slowly back to her chair. She nodded almost imperceptibly to Ted Wesley, who was seated in the front row. I'm glad that's over, she thought. I think it went pretty well. Now let's hear what Moore has to say about our star witness.

Moore stood up, theatrically shaking his head as if to clear away the nonsense he had just been forced to endure. He thanked the judge, walked toward the jury box with measured steps, and leaned slightly on the rail.

Good neighbors chatting over the fence, Emily thought sarcastically. He does this all the time. He wants to be their new best friend.

"Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Richard Moore. My son Cole Moore and I represent Gregg Aldrich. We want to start off by saying thank you for the several weeks that you have taken from your personal lives to serve on this panel. It is most appreciated by both of us. It is also most important. You literally have the life and future of Gregg in your hands. We spent a long time picking this jury, and when I said that the jury was