Chapter 13
“Why are
you putting Mr. Braden on the stand to begin with instead of Detective Green or
the medical examiner? Establishing the details of the crime is usually your
first step,” Southerlyn contended.
“Putting
a face and personality to Corinna Braden is first this time. I want the jury to
come to know her as a real person, someone who was loved by her family and
friends and who loved them in return. That way, when the medical examiner lays
out the hard, cold facts of her death, they’ll already have a mental image of a
sweet young girl like their own daughter, or niece, or sister,” McCoy explained
from the passenger seat as Southerlyn turned her car into the parking lot of
the criminal courts building.
“So
you’re going to use the grieving father to tug at their heart strings,” she
suggested.
“I’m not
above using emotional blackmail,” McCoy admitted. “With circumstantial evidence
that amounts to no more than a handful of coincidences, we have our work cut
out for us going into this trial. I only wish that Briscoe and Green had been
able come up with something else for us by now.”
As
Southerlyn pulled into a parking space, she noted, “Well it wasn’t for lack of
trying. I’ve spoken with them several times over the last few weeks and I know
they haven’t given up.”
When they
had gotten out of the car, he replied, “Their good intentions aren’t going to
help us convince a jury that Fisher is guilty. What we could use is a little
incontrovertible evidence about now.”
Upon
passing the security checkpoint and entering the building, Southerlyn and McCoy
proceeded up to the second floor toward the assigned courtroom. Walking down
the crowded corridor, McCoy didn’t feel his usual sense of anticipation at the
trial they were beginning and he knew it didn’t have anything to do with the
case itself. His opening was carefully prepared and his arguments were logical,
despite the sketchy evidence. The case’s lack of strength, although
frustrating, didn’t overly concern him – he had faced juries with less before.
What did bother him was the thought of sitting across the aisle from Morgan
with feelings of animosity between them. In the two months following Fisher’s
arraignment, there had been no direct contact between him and Morgan. She had
simply sent her witness list and statements to his office by courier, and he
had done the same with his own. But although the thought of her accusations at
their last encounter still set his teeth on edge, he couldn’t help thinking
about the lunches and time they had shared during the previous trial they had
participated in together and he couldn’t help hoping that things between them
would return to a friendlier status.
As he
approached the courtroom, he silently resolved to make a concentrated effort at
reconciliation. But when he stepped into the room and found Morgan and her
client already sitting at the defense’s table, his intentions instantly
evaporated. The sight of the two of them conferring head to head, with Fisher’s
arm stretched casually across the back of Morgan’s chair, stirred in him the
same sense of anger that he had experienced during Fisher’s interrogation.
He and
Southerlyn made their way to the prosecution’s table where he began organizing
his files. When he saw Morgan look up at him out of the corner of his eye, he
simply gave her a brief cold stare before turning to speak with Southerlyn.
After all, she had made her choice clear, he reasoned.
***“And what did your tests reveal as to the time
of death?” McCoy questioned.
“Forensic
tests indicated that the body had been in the water for no more than twelve
hours and no less than eight. They also showed that the victim was killed just
prior to being put into the water. Since she was pulled from the river by
divers at
“Thank
you. I have no further questions.”
As McCoy
returned to his chair, he passed Morgan as she approached the witness stand.
“Doctor, was there any evidence on the body concerning the identity of the
person responsible for Corinna Braden’s death?”
“No.”
“Even
though she was raped, there was no viable semen from which you could extract
DNA or even determine blood type?”
“No.”
“What
about skin tissue under her fingernails indicating that she had fought her
attacker?”
“I didn’t
find anything. But as I said, since her hands were tied and the blow to her
head would’ve been enough to stun her, that would account for the lack of
defensive evidence.”
“So you didn’t find one single piece of
evidence suggesting that my client committed the crime?”
“No,”
Rodgers admitted, “I didn’t.”
“Thank
you, Doctor.”
***“We’ve put on Mr. Braden, the medical examiner,
Kayla Guitierrez, Isabel from the coffee shop, Mrs. Johnson, and the computer
lab technician,” Southerlyn noted, counting them off on her fingers. “That
leaves only Detective Green,” she added before taking a bite of her chef’s
salad.
“How is the
jury reacting?” McCoy asked after swallowing a bite of his pastrami on rye.
“In the
past three days, I think we’ve slowly won them over, once they got past
Fisher’s appearance. It’s hard to imagine someone who looks like the captain of
the high school football team being capable of committing such a horrendous
crime. But I think they’ve come around, especially today. The pictures from the
websites Fisher frequented on his home computer helped us. I saw a couple of
the jurors giving him looks of disgust this morning.”
With a
nod, he said, “Good. I think the video tape of Fisher entering the coffee shop
right before the e-mail was sent to the victim was a big hit, too, even with
the defense using it to point out the other patrons. When we put Green on this
afternoon, he’ll explain why they ruled out everyone else in the coffee shop,
narrow down the time of death, and tie everything else together for us. We
might just pull this off, yet.”
“Well
there aren’t any big surprises on Morgan’s witness list. If the only people
she’s going to call are Fisher’s boss, two of his coworkers, and Mrs. Johnson
again, it’s going to boil down to how credible Ed is and the closing
statements.”
He took
another bite of sandwich and nodded again. “Like I said, we might pull it off.”
“Why
would Morgan call Mrs. Johnson to the stand again instead of simply asking her
all of her questions when she was up there the first time?”
