Stone Cold (21 page)

Kate pointed to his name on her spreadsheet. “Alex, I hope to hell you’re right about him, because God help you if you’re wrong.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“GOOD AFTERNOON,” PATRICK ORTIZ SAID to the jury, beginning his opening statement by eliciting another round of head nods and smiles. “This is my chance to talk to you about this case and tell you what happened and how we got here. When I’m done, the defendant’s lawyer will get the same chance. And then you’ll hear from the witnesses and you’ll get to see the exhibits, and then I’ll come back and talk to you again, as will defense counsel, and after all that we’ll turn the case over to you for your verdict. So here’s what happened and how we got here.

“The defendant is a lawyer, a public defender whose job is to represent people charged with crimes who can’t afford to hire an attorney. It’s a thankless job with long hours and lousy pay. In fact, it’s one of the worst jobs a lawyer can have unless that lawyer is so passionate about seeing justice done according to the law and so compassionate for those who are too poor to pay for a lawyer that the long hours and lousy pay are more blessing than curse. That kind of lawyer will never find a better job.

“Last year, the defendant was assigned to represent a man named Dwayne Reed. Mr. Reed was accused of murdering a man named Wilfred Donaire. The defendant accomplished something that a public defender almost never does in a case like that. She won, and Mr. Reed walked out of the courthouse a free man.

“A little more than six weeks later, the defendant shot Dwayne Reed to death in his mother’s living room. This case is about how the defendant went from being Dwayne’s savior to being his executioner. It’s about how guilt, revenge, and anger can change someone from being an officer of the court to being a murderer.

“The defendant’s transformation began the day Dwayne Reed was acquitted. He called the defendant late that night to tell her he’d been arrested and to ask her to come downtown to police headquarters.

“When she arrived, the arresting officer, a homicide detective named Hank Rossi, released Mr. Reed, and the two of them left together. Detective Rossi followed them to the street and watched them talking to each other from a distance too far away to hear what they were saying. As soon as Mr. Reed left, the defendant threw up in the street.

“The next day, for the first time in her life and without telling anyone, she bought a gun and applied for a permit to carry it as a concealed weapon. She joined a shooting range called the Bullet Hole, where she practiced several times a week, lying to Bonnie Long, her girlfriend, with whom she was living, telling her that she was working late.

“During the Wilfred Donaire trial, a man named Jameer Henderson testified against Mr. Reed. His testimony may have been enough to convict Mr. Reed, but when the defendant cross-examined Mr. Henderson, he took it all back and claimed that another man named Kyrie Chapman had forced him to lie on the witness stand.

“After the trial, the defendant became very concerned that Mr. Reed would seek revenge against Mr. Henderson and his family. She was so worried that she drove up and down the Hendersons’ street practically every day to make certain they were okay.

“Six weeks later, Jameer Henderson, his wife and two children, and Kyrie Chapman were murdered. When Detective Rossi sought to question Mr. Reed about the murders, Mr. Reed ran away and cut his leg open while trying to climb over a chain-link fence.

“Detective Rossi caught up to him and the police took Mr. Reed to Truman Medical Center for treatment of his leg wound. In one of those small-world coincidences, it turns out that the defendant’s girlfriend, Bonnie Long, is an emergency room doctor at Truman, and she ended up taking care of Mr. Reed. Dr. Long recognized him from what the defendant had told her about his trial and her concerns for the Hendersons’ safety.

“While Dr. Long was sewing up Mr. Reed, he threatened her. In the presence of two police officers, he said that he would find her at home and rape her. Needless to say, Dr. Long was very frightened and upset by Reed’s threats, as was the defendant after Dr. Long told her what had happened.

“Mr. Reed wasn’t arrested for the Henderson and Chapman murders, but he was arrested for drug possession when the police found crack cocaine in his jeans pocket. The defendant represented Mr. Reed on the drug charge even though she knew he had threatened her lover.

“Mr. Reed was too poor to afford a lawyer, so there’s a good chance he would’ve had to stay in jail if the judge required him to post a bond. But the defendant convinced the judge to release Mr. Reed without making him put up any bail. A few hours later, she gunned him down.

