Steve Martini - Undue Influence

‘And what did you conclude from this?’

‘That the perpetrator.’ He looks at me. ‘That the perpetrator wiped the surfaces clean after he or she,’ he says, ‘shot the victim.’

‘To avoid detection?’ she says.

‘Sure. Why else?’

‘In your search of the scene did you find the murder weapon?’

‘No.’

‘Nothing?’

‘No gun.’

‘Did you search the entire house?’

‘We did.’

‘And the area outside?’

‘Everything. Real thorough.’

‘And you found no murder weapon?’

‘No.’

‘Did you have occasion to talk to the victim’s husband, Mr. Vega, at the scene?’

‘I did.’

‘And did you ask him if there was a gun in the house? If he or his wife owned one?’

‘I did. And I was told that neither he nor his wife had ever owned a gun.’

‘What did you conclude from this?’

‘That whoever shot Mrs. Vega brought the weapon into the house and left with it when they were finished.’

‘So they came prepared to kill?’ she says.

‘Objection.’

‘Withdrawn,’ she says.

Morgan looks at me a wan smile, like sure, just try to unring it.

‘Did you find anything else in the bathroom that morning?’

‘Yes. We found a single spent bullet cartridge, nine-millimeter.’

Cassidy walks to the evidence cart, studies it for a second, and picks a single plastic bag off the cart.

‘May I approach, your honor?’

Woodruff nods.

‘Lieutenant, I would ask you to look at the bullet cartridge in this envelope and ask if you can identify it.’

He studies it for a second, looks at the notations on the label stuck on the bag. A nine-millimeter looks like any other.

‘That’s it. That’s the cartridge we found in the bathroom. That’s my mark on the evidence bag,’ he says.

‘And you bagged this yourself.’

‘One of the evidence techs,’ he says. ‘Under my direct supervision. But I marked the bag — there.’ He points with a thumbnail.

‘I would ask that this bullet be marked as People’s Exhibit One,’ says Cassidy.

‘Any objection?’ The judge looks at me.

‘No, your honor.’

‘Did you find anything else at the scene?’

‘Some fibers,’ he says.

Cassidy’s back to the cart. She returns a second later, handing him another bag.

‘Those are the fibers. We found them on the floor near the base of the tub. Again I marked the bag to identify it,’ says Lama.

This, the fiber evidence, is something new that they have developed, though from reading the lab report I think they are reaching.

Cassidy has this marked for identification without objections. All the little pieces of her case. If she can build on them and show some incriminating link, some relevance connecting these pieces to the defendant and the crime, Cassidy will at the appropriate time try to move them into evidence, like a carefully thought-out chess match, each move calculated for effect.

‘Apart from the cartridge and the fibers already identified, did you find anything else that morning?’

‘We took into possession a copy of a videotape from a security camera situated on the front porch of the residence.’

Cassidy retrieves a videocassette from the cart and approaches the witness. He identifies it from an evidence tag.

‘Detective, have you looked at the contents of this tape?’

‘I have.’

‘And can you tell the court what you saw?’

‘The tape is calibrated as to date and time, with those elements showing on the top right-hand corner of the picture as it appears on a videoscreen. The tape in question is a special slow-playing tape that lasts up to twelve hours. It’s not like the commercial stuff you use at home,’ he says. ‘So there’s a lotta stuff on it.’

He verifies that the tape is dated the day Melanie Vega was killed, but that it stopped for reasons that he does not explain before the time of death.

‘We’re not interested in everything,’ says Cassidy. ‘Just the pertinent parts.’ What she means is anything that she can use to hang Laurel. ‘Can you tell the court what you saw on the tape?’

‘I’m going to object.’ I’m on my feet. ‘The best evidence is the tape itself. Why do we need the witness to characterize it?’

‘Your honor, we need to lay a foundation,’ says Cassidy.

In order to put an item into evidence, it is necessary to lay a proper foundation. In the case of a physical object, this generally means some showing that it is relevant to the issues in dispute in the case. The tape would ordinarily be viewed by the jury at the time that it is admitted into evidence. It is my point that with regard to the tape Morgan has already laid a foundation.

‘For that purpose,’ says Woodruff, ‘I’ll give a little latitude. Do it quickly.’

‘Lieutenant, if you could just summarize what’s on the tape.’

‘Yes. At eight-seventeen P.M., on the night Melanie Vega was killed, a woman appears on the tape at the door of the victim’s residence.’

‘Can you identify that woman?’

‘It was the defendant — Laurel Vega.’

With this Lama points at Laurel, sitting next to me. It takes him a second to point straight. That this is out of cadence with his words makes clear that this gesture was planted, something conceived in the mind of Cassidy or one of her assistants as a moment of drama, and badly played by Jimmy.

‘You’re sure of that?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Is there any kind of soundtrack on the tape?’

‘Unfortunately no,’ he says.

‘Could you tell what the defendant was doing?’

‘There was a long and very heated argument-’

‘Objection.’

‘I don’t want to be hearing about any arguments on the tape,’ says Woodruff.

I move to strike the witness’s answer, and Woodruff orders it.

‘How long did this conversation between the victim and defendant go on?’

Lama looks at his notes. ‘Four minutes and thirty-three seconds,’ he says.

‘And how did it conclude?’

‘The defendant smashed the videocamera with a flowerpot before-’

‘Objection, your honor.’

Woodruff looks like he’s been shot with a cattle prod on the bench. Brushy eyebrows, all aimed at Cassidy.

‘That’s all. I don’t want to hear another word about the tape,’ he says. ‘You want it marked?’ Woodruff looks at her. Cassidy’s not winning any points with the judge. If we are lucky, we can bank these little moments of enmity toward the opposition, a credit to draw on in a tight moment on a motion or some future fray with Cassidy and her troops.

The clerk does the deed, marking the tape as one of the People’s exhibits. Morgan looks at her notes. She’s covered all the critical points with the witness and is starting to reach into areas that are drawing my objections and Woodruff’s aggravation.

‘That’s all for this witness,’ she says.

‘Cross?’ says Woodruff.

I stand and approach the witness box, maintaining an appropriate distance, Lama and I locking eyes, a little bit of moisture, pimples of sweat on his upper lip.

‘Lieutenant Lama. Is it fair to characterize you as part of the prosecutorial team in this case?’

‘I’m a police officer, nothing more, nothing less.’

Lama is a lot less, but I won’t belabor the point here.

‘Isn’t it true that on this case you’re working with the deputy district attorney over there, Ms. Cassidy?’

‘That’s my job,’ he says.

‘So you’re part of her team?’

‘If that’s what you want to call it,’ he says.

‘You’ve talked to her about this case — I mean outside the courtroom. Isn’t that true?’