Michael Gresham: Secrets Girls Keep Part 25

"No."

"On the way to the restroom, did she come to you and complain about Jana?"

"I didn't see her all the way to the restroom. I don't know where she went so I can't answer you."

"But for what you did see of her on the walk over, you didn't see her trying to get away from Jana?"

"No."

"And you didn't hear her complain about Jana?"

"Not to me."

"To anyone? Did she complain to anyone?"

"Not that I heard."

"After leaving the bleachers and heading for the restroom, did you see Amy and Jana together again?"

"No."

"Did you see Amy again after leaving the bleachers?"

"No."

"Did you see Jana?"

"No. Somebody told me Amy stopped at the snack shop to give Scott his ring back."

"Who is Scott?"

"Her old boyfriend. They were an item since eighth grade."

"Why give him his ring back-if you know?"

"She broke up with him that week and he wanted the ring back. It was his cla.s.s ring."

"So she left your restroom procession and stopped by the snack shop?"

"That's what someone told me."

"Objection. Hearsay."

"Exception to the hearsay rule: doesn't seek to prove the truth of the matter a.s.serted but only that it was said."

"Overruled. Please continue."

"Now, Erin, how long did you know Amy Tanenbaum?"

"Since first grade."

"Were you cla.s.smates that entire time?"

"Yes. Except we had different cla.s.ses in high school. She wanted to be a doctor and I didn't."

"So your curricula didn't match up?"

"That's true."

"Did you spend time at each other's houses in high school?"

"At least one night a week."

"So you were good friends?"

"Best friends."

"So you want whoever killed your friend to be convicted and brought to justice, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Is there any other reason that you can think of that Jana Emerich might have been Amy's murderer?"

"No."

"And you were with her all of that night?"

"Yes."

"Rode with her in the same car to the game?"

"Yes."

"Sat with her the entire first half?"

"Yes."

"Observed her and she appeared fine?"

"Yes."

"Observed Jana and he appeared normal?"

"Yes."

"So you witnessed nothing that might suggest Jana was her killer?"

"Well, not exactly."

"Then what?"

"Nothing, I guess."

She is crying now, her shoulders shaking, and I step away from the lectern, back toward my table.

"Your Honor, that is all I have."

There is no re-direct examination. We are through with this witness.

She flees the witness stand, leaning against an adult who must be her mother, wiping her eyes with a tissue as she walks up the aisle to the door.

My confidence is building. I am beginning to see some light.

But we haven't gotten to the tough witnesses yet. The medical/technical witnesses. They will be hardened veterans and will out-dance me if they can because they know all the steps.

But so do I.

36.

It is late in the day when the first CSI is called to the witness stand. This is the first of the technical witnesses. Crime scene techs are professionals, usually with a degree in biology or other applied science. They have been trained in their specialty, certainly, but also exhaustively trained at the police academy in witness methods and testimony formulation and withstanding cross-examination. They are professional testifiers; they make and keep eye contact with the jury, keep a patina of serious on their testimony, and they can bury your client and look pleasant and innocent the whole time they are doing it.

She is a black woman, average height, wearing her hair close-cropped like Halle Berry and dressed in the uniform of the Chicago Police Department Crime Scene Investigation unit. Taking the witness stand with grace and ease, she is the picture of confident competence.

"Your name?" asks State's Attorney d.i.c.kinson.

"Angie McClelland."

"Occupation?"

"Crime scene investigator two, Chicago Police Department."

"How long have you worked for CSI?"

"Thirteen years and six months."

"Ms. McClellan, please tell us about your education. Do you hold any college degrees?"

She smiles and looks directly at the jury, the key eye contact in play.

"Bachelor's degree in biology, Loyola University. Master's degree in forensic science, National University."

"Finally, please tell us about your departmental training in crime scene investigation."

