Robert Tanenbaum - Counterplay

“Objection!” Anderson said, gathering himself. “Foundation? I have no idea what the prosecution is attempting to uncover here, and I’d prefer the jury didn’t see it until we’ve established that it has anything to do with this case.”

Judge Lussman looked at Karp. “Counselor?”

“Very well, Your Honor, let’s lay a little foundation,” Karp said. “Dr. Thoms, can you illuminate us on what you did after prying apart the buttons and finding the pieces of blue material.”

“Yes,” she said. “Actually, it was quite a fun detective story. First, I determined that the blue material was silk…a very expensive type of silk imported from China.”

“You can tell that?” Karp asked as though surprised.

“Indeed,” Thoms said, warming up to the subject. “Like many other things in our lives, there are different qualities of silk both at its inception-i.e., the silkworms that produce the raw material, the quality and density of the weave, those sorts of things.”

“So did that lead you somewhere else?”

“As a matter of fact, it did,” Thoms said, enjoying herself now. “The mother-of-pearl inlay was very nice, as was the quality of the silk. And, very helpfully…next slide please…”

Karp hit the projector button and a magnified back of one of the buttons appeared on which several numbers were identifiable.

“This is the back of one of the ‘female,’ if you will, parts of the button-the part the nub fits into, thus the gender identification,” Thoms said, blushing slightly. “You can see a number; it’s a lot number. Now, believe it or not, fifteen years ago, there were not all that many companies producing the metal parts for buttons like these, especially with that sort of expensive inlay. I was able to trace the lot number to a company in Ohio, which produced the buttons for a clothier in New York whose designs were sold in Manhattan at Macy’s.”

“Were you able to determine what sort of design these buttons had once been part of?” Karp asked.

Thoms nodded. “Yes. It’s sort of a long, flowing shirt…not evening wear but comfortable, the sort of thing a woman with some means might wear to the park, or even around the house.”

“As a nightshirt?” Karp said.

Thoms pursed her lips. “Well, you’re talking to someone who likes flannel,” she said. “But it would be very comfortable in the summer. Silk from China, you know, was considered a very precious commodity in feudal Japan because of its comfort in hot, humid conditions.”

“Like summer in Manhattan,” Karp said.

“Yes, like summer in Manhattan,” Thoms agreed.

“So were you able to locate a similar shirt at Macy’s or elsewhere?” Karp asked.

Thoms shook her head. “No. The line was discontinued. However, I was able to talk the clothier into giving me the pattern from which I sewed my own version using a silk of the exact same color and quality.”

Karp turned to Lussman. “Your Honor, I believe we’ve established foundation for the evidence beneath the sheet, which is the replica shirt sewn by Ms. Thoms.”

With that, Karp walked over to the object on the stand and removed the sheet. Beneath it was a dressmaker’s dummy on which was draped a blousy blue silk shirt. He then offered the exhibit into evidence. He turned back to Thoms, smiled, and said, “Thank you, Professor. I have no further questions.”

“I object,” Anderson said. “How do we know that these buttons were only used on this one particular type of shirt?”

“Dr. Thoms, would you like to respond to that?” Lussman asked.

“Yes, I would,” Thoms said. “Actually, the buttons with this lot number were used only on this design.”

“Very well,” Lussman said. “I’ll admit the exhibit. You may show it to the jury.”

The jurors then examined Dr. Thoms’s artistry.

Anderson did little on cross-examination except go over the same points Karp had addressed. More stalling, Karp thought.

The next witness called was Charlotte Gates. When she was settled, Karp asked, “Dr. Gates, remind me, did you testify that there was a single bullet wound in the skull of Teresa Stavros?”

“No,” Gates said. “That’s not what I said.”

Karp was pleased to see the jury, which had paid rapt attention to Thoms, sit forward again and start writing in their notebooks. “No?” he said, as if surprised. “Could you explain?”

“Yes,” Gates said. “What I testified to was that there was a single entry wound. But I did not say it was caused by a single bullet.”

“Do you have reason to believe otherwise?” Karp asked.

“Yes, I believe the entry wound was actually created by two bullets,” Gates replied.

There was a murmur in the spectator gallery even as Anderson jumped to his feet and angrily objected. “What is this?” he demanded. “This isn’t impeachment. He’s trying to introduce new evidence, which I might add was exculpatory and yet this is the first I’ve heard of it.”

Karp smiled. When he’d first been told about this turn of event by Gates, he’d been just as surprised as defense counsel. Back in July, the forensic anthropologist had asked him to send the remains and the ballistics evidence to her laboratory in Albuquerque in preparation for the trial. Nothing against the New York ME’s lab, but they’re not as well equipped she’d said by way of explanation.

About a week later, and just before the sudden introduction of Dante Coletta into the mix, she’d called with the news that Teresa Stavros had been shot twice. When during the interview with Coletta, the chauffeur claimed that Kaplan had shot the woman once, he’d formed the idea of a trap…the rope for Coletta to hang himself with. However, it was evident that someone in the ME’s office had leaked Gates’s initial findings to the press and, he assumed, Anderson used it to tailor Coletta’s story. So he had Gates submit her latest finding to him-delaying until a week before the trial-and then turned it over with a bunch of other paperwork, counting on Anderson to turn the material over to an inexperienced lawyer or even law student who wouldn’t know what to make of it.

“If defense counsel will turn to people’s exhibit page one thousand, four hundred and sixty-five, he will find Dr. Gates’s addendum to her original report,” Karp said. “Please note that someone in Mr. Anderson’s office signed for it more than a week ago, but he apparently failed to read the material. And for impeachment, this evidence will unequivocally demonstrate that Mr. Coletta’s testimony is a pathetic fabrication.”

“Proceed, Mr. Karp,” Lussman said.

Anderson sat down like he’d been slapped. Stavros leaned toward him and began whispering furiously.

Would love to know what that’s about, Karp thought with a smile. He looked at Gates, who sat waiting expectantly. “Please explain to the jury how you reached your conclusion that the deceased was shot not once, but twice in the head.”

“As I was saying, I originally believed that the wound was caused by a single bullet. When all of the physical evidence and ballistics evidence was delivered to my office, I took all the bullet fragments found in the skull and weighed them-which, to be honest, I should have done originally, but knew that I would be taking a deeper look later in the proceedings. Anyway, the weight of the fragments was slightly more than the total weight of a single.22-caliber bullet. So I decided to take a closer look at the entry wound-this time with a high-power electron microscope. Would you mind showing the slide, Mr. Karp?”

“Not at all,” Karp replied.

A photograph of the entry wound that the jury had already seen appeared on the screen. “And now the second slide.” Suddenly, the wound appeared the size of a basketball. “As you can see, there is a circular wound from a bullet here with the resulting ‘chipping’ around where bone shattered,” Gates said, using a light pointer. “But look at what would be the northeast quadrant and you’ll notice another semicircular indentation with its own ‘chipping’ pattern. This is the second entry wound-so close to the first as to be very difficult to see with the naked eye and even a decent magnifying glass. But there’s no denying it’s there and what it means.”