A. Fair: All Grass Isn't Green

“I did not!”

“I suggest that you, therefore, went out into the alfalfa field; that you dropped the weapon; that you then intended to return to the bank on the other side and say nothing about what you had done, but that the presence of young man, Lorenzo Gonzales, forced you to change your plan; that the keen eyes of this young man detected you had something you were trying to conceal, and asked you what it was, or words to that effect.”

“That is not so.”

“That because this young man was standing where could, within a short time, and would undoubtedly have discovered this gun and, under the circumstances, the fact that you had planted the gun would have been immediately apparent, you changed your plans and pretended have discovered the gun yourself and asked young Lorenzo to run to his parents and get them to notify police.”

“That is not true.”

“I further suggest that you did this in order to protect your client, Milton Carling Calhoun.”

“That is definitely not true.”

“But you did very fortuitously discover this gun?”

“Yes.”

“And by some stroke of reasoning, or perhaps I should say some stroke of genius, you were able to walk directly to the place where this gun had been dropped.”

“That is not true.”

“Why did you go there?”

“I was making a general survey of the terrain.”

“And that survey caused you to take off your shoes and socks and wade across a very mushy, muddy ditch bottom in order to go to an alfalfa field where your keen mind suggested to you that the murderer might have been able to have thrown the gun without leaving any tracks in the bottom of the ditch?”

“I wanted to survey the territory. I crossed the ditch. I found the gun.”

“And you have never in your life seen this gun before?”

“Oh, Your Honor,” Newberry said, “I should have objected a long time ago, but I have let this farce go on because I thought perhaps counsel had some definite objective in view.

“I object to this entire line of questioning on the ground that counsel is attempting to cross-examine his own witness.”

“The objection is sustained,” Judge Polk said.

“And I now move to strike out the entire testimony of this witness on the ground that the testimony was improperly elicited and as the result of improper questions which were the result of an attempt to cross-examine the prosecution’s own witness.”

“The motion is denied,” Judge Polk ruled.

Roberts said, “You wish to cross-examine this witness before I dismiss him from the stand and recall Sergeant Frank Sellers?”

“Certainly not,” Newberry said. “I have no questions of this witness. Here is a man who came out to the scene of the crime and made an investigation which should have been made by the Sheriff’s Office of this county and the police of the city of Calexico, to say nothing of the really great expert imported from Los Angeles.”

And Newberry made a sarcastic bow in the direction of Sergeant Sellers.

Sergeant Sellers angrily half arose from his chair, but thought better of it.

“There’s no need for any grandstand oratory at this time” Judge Polk pronounced. “You may stand down, Mr. Lam. And Sergeant Sellers will return to the stand.”

“Now that we have the background of this murder weapon clarified somewhat,” Roberts said, “will you please tell what happened as far as you know — of your own knowledge?”

“I was at the Calexico Police Station, talking with the Chief,” Sellers said. “There was a phone call and I was advised by the Chief...”

“Just a minute, just a minute,” Newberry said. “I object on the ground that any conversation that you had with the chief of police which was not in the hearing this defendant is hearsay and incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”

“Sustained,” Polk said somewhat wearily.

“Just tell us what you did following this conversation,” Roberts said.

Sellers said, “I called to one of the police officers asked him to drive me out to the scene of the crime.”

“Was a deputy sheriff there at the time?”

“There were several deputy sheriffs at police headquarters, but they were working on developing latent fingerprints and doing other things. As a matter of fact, I didn’t think much of this hurried tip...”

“Move to strike out everything after the words ‘As matter of fact.’ ” Newberry said.

Judge Polk said, “It may go out. Sergeant, you know that you are not to offer any opinion.”

“I’m sorry,” Sellers said. “That just slipped out. I was thinking of my reactions at the time and what I did and, how it happened that we didn’t call any of the Sheriff’s Office to go out with us.”

“That’s quite all right. That can come out in cross-examination, if at all,” Judge Polk said. “Just go ahead with what you personally found, Sergeant.”

Sellers, who was not enjoying himself in the least shifted his position uncomfortably and said, “Together with this Calexico officer I went out to the scene of the crime. This young boy, Lorenzo Gonzales, was there waiting for us. He said something to us which, of course, I can’t repeat because it was not in the presence of the defendant, but, as a result of what he said, this officer and I walked across the ditch to a point where Donald Lam was standing over — that is, almost over, that gun, which as it turns out, is the gun marked People’s Exhibit B and introduced in evidence in this case.”

“And what did you do?”

“I inserted a fountain pen in the barrel of the gun so as to keep any fingerprints which might be on the weapon from being smudged. I elevated the fountain pen, thereby picking up the gun, and using this means of holding the gun in a perpendicular position, I carried it back across the ditch.

“We then took the gun to police headquarters where fingerprint men dusted it to try to develop latent prints.

“There were no prints on the gun. I may state that we hardly expected to develop latent prints on metal of this sort.”

“There were no prints at all?”

“Objected to as hearsay,” Newberry said.

Sellers grinned at him and said, “I was present when the dusting was done, Counsel.”

“And there were no fingerprints?” Roberts asked.

“There were some smudges, but nothing that was identifiable on the gun.”

“What was subsequently done with this weapon?” Roberts asked.

“I took it to the Office of the Sheriff in this county where a ballistics expert and I fired test bullets from it and put them in a comparison microscope with the fatal bullet in this case.”

“And what did you find?”

“We found a perfect match.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning that this weapon, which has been introduced in evidence as People’s Exhibit B, was the murder weapon, the weapon which fired the fatal bullet.”

“I believe that I have no more questions at the present time of this witness,” Roberts said. “You may cross-examine, Counsel.”

Newberry thought for a moment, then said, “I have no cross-examination at this time.”

“Call Lorenzo Gonzales to the stand,” Roberts said.

Lorenzo, looking suddenly badly frightened, came forward.

“How old are you, young man?” Judge Polk asked.

“Ten — going on to eleven.”

“Do you understand the nature of an oath?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What does it mean?”

“It means that you have to tell the truth.”

“And what happens if you don’t tell the truth?”

“You are punished.”

“And you are afraid of punishment?”

“Everybody is afraid of punishment.”

“Administer the oath,” Judge Polk said to the clerk. The clerk administered the oath.