She goes on and on for several minutes, detailing this and that experience beginning with the Chicago CSI Academy and weekend courses and conferences around the country. She has also published ten different papers on the DNA practices of police departments around the world, including Scotland Yard, Interpol, the LAPD, and CPD. She is well-versed, well-trained, and to hear her speak and exude her knowledge I know she will be an implacable witness. A tough cookie.

"Were you involved in the investigation at the Amy Tanenbaum crime scene?"

"I was. I headed up the CSI team that day."

"Please tell us what you did."

"My primary responsibility is, one, to secure and preserve the scene, and, two, to task different team members with their roles at the scene."

"What does that last part mean, tasking team members?"

"That's just departmental-speak for a.s.signing different jobs to each CSI at the scene. Some did fluids, some did hair and fiber, some did trace and transfer, including fingerprints and hand prints, some did DNA. Of course, the same worker might do two or even three of these things. My third job was to make sure each contact with the scene by our team members met departmental and professional standards."

"Do you recall particulars about the Amy Tanenbaum scene?"

"Of course. And I also have my case notes."

So do I. Through the discovery process, all CSI notes and workups and reports have been made available to the defense team. I am well-versed in what she did, who she spoke to, and conclusions that devolved from her investigation. Ms. McClelland spends the next forty-five minutes describing what she heard, saw, and discovered about the death scene.

During her testimony she describes finding the red m.u.f.fler and the DNA testing. Jana's DNA, is, of course, found on the m.u.f.fler. So is the DNA of other individuals unmatched as they haven't been sampled and don't exist in any database. But Jana was last seen wearing the m.u.f.fler, so its presence at the murder scene rests with him. Jana loses this point.

She also talks about the lack of fingerprints. They have examined her entire body for a latent print from someone other than Amy herself and have found nothing. Jana wins this point.

The entire body depression left in the tall gra.s.s was vacuumed and the vacuum's contents studied under a microscope. This has yielded human and animal hairs that cannot be matched to Jana's sample, thank G.o.d. Jana wins this point.

There is no method of death found, as Ms. McClelland puts it. Meaning no wire or garrote was found that might have been used to strangle and sever the carotids of Amy Tanenbaum. This point is a neutral, although the search warrant that later turned up a missing E string from the package in his guitar case could be said to make this a point for Jana. I'll give it a half-point, his favor.

Then come the endless photographs of the scene and the body. There are over fifty in all, and they are identified by Ms. McClelland and introduced into evidence one-by-one, at which moment they are pa.s.sed to the jury. The rest of the afternoon is gobbled up by this process and by the time we quit, at five-fifteen, we are all dizzy with horrendous images of death. A smart move by the prosecution to send the jury home for the night with horror dancing in their brains. And there's nothing I can do to sap away the sting. It's a fait accompli when we all pack up.

Detective Ngo spots me and approaches my table. The courtroom is empty but for the two of us. His black face is twisted in rage and the whites of his eyes are red-veined with anger.

"How can you defend this man?" he hisses. "He killed an innocent child!"

Where is this coming from? I wonder, directed at me?

He pulls his hand to the rear of his waist, purposely displaying the gun on his belt.

"It's my job," I say. "It's nothing more than that. I don't vouch for these people, don't know all that much about them. But the U.S. Const.i.tution says they're ent.i.tled to a lawyer. I'm just providing that service.

"I was at Amy Tanenbaum's autopsy. I watched the mouse being pulled out of her mouth. It was covered in black blood. Amy's blood. They couldn't open her casket because of the terrible damage done to her face by the autopsy and by that G.o.ddam rodent your client put in there."

He moves around my table and sits down on the end of it, the end nearest me. If I reached out I could touch his side. He glares down at me.

"You and I are going to meet someplace again. I guarantee it. It may not be tonight or tomorrow, it may not be until next month or next year. But we will meet again. And you will be alone and so will I. You are going to feel pain, friend. You are going to feel serious big-boy pain. I'm not going to kill you. But I am going to f.u.c.k you up."

He stands and remains close.

"Remember this when you see me again. Remember that I told you so."