“There are three people who know what happened in the living room where Mr. Reed died. The first person is Dwayne Reed, and he can’t tell us what happened because he’s dead. The second person is the defendant, and the third person is Mr. Reed’s mother, Odyessy Shelburne.

“We know what she will say because she gave a statement to the police immediately after the shooting. She will tell you that she was there when the defendant came into her house. She was there when the defendant confronted her son and began screaming at him, and she was there when the defendant shot her son twice in the chest. She was there when her son pulled his gun in an effort to defend himself and fired a shot into the living room ceiling as he fell to the floor. And she was there when she knelt beside her son and cradled his head in her arms as he died.

“Why did the defendant murder her client? What happened? The evidence will be that after Mr. Reed was acquitted of murdering Wilfred Donaire, he admitted to the defendant that he was, in fact, guilty and that he threatened her if she told anyone. Guilt ridden and angry that she had helped her client get away with murder, and frightened for herself and for the Henderson family, she decided to kill Mr. Reed.

“She spent six weeks planning the murder. She bought a gun, learned how to use it, and lied to her lover to keep these acts a secret. When her worst fears for the Henderson family came true and when Mr. Reed threatened Dr. Long, the defendant couldn’t wait any longer.

“She made sure Mr. Reed got out of jail, then tracked him to his mother’s house and fired two shots into his chest from close range. She used a gun she was carrying in her jacket pocket. She fired the gun while it was still in her pocket, hiding it so Mr. Reed couldn’t see it or have a chance to defend himself. It was like she snuck up on him in plain sight.

“Alex Stone murdered Mr. Reed to avenge the deaths of Wilfred Donaire, Kyrie Chapman, and Jameer Henderson and his wife and two children and to silence Mr. Reed’s threats toward her girlfriend.

“Instead of upholding the law and protecting the rights of the accused, she broke the law and trampled on her client’s rights. Instead of trusting the criminal justice system she was sworn to uphold, she became a vigilante. And instead of letting the police protect her girlfriend, she murdered Dwayne Reed. That’s what happened, and that’s why we are here.”

Claire took a moment, studying the jury as Ortiz took his seat, their eyes following him before finding her, waiting for her to take center stage. She knew that people believed what they heard first and remembered what they heard last. Belief was better, because once the jury became anchored to a belief, it would be difficult to move them, even in the face of contradictory evidence. Memory was powerful but more subjective and malleable, but in that moment, she wanted to give them a lasting impression. She rose, taking her place in front of the lectern, closing the distance between her and the jury.

“As I listened to Mr. Ortiz,” she began, “I was struck most by the one thing he didn’t say—my client’s name, Alex Stone. Mr. Ortiz is far too experienced for this to have been a simple oversight. Not using Alex’s name is a way of making her less of a person. If you only know her as the defendant, it’s harder to understand what happened in Odyessy Shelburne’s living room. And your job, your duty, is to understand what happened and why. And to do that it’s important that you get to know Alex Stone.”

Claire turned toward Alex, who stood facing the jury. Kate had coached them for this moment. They couldn’t have known what Patrick Ortiz would say in his opening statement, but it was a given that he would try to dehumanize Alex so that the jury would not be sympathetic toward her. Failing to mention her by name was just one of the possibilities they had prepared for.

Kate instructed Alex to appear serious but also open and friendly.
No smiling or other gestures, but keep your face soft and your eyes warm,
Kate told her. They videotaped their practice sessions, watching the recordings, tweaking the slant of Alex’s head, the softness of her mouth, and the square of her shoulders until Kate pronounced her ready for prime time. Alex hit her mark and sat down, Claire turning back to the jury.

“Alex was born and raised in Kansas City. Her mom and dad, Cindy and Herb, are sitting in the front row behind our table. Her brother, Steve, is a marine serving overseas. Alex’s life partner, Bonnie Long, isn’t here because she will be a witness and witnesses aren’t allowed in the courtroom until they testify.

