Nancy Grace - Murder in the Courthouse

“Bailiff, send out the jury. It’s time for our morning break.” Alverson ordered his chief bailiff to get the jury out of the room before they were so tainted there would be no way they could listen impartially to the evidence that was to come from the witness stand. Alverson didn’t want to start from scratch and handpick a new jury. The state agreed.

DelVecchio would see a mistrial as a victory. And he’d be right. It cost time and money for the state to try a death penalty case, much less import jurors from another county, footing the bill for their room and board. It would be a phenomenal loss if they had to start all over.

DelVecchio couldn’t have possibly looked more pleased with himself. He stood, looking solicitously at the jury as they stalked from the courtroom and into the jury room. The looks they were shooting both DelVecchio and the defendant, Todd Adams, could have killed. They apparently didn’t take kindly to the slur on Julie’s memory.

But DelVecchio didn’t seem to mind at all. He had planted the seed in their minds. The seed of doubt that all was not as it appeared… that Julie was not who she purported to be… that she was not the loving and innocent wife the state portrayed… not the expectant mother who wanted nothing more than to give birth to baby Lily and start the family she’d always dreamed of with the only man she’d ever loved… Todd Adams.

Could she have been someone totally different? The tiny seed was indeed planted. Now all DelVecchio had to do was nurture it over the next few weeks, water it with innuendo, fertilize it with insinuations, caress it with suggestion, and then… watch it bloom into a hung jury or better yet… an outright acquittal.

“I’ll have the lawyers back for motions in thirty minutes,” Judge Luther Alverson announced before he stood to the bailiff’s banging of a gavel onto a block.

“Court’s in recess. The judge is off the bench!” The bailiff called it out loudly into the courtroom.

There was a moment’s silence and then a flurry of noise and activity as everyone began to stir, preparing to leave the courtroom for a break. Papers shuffling, books closing, computers being shut down and closed as spectators stood and began merging into the center aisle leading out the huge doors in the back of the courtroom.

“Well, I guess that’s that.” Hailey looked over at Finch.

“Yep. That’s that. End of court.”

“For now, anyway.” Hailey returned her gaze to the now-empty bench. Counsel tables were abandoned too. All the lawyers had filed out through an innocuous-looking side door that, like the holding cell door adjacent to the courtroom, blended right into the wood paneling. You’d really have to know it was there to even notice it. Located beside the judge’s massive bench, between the bench and the far corner rail of the jury box, it led directly to the judge’s offices and chambers. He used it to enter and exit the courtroom quickly.

“Hailey, what do you mean… for now ?”

“Oh, I just mean that because of the uproar, the defense will certainly ask for a mistrial now.”

“A mistrial?” Finch looked shocked.

“Yes, a mistrial,” Hailey answered back relatively calmly, given the fact that if a mistrial was granted, the trial would have to start all over again. She had missed four days of work already, was away from home, work, and patients who were extremely needy, and, to top it all off, was footing the bulk of the bill for her trip since the state levels of per diem were pretty sparse.

“A mistrial? This early in the game? It’s just opening statements, for Pete’s sake!” Exasperated, Finch didn’t even bother keeping his voice down. At the sound of his raised voice, a few court watchers turned to look back at them as they inched out of the courtroom along with the crowd.

“I said the defense would seek a mistrial … not that they’d get it! They’ll use anything, any ruse to put the state out, even if temporarily. Alverson is no idiot, Fincher. He didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.”

At that comment, Fincher began to smile again.

“The law is, if the defense brings about the error at trial, not the state, the defense can’t then ask for a mistrial or really even have grounds to object.”

“But what would they have objected to , Hailey?”

“Malcolm Love making a move toward Todd Adams, for starters. Add on Dana Love sobbing out loud, Tish Adams jumping from her seat to stand guard over her son, gasps, cries, and commotion… that sort of thing.” Hailey answered him fairly routinely. She didn’t let it show the least bit she was deeply upset the whole trial might just be headed down the tubes.

“But… but…” Finch looked angry again.

“I know… but. But it was DelVecchio’s fault to start with. He made an outrageous comment that ignited a reaction in court. So it’s his fault and he won’t get a mistrial declared.”

“Man, that was close.” Finch looked a little dazed at all the legal mumbo jumbo.

“Well, DelVecchio got what he wanted. If that’s his defense, that Julie slept around, even during pregnancy, he will have to put more than just his word for it in evidence. Since I doubt it’s true and there are no real lovers, who will testify to it? Todd Adams himself? Does that mean the defendant will take the stand? I hope so… the state will carve him up like a Thanksgiving turkey on cross.”

She went on. “In the meantime, the jurors are probably pretty miffed at what he said about Julie, but he planted the seed… the tiny seed of doubt that somebody else may have had motive for murder .”

“Some other man?”

“Yep,” Hailey answered. “Some other man that didn’t want to be found out. So that’s his defense. Or at least one of them. DelVecchio’s no rookie either and since there probably aren’t any real lovers, he’ll come up with something else to throw against the wall… see if it sticks.”

“Like what?” Fincher’s curiosity was up.

“Maybe… that it wasn’t murder at all? That Julie died by accident and ended up in the water? I’m just guessing…” Hailey’s eyes narrowed.

“Like what accident? That she went out boating nine months into her pregnancy ?” Finch was really up in arms now, but that was part of what made him such a great detective way back when, when they were partners in court.

“Finch, you should know by now, the defense doesn’t have to make sense! It just has to snag up one juror… just one… and the defense wins. They take home all the marbles.”

“But it’s a lie, Hailey. It’s a lie.”

“I know, Finch. It’s a lie.” Hailey felt tears well up in her eyes. This whole trip had been upsetting, from reminding her of her days in the courtroom and why she had become a lawyer to start with, to the death of Alton Turner. Not to mention Eleanor Odom.

“Sorry, Hailey. Didn’t mean to upset you…”

“I’m OK, Finch! Let’s get out of here.”

The reality was that now, instead of asserting a substantive alternate theory as to how Julie Love might have died other than murder at the hands of her own husband, DelVecchio would smear the victim. That was the defense.

Suddenly, Hailey felt weary right down to her bones.

“Yeah. Let’s go get some lunch.” Finch gently touched Hailey’s elbow, urging her on.

“And not in the county cafeteria!” Hailey added, mustering a smile, referring back to their last disastrous lunch there and Elle’s untimely demise.

“Why do I do nothing but eat when we’re together?” Hailey gave him a jab in the side.

“Maybe you can jog tonight?”

“We always say that and it never happens…”