Parnell Hall - The Underground Man

Steve smiled again. “Yeah, I know. That’s a sort of unsatisfactory explanation. So let’s answer the question. Who killed Jack Walsh?”

“I refer you once again to the testimony of Carl Jenson. Jeremy Dawson returned around five-thirty, Jenson questioned him, Jeremy Dawson made rude replies and went upstairs to take a shower and change.

“If you will recall my cross-examination of Carl Jenson, at this point I asked him if Jeremy Dawson had ever cut school before, and then I asked him if Jeremy had ever been suspended. He said, yes, for drugs. I asked him if he had ever searched Jeremy Dawson’s room and he admitted that he had, but he had found no drugs. He said that that didn’t prove anything because Jeremy was selling them out of his locker.

“Now,” Steve said, “during your deliberation you have the right to ask to have any portions of the testimony read back to you.” Steve picked up a paper from the defense table. “I call your attention to the following exchange:

“Question: ‘I see. So you searched his room?’ Answer: ‘Yes, I did.’ Question: ‘And did you find any drugs?’ Answer: ‘No, I didn’t.’ Question: ‘And did that make you think maybe the school was wrong?’ Answer: ‘No, because he didn’t have them at home, he had them at school. He was selling drugs out of his locker.’ Question: ‘You know that now because of what the police found in his locker. But you didn’t know it then.’ Answer: ‘Yes, I did.’ Question: ‘How?’”

Steve Winslow looked up from his reading. “At this point the court reporter has written the word ‘pause.’ You will recall, that was because the witness did not answer. Then the question is repeated: Question: ‘How, Mr. Jenson?’ Answer: ‘I don’t know. I just know.’ Question: ‘How did you know?’ Answer: ‘Well, it stood to reason.’”

Steve set the transcript down on the table. “It stood to reason,” he said. “And certain things stand to reason here. Carl Jenson admits having searched Jeremy Dawson’s room. Jenson states that at the time he knew Jeremy Dawson was selling drugs out of his locker. When asked how he knows, he becomes evasive and does not answer, finally saying ‘it stood to reason.’ Now, you don’t have to take this from me, you can look at the transcripts yourselves. It’s part of the evidence in this case, and part of what you must consider.

“And from this, what reasonable hypothesis can I draw? From this I draw the reasonable hypothesis that Carl Jenson knew that Jeremy Dawson was selling drugs from his locker, because after he searched his room and found nothing, he contrived to search Jeremy Dawson’s locker. At which point he would have discovered the drugs.

“And the gun.

“If so, why would he keep silent? Why wouldn’t he tell someone? Well, you’ve seen Carl Jenson on the witness stand. You’ve seen his demeanor, you know what kind of person he is. I think we can safely say that Carl Jenson didn’t tell anyone because he was the type of person who felt that information was power. The drugs and the gun were facts he filed away for future reference. He could blow the whistle on Jeremy Dawson, get him in trouble, but it wouldn’t do anything for him.

“Now, how would Carl Jenson have gotten into Jeremy Dawson’s locker? I put it to you that Jeremy Dawson as the prosecution has sketched him, a flaky crack head, was the type of person who couldn’t trust himself to remember his locker number. He would have it written down someplace. And if he had it written down someplace, it could be discovered by someone who searched his room.

“Which brings us to the day of the murder. Jeremy Dawson returns home, exchanges heated words with Carl Jenson, goes upstairs, takes off his clothes and takes a shower. Carl Jenson is terribly suspicious. He thinks that Jeremy Dawson has been with Jack Walsh. He wonders what went on between them. Jack Walsh is an eccentric man. He could have done anything. He might have given Jeremy money. Jenson wants to know.

“While Jeremy Dawson is in the shower, Carl Jenson steals upstairs and searches his clothes. What does he find?”

Steve strode over and picked it up from the clerk’s table. “He finds this. A handwritten will, executed that very day, leaving the bulk of Jack Walsh’s fortune to Jeremy Dawson.

“Well, imagine how Carl Jenson must have felt. All of his worst fears had just been confirmed. He had every reason to hate Jack Walsh. He had every reason to hate Jeremy Dawson.

“I don’t know if he had a plan then. It must have been pretty jumbled in his mind. But one thing he knew for sure. Jeremy Dawson was not going to get away with it.

“So what did he do? He waited and planned. He put the will back in Jeremy Dawson’s pocket and went downstairs as if nothing had happened. When Jeremy came downstairs, once again he tried to engage him in conversation, tried to get a rise out of him. Well, he got one all right. The immortal words. ‘You be nice to me, Carl, ’cause I’m gonna be rich.’”

Steve paused and held up his finger. “The last straw. You can imagine the response: ‘Not if I can help it.’

“Jeremy Dawson leaves. Does Carl Jenson follow him? You bet he does. He’s not letting Jeremy Dawson out of his sight.

“And what happens? Jeremy Dawson goes and breaks into the high school. Jenson knows why-he’s going to his locker to get drugs. Why doesn’t Jenson think Jeremy’s going there to get the gun?” Steve smiled and spread his hands. “Because no one’s been murdered. So there’s no reason to think Jeremy would be going there for any reason other than the drugs.

“So Carl’s there and he sees him go in. And he sees something else. He sees Martin Steers see Jeremy Dawson go in.

“And I would think it was about then that the plan began to form. It was then that Carl Jenson put it all together. The gun in the locker. The witness who saw Jeremy breaking into the high school. The will in Jeremy’s pocket. He put that all together, and suddenly Carl Jenson realized if the gun in Jeremy Dawson’s locker killed Jack Walsh, he would have a perfect frame.

“And one that solved all his problems. Particularly his problem about the will. Because Carl Jenson was always a schemer. He’d already consulted lawyers about Uncle Jack’s estate, so we can assume he knew all the legal angles. In particular, he would have known that no person convicted of murder can inherit anything from the person he killed. So murdering Jack Walsh and framing Jeremy Dawson would knock out Jeremy’s will and leave Carl free to inherit.

“So he does it. As soon as Jeremy Dawson comes out of the high school, Carl Jenson goes in the same door. He already has the locker combination from when he searched it before. He opens the locker. The gun is there. He takes it, goes to Manhattan, kills Jack Walsh.

“How did he know where to find him?” Again, Steve picked up the handwritten will from the court reporter’s table. “From this. From the will Carl Jenson read. It’s right here, and you can look at it yourselves. In it, Jack Walsh not only put the date and the time of the will, but he also wrote down the location where it was written-the 66th Street subway station. Jenson has read the will, so he knows Jack Walsh is hanging out there.

“But what if he wasn’t there? Well, if he wasn’t, the plan wouldn’t have worked, and Carl Jenson would have had to return the gun to the locker and then think of something else.

“But he was there. Just where the will said he’d be. He was there, and Carl Jenson found him and walked up to him and he shot him.

“And what did he do then? Well, at that point he had a problem. He had to put the gun back in Jeremy Dawson’s locker so it would convict him of the crime.”