“Alex was like a lot of kids growing up. She went to school, hung out with her friends, and thought about her future. But unlike a lot of kids, she knew from an early age that she wanted to be a lawyer. At first, her parents were surprised because there were no lawyers in their family. When they asked her why, she said that she wanted to help people.

“And that’s what she did. Mr. Ortiz said being a public defender was a lousy job because of the long hours and low pay. Alex never thought of her job in those terms. She only thought about how important her job was for the people she represented. She understood that the state could overwhelm someone who didn’t have a good lawyer. She knew that innocent people were sometimes convicted of crimes they didn’t commit, and she swore to do everything in her power to make certain that never happened to anyone she represented.

“She brought that commitment to her representation of Dwayne Reed. It didn’t matter that Dwayne was a member of a street gang. It didn’t matter that he was a drug dealer. It didn’t matter that he was accused of a horrible crime. The only thing that mattered was making certain he had the best representation she could give him. That’s what our Constitution guarantees. That’s what her duty required. And that’s who Alex Stone is.

“She is not someone who planned to murder Dwayne Reed. If exercising her constitutional right to own and carry a gun is proof that she did, then millions of Americans who own guns are one step away from being accused of a crime. If asking a judge to release her client from jail is proof that she did, then criminal defense lawyers all across this country should stop doing their job. These are very thin reeds for the prosecution to rely on. Sending Alex Stone to prison for the rest of her life requires more than that. So let’s talk about what happened in Odyessy Shelburne’s living room.”

Claire knew that this was a critical moment in her opening statement. She could limit her remarks to questioning Odyessy Shelburne’s credibility, reminding the jury that the state had the burden of proof and that Alex didn’t have to prove a thing. Or she could give the jury another version while also undermining Odyessy.

They hadn’t decided whether Alex would testify. If Claire told the jury Alex’s version, they would expect Alex to take the stand. If she didn’t, Ortiz would cram Claire’s words down her throat in his closing argument, reminding the jury that she had failed to prove what she’d promised to prove. They had debated both strategies for hours, deciding in the end that it was better to plant the seed of an alternative explanation, hoping that it would blossom into reasonable doubt, than to count on destroying Odyessy on cross-examination.

“Bonnie Long,” she continued, “told Alex that Dwayne Reed had threatened to rape her. Whether it was just bluster or a real threat didn’t matter, because Alex knew that her relationship with Bonnie and Dwayne’s threat had created a conflict of interest, making it impossible for her to continue to represent Dwayne.

“But she couldn’t walk away from him, not when he was about to be arraigned on the drug charge. So, she decided to wait until after Dwayne was arraigned before withdrawing as his lawyer.

“At his arraignment, she asked the judge to release him without bail because that’s what lawyers do for their clients. Had she not made that request, Dwayne could have used that to claim that she hadn’t represented him adequately if he was convicted. But it was the judge, not Alex, who made the decision to release him.

“Alex decided to tell Dwayne in person that she could no longer represent him. She went to his mother’s house because she knew that’s where she was likely to find him. Because Dwayne had threatened Bonnie Long and was a suspect in the murders of Kyrie Chapman and Jameer Henderson and his family, she took her gun with her. They talked and Dwayne became enraged. Alex tried to calm him down, but when he pulled his gun on her, she did what any reasonable person would have done when in fear for her life. She acted in self-defense.

“Could she have tried to get someone else to represent him at his arraignment? Could she have called him on the phone instead of going to his mother’s house? The answers to these questions are yes but are irrelevant to this case. The only question that matters is whether Alex Stone acted in self-defense.

“Our laws recognize that Alex Stone had every right to defend herself even if that meant using deadly force. Everyone’s life has value, including a drug-dealing gangster who is suspected of murdering five people. Dwayne Reed’s death is a tragedy no matter what he’d done or was suspected of doing. But his death isn’t the only tragedy in this case. The other tragedy is that he gave Alex Stone no choice.”

Claire gave the jury a final, firm look and returned to her seat. Judge West looked at the clock on the wall.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s now three o’clock. As important as this case is, I must attend to matters in another case, so we will be in recess until tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. Do not discuss this case among yourselves or with anyone else. Avoid any news reports concerning this case. I’ll see you in the morning.”