“It’s an
old defense trick. Calling her back to testify in the middle of the other
character witnesses makes it seem as if she’s on the defendant’s side after
all, no matter what she testified for us. During cross, I have to get her to
remind the jury what she said the first time.”
“I guess
that makes sense,” Southerlyn commented. She was quiet for a minute before
adding, “You know, I really feel sorry for Mr. Braden. He’s been in the
courtroom every day since the trial began. I don’t see how he can sit there
while everyone talks about his daughter in the past tense and refers to her as
‘the body’ or ‘the victim’. That has to be like rubbing salt into an open
wound.”
“It can’t
be easy on him,” McCoy agreed with a sigh. “I’m kind of relieved that his wife
hasn’t shown up. Even though emotional family members can sometimes help sway a
jury, what we’ve been hearing would be extremely difficult on her. Ed and
Lennie said she took her daughter’s death very hard.”
“I hope
we can convict Fisher. Maybe that will help the family sleep a little better at
night.”
“Nothing
we do can give them back their peace of mind. All we can hope to bring them is
a little closure.” He checked his watch and then pulled out his wallet. “Come
on. We’d better head back. A contempt citation for being late isn’t going to
impress the jury.”
***“Detective Green, almost all of the questions
Mr. McCoy asked you had to do with the crime and victim or with the reasons why
you settled on the defendant as the suspect for Corinna Braden’s murder. What
specific evidence do you have to prove that this man actually committed the
crime?” Morgan asked, motioning to Fisher.
Green
followed her with his eyes as she moved to stand beside the jury box. “His
suspicious behavior with other young girls, his online viewing of sexually
explicit pictures of young girls, the orange-flavored milk found in his
refrigerator, the fact that he was at the location from where one of the
e-mails was sent to the victim at the same time it was sent, and that he wasn’t
home at the time of the murder.”
“All of
those things are coincidental. They can easily be explained. And every one of
those things could equally apply to numerous other individuals as well,” she
maintained. “What about fingerprints? Did you find any of the victim’s prints
on the milk found at Mr. Fisher’s apartment?”
“No, as I
stated before, we didn’t find anyone’s
prints on the milk.”
“Since
you feel my client contacted the victim via e-mail, did you find any evidence
on his computer that he had ever done so?”
“Not on
his home computer,” Green reluctantly answered.
“Did you
find the name Josh Lewis anywhere on his personal computer, for instance on a
message he had received?”
“No.”
“Did
anyone see the victim and my client together?”
“No one
that we could find.”
“Did you
find any of the victim’s missing possessions in Mr. Fisher’s apartment or on
his person?”
“Other
than the milk, no, we did not.”
“The milk
that you can’t prove belonged to the victim,” Morgan amended.
“Objection,” McCoy said from his seat. “Defense is testifying.”
“Sustained,” Ianello ruled.
“Let’s talk
about the video tape,” Morgan suggested. “How many people were in the coffee
shop at the time that particular e-mail was received by the victim?”
“We
counted ten total customers, six of whom were men.”
“And based
on what a clerk in the coffee shop said, you narrowed the list to how many?”
“There
were four men that she remembered seeing in the shop on previous occasions.”
“How many
of those four did you investigate?”
“We ruled
out two others before we focused on the defendant.”
“What
about the fourth man?”
“We
didn’t investigate him. After investigating Mr. Fisher, we were convinced he
was the one who had committed the crime.”
“Based on
the coincidences,” she added pointedly.
“Objection,” McCoy said again.
Ianello
nodded. “Sustained.”
“So you
don’t know anything about this other man who was a regular in the coffee shop?”
Morgan continued.
“We did
run his name through the police data base,” Green stated. “He had no previous
arrests.”
“You never
bothered checking to see if he had an alibi for the time of the murder or if
you could connect him to the victim in some way?”
“As I
said, once we investigated Mr. Fisher we felt we had the person who had
committed the crime and saw no need to continue investigating anyone else.”
“Besides
the man you didn’t investigate who was a regular at the coffee shop, can you
say with absolute certainty that it would’ve been impossible for one of the two
not identified as regulars to have committed the crime?”
Green
paused for a moment before responding, “No, I can’t say it would have been
impossible.”
Morgan
nodded. “Thank you, Detective, for your honest answer.”
***“It definitely could’ve gone better,” McCoy
admitted.
“I
thought it went pretty much the way we expected it to,” Southerlyn pointed out
as she walked with him toward the parking lot.
“I’m not
saying Ed didn’t do a good job of putting all the pieces together. I just wish
we would’ve had something to make the jury see Fisher as he really is. I
would’ve given anything to be able to tell them about his prior arrest.”
“But that
wasn’t an option. I think the jury could still vote to convict.”
McCoy
shook his head. “Stranger things have happened, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on
it. Calea has already clearly pointed out to the jury that our case is nothing
but circumstantial and she hasn’t even called her first witness. It’s going to
be an uphill battle from here.” He let out a frustrated sigh. “During closing,
maybe it’ll be enough to remind them that Fisher had motive, means,
opportunity, and more importantly, desire.”
“There’s
no use beating yourself up over something that you couldn’t control, Jack,”
Southerlyn contended. “You did your best with what we had.”
With
another sigh, McCoy predicted gloomily, “That will be small consolation to the
family of Eric Fisher’s next victim.”