Mark Gimenez - Accused

"Mr. Estrada, I understand that you are a distributor of pharmaceutical products, is that correct?"

"Pharmaceutical products?" A little smile. "Uh, yes, that is correct. I am a distributor of pharmaceutical products."

The jurors smiled, too. They might possess only high school educations, but they weren't stupid.

"And did you have occasion to sell pharmaceutical products to Trey Rawlins?"

"Yes, I did have that occasion."

"And did you allow Mr. Rawlins to purchase your products on credit?"

"Yes, I did."

"At the time of his death, how much did Mr. Rawlins owe you for products he had purchased from you?"

"Five hundred thousand dollars."

"And did he refuse to repay that sum?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"He disputed delivery."

"He claimed he had not received the products?"

"That is correct."

"But you did make delivery, did you not?"

"I did make delivery. To his residence."

"And, subsequent to his death, did you learn that you were both correct?"

Benito sighed. "Yes."

"Why is that?"

"The products were stolen from his residence before he took possession."

"Mr. Estrada, what did you do about Mr. Rawlins' outstanding debt?"

"I referred him to our collections department."

"And where is your collections department located?"

"Nuevo Laredo."

"Mexico. So yours is an international operation?"

"Yes, very much so."

"And do you know if your collections department was able to secure payment of Mr. Rawlins' outstanding debt?"

"I do not know."

"Would you say that your collections department is aggressive in its collection efforts?"

"Aggressive? Yes. Very."

"Nonpayment is not an option?"

"No, it is not."

A common defense strategy is to preempt the prosecution. Rather than wait for the prosecution to present bad evidence about the defendant, a savvy defense lawyer will present it first, to lessen its impact on the jury. Of course, that strategy works only if the defendant has told the truth-at least to her lawyer.

"Mr. Estrada, have you ever met the defendant?"

Benito looked to Rebecca and smiled. "Yes, we have met."

"Did she recently come to your place of business?"

"Yes."

"And did she purchase pharmaceutical products from you?"

"Yes."

"And did she pay for those products by giving you her jewelry?"

Benito frowned, and Scott knew the strategy had backfired.

"Jewelry? What jewelry?"

"Thank you, Mr. Estrada. No further questions."

The D.A.'s head had been down during most of Benito's testimony. Scott now sat at the defense table, hoping the D.A. had missed the importance of Benito's last answer-but he knew Rex Truitt didn't miss anything.

The D.A. stood. "Mr. Estrada, do you know who killed Trey Rawlins?"

"No."

"No further questions."

The judge declared a short recess. After the courtroom had emptied, Scott turned to Rebecca. "You said you paid Benito with your jewelry. He doesn't know anything about any jewelry. Rebecca, if Rex had followed up on that, he could've shown the jury we lied to them. We said you had no money. But you paid Benito in cash. You have that mob money, don't you?"

"No!"

Scott needed to calm down, he needed to find Benito, and he needed to use the men's room. So he stood and went out into the corridor. Gabe and his goon were leaning against the windows. Renee sat in her booth; Scott walked over to her.

"Did you see Benito?"

She covered her microphone with her hand and whispered. "He left. Fast."

Scott continued down the hall to the men's room. He was standing at a urinal and thinking about Rebecca's latest lie when he zipped up and turned around and came face to face with Gabe's goon. And he realized that Louis hadn't followed him out of the courtroom.

"I guess I didn't make myself clear on the beach." The goon grabbed Scott by his shirt. "The Vegas boys don't want Gabe to testify."

A toilet flushed.

A stall door swung open, and Louis's massive body filled the opening. He stepped out and loomed large over Gabe's goon-and blocked his path to the door. The goon released Scott's shirt.

"Sorry, Mr. Fenney, nature called. Would you excuse us?"

Scott smiled at the goon and slipped past Louis and out the door. He walked back down the corridor to the courtroom. Gabe saw him and looked for his goon. But it was Louis walking down the corridor. Scott waited for him; they entered the courtroom together.

"Louis, I didn't see the goon leave."

"He left, Mr. Fenney. Through the window."

"But we're on the fourth floor."

"Yes, sir, we sure are."

"Mr. Petrocelli, what line of business are you in?"

Gabe wore a plaid sports coat over a knit shirt. "I own a bar on the Strand."

"Do you make book?"

"I make martinis."

"Did you know Trey Rawlins?"

"Yeah, I knew him."

"Were you aware of a debt Mr. Rawlins owed the Las Vegas casinos?"

"I heard of such a debt."

"And did you hear that that debt was fifteen million dollars?"

"I heard that number."

"And did you hear that Mr. Rawlins made an arrangement to repay that debt by intentionally losing several professional golf tournaments thereby allowing his creditors to win their bets on those tournaments?"

"I heard that."

"And did you hear-"

The D.A. stood. "Objection. Your Honor, I'm not a stickler on legal technicalities, but every time Mr. Fenney says 'hear' and the witness says 'heard' I think the witness' testimony might constitute hearsay, which would be inadmissible."

"Your Honor," Scott said, "asking if the witness 'heard' something is the same as asking if he 'knew' something. It's just a more agreeable way for me to phrase the question, isn't that right, Mr. Petrocelli?"

"Uh, yeah. That's right. It's more agreeable."

The judge turned to the witness. "Mr. Petrocelli, do you have personal knowledge of these matters?"

"Personal knowledge?"

"Did you personally see the instruments evidencing Mr. Rawlins' debt? Like a promissory note."

Gabe smiled. "Judge, there ain't no promissory notes."

"So how did you learn of these debts?"

"I was told about them."

"And now you're telling us what someone else told you?"

"Yeah. That's what I'm doing."

"Well, that's the very definition of hearsay."

Bobby's laptop pinged. He read: "And, Your Honor, it is an exception to the hearsay rule if the declarant is unavailable to testify. Rule eight-zero-four."

The Assistant D.A. jumped up and pointed at Bobby. "Objection! He's cheating!"

"Cheating, Mr. Newman?" The judge almost laughed. "Mr. Truitt already objected to the hearsay."

"Yeah, but I'm objecting to Mr. Herrin using messages from Ms. Douglas. That's not fair."

The judge turned to Bobby. "Is she messaging you, Mr. Herrin?"

"Uh, yes, Judge, she is."

The D.A. turned to Bobby. "Is it really an exception?"

Bobby shrugged. "How would I know? I got a D in evidence. But Karen said it's an exception if the declarant is unavailable to testify due to death."

"Who's dead?" the judge said.

"One of the Vegas boys testifies, he's dead," Gabe said.

The D.A. had heard enough. "Never mind, Your Honor. I withdraw the objection. If Professor Douglas says it's an exception to the hearsay rule, then I'm sure it is." He turned to his assistant. "Sit down, Ted."

"Very well. Continue, Mr. Fenney."

"Mr. Petrocelli, did you hear that Mr. Rawlins did in fact throw two golf tournaments earlier this year?"

"Yeah, I heard that."

"And did you hear that his creditors gave him a cut of the profits, three million dollars in cash?"

"Yeah, I heard that, too."

"And did you hear that Mr. Rawlins was supposed to throw a third tournament but inadvertently sank a long putt to win?"