Joseph Teller - Depraved Indifference

THE COURT: Yes, the remark will be stricken.

JAYWALKER: And as I understand it, again disregard ing body weight, alcohol effects women almost fifty per cent more than it affects men. Agreed?

RUDIFER: Agreed. But these are all averages, and JAYWALKER: Exactly.

RUDIFER: — you have to allow for individual variations.

JAYWALKER: So at best, we're working with esti mates here?

RUDIFER: Yes.

JAYWALKER: And those estimates are subject to indi vidual variations?

RUDIFER: Yes.

JAYWALKER: And you don't really know what was in those drinks, other than what the prosecutors asked you to assume. Correct?

RUDIFER: Correct.

JAYWALKER: And if those assumptions are off, so are your results. Correct?

RUDIFER: Correct.

JAYWALKER: Just as they were off because of the de- fendant's body weight. Correct again?

RUDIFER: Correct again.

It seemed as good a place as any to stop, so he did. Kaminsky gave it a shot on redirect, and managed to undo some of the damage Jaywalker had inflicted. By the time Dr. Rudifer stepped down from the witness stand, his testimony had been weakened a bit, but by no means seriously undercut. If the jurors chose to believe Daniel Riley's account that had he hadn't watered down the drinks, there were still three martinis and six or seven tequilas between Carter Drake and sobriety.

It was also time for the lunch break.

The afternoon session brought to the witness stand two of the first responders to the scene of the crash. The first of these was a baby-faced state trooper named Adam Faulkner. Faulkner had been on routine patrol, meaning he'd been on the lookout for speeders and other miscreants, when a broadcast had come over the air directing any troopers in the area to respond immediately to the accident site. He'd gotten there, lights flashing and siren wailing, in under four minutes.

NAPOLITANO: What did you find?

FAULKNER: I found a van, down the hill from the shoulder of the highway. It was still smoldering. I would say it was ninety, ninety-five percent destroyed.

NAPOLITANO: What did you do?

FAULKNER: I searched for signs of life.

NAPOLITANO: Did you find any?

FAULKNER: No, no. Absolutely none.

NAPOLITANO: Are you okay?

FAULKNER: Yes. No. It was pretty bad.

NAPOLITANO: Take your time. What did you do next?

FAULKNER: I emptied my unit's fire extinguisher on the wreckage. I was afraid there might be an afterexplosion. I radioed my supervisor to tell him what I'd found. And I tried to keep people from getting too close. A lot of motorists had stopped. And pretty soon EMS showed up, and other units.

NAPOLITANO: EMS?

FAULKNER: Emergency Medical Services. The EMTs and paramedics.

NAPOLITANO: Were you there when the bodies were removed from the wreckage?

FAULKNER: At first I was. Then, when I saw they were bringing out kids, children, I had to leave. They were black, like charcoal. Some of them had smoke still coming from them. I couldn't stay there. I, I had to get away. If I close my eyes today, I can still THE COURT: I think we'll move on, Ms. Napolitano.

NAPOLITANO: Yes, Your Honor.

Miss Napolitano may have moved on at that point, but the jurors weren't about to. Jaywalker noticed out of the corner of his eye that several of them were shaking their heads slowly from side to side. He didn't dare look directly at them. Nor did he intend to ask Trooper Faulkner a single question.

Next up was Tracy D'Agostino, one of two EMTs who'd arrived within minutes of Faulkner. A twelveyear veteran on the job, Ms. D'Agostino looked far more hardened than the youthful Faulkner.

KAMINSKY: What was the first thing you did upon arriving?

D'AGOSTINO: I put on a pair of heavy gloves.

KAMINSKY: Why did you do that?

D'AGOSTINO: I needed to get into the van, just to make sure there were no survivors that needed assistance. I put on the gloves because I figured the van was too hot to touch bare-handed.

KAMINSKY: Were you able to get inside?

D'AGOSTINO: Yes. A trooper and I were able to pry open one of the doors, using a crowbar. But he was shaking too much, so I climbed in.

KAMINSKY: What did you see?

D'AGOSTINO: I saw several rows of small children, most of them still belted into their seats, and the driver, who was crushed under the dashboard. All of them were charred. Some of them were still smoldering. All of them were dead.

KAMINSKY: What did you do?

D'AGOSTINO: I climbed out of the van, walked twenty yards and, if you must know, I vomited my guts out.

So much for hardened.

Again, Jaywalker asked no questions. It would be part of his summation to concede how gruesome the crash scene had been, and how horrible the results of his client's actions. But for now, the sooner he could get Tracy D'Agostino off the stand and out of the courtroom the better.

Firestone called William Sheetz.

Like Faulkner, Sheetz was employed by the New York State Police. But in place of a baby face was a weathered mask of experience and resignation, topped by a shock of almost white hair. And instead of appearing in his gray patrol uniform, as Faulkner had, Sheetz showed up wearing a blue suit, a white shirt and a conservative tie. Evidently the prosecution team had decided to present him as the cerebral expert he was, setting him apart from the rank-and-file troopers the jury had grown accustomed to, both on the witness stand and in the courthouse. It was a shrewd move, Jaywalker had to admit, something he might have pulled himself.

FIRESTONE: By whom are you employed?

SHEETZ: The New York State Police.

FIRESTONE: How long have you been so employed?

SHEETZ: Thirty-one years.

FIRESTONE: What is your current assignment?

SHEETZ: I'm a senior investigator. I head up the AIS, the Accident Investigation Squad.

FIRESTONE: How long have you been doing that?

SHEETZ: Nine and a half years, give or take a month.

JAYWALKER: The defense stipulates that the witness is an expert in motor vehicle accident reconstruction.

THE COURT: Thank you, Mr. Jaywalker.

Sheetz had a nice way about him. He was laid-back and soft-spoken, but his voice had a rich, baritone resonance to it. His pale blue eyes squinted out from a deeply lined and weathered face. He reminded Jaywalker of John Wayne, without the hat and horse. He guessed it was no accident that Abe Firestone intended on sending the jurors home for the weekend after hearing from him.

FIRESTONE: What sort of accidents do you and your squad investigate?

SHEETZ: All fatalities. Also any accidents that result in serious bodily harm, or where alcohol or drugs appear to have played a significant role.

Firestone had the witness describe how he'd responded to the site of the crash back on May 27, and what he'd found. Mercifully for the defense, by the time of Sheetz's arrival, the van and its occupants were no longer smoldering. In fact, by then the county medical examiner and his deputies were already on the scene, directing the removal of bodies.

Sheetz had begun examining the scene, working backward from the van's final resting place, up the embankment, through the guardrail, and finally along the road surface to the spot where fresh skid marks had first appeared on the blacktop. The pavement had been dry, he explained, addressing his remarks directly to the jurors. That had allowed the van's brakes to lock up its wheels, leaving a trail of rubber behind. Because the van was an older one, it hadn't had antilock brakes, and the skid marks were therefore solid bands rather than broken lines. There had come a point, however, where, according to Sheetz, the driver must have realized that braking alone wasn't going to be enough to enable him to avoid whatever was in front of him.

FIRESTONE: What, in your opinion, did he do at that point?