Stephen Penner - Presumption of Innocence

"Holly Sandholm. Is she interested in testifying against her boyfriend? He was arrested this morning."

"Yeah, I heard about it. It's all over the news."

"So, is she on board?" Brunelle pressed. He knew he needed her testimony to explain what happened inside the house. Jessica knew it too.

"Well, that brings up an interesting point," she said, "since she's also a victim."

Brunelle considered. "The child rape?"

"Yup. Did you check their birthdates yet? He's four years and two months older than her. Rape of a Child in the Third Degree."

Brunelle nodded as he pulled the statute up on his computer. "Okay," he started. "Honestly, I'm a little more interested in the murder."

"I figured you would be," answered Jess. "That's why I checked the birthdates myself. Charge the bastard with that too and she's on board."

Brunelle tapped his chin. "I can probably do that. It's going to complicate things."

"Our stuff is always complicated."

Brunelle frowned. "You want it to be, but I don't. I want straight forward. Bad guy does bad thing. He's guilty. The end."

"Dave?" said Jessica.

"Yeah?"

"That's not real life."

Brunelle pursed his lips. "Okay, let me review the reports again. We're gonna arraign him tomorrow morning."

"Thanks, Dave."

"And Jess?"

"Yeah, Dave?"

"I know why you really want me to add that charge. If I do, they can't be tried together. And if they're gonna be separate trials, then it's way more likely she gets to stay in juvenile court where she'll get a slap on the wrist no matter what she's convicted of."

"Mr. Brunelle!" Jess laughed. "I am shocked-shocked, I say- that you would think that."

"But I'm right, aren't I?"

Jess laughed again. "Of course you are. But I didn't think you'd figure it out so quick."

Brunelle laughed a bit too. "I'll call you before I leave the office tonight. Let you know what we decide."

"We?"

"I can't seek death without the boss' approval," Brunelle explained. "I'm meeting with Duncan in half an hour."

Jess chuckled. "Wow. Good luck with that."

"Thanks," Brunelle said. "I'll need it."

***

"Dave! Come in!"

Matt Duncan, elected prosecuting attorney for King County, was amazingly friendly. He knew everybody, and made everybody feel like they were the only person in the world right then. He was a politician more than a prosecutor, which suited Brunelle fine. The office needed a well-connected politician in charge when dealing with the county council on budget matters and civic groups on crime prevention. But it led to some ass-backwards decision making sometimes. Brunelle really hoped this wouldn't be one of those times.

"Thanks, Matt." Brunelle took a chair across Duncan's desk. Duncan was astute enough to have a regular desk, nice one, bigger than most, but still government issue. He was a public servant after all. And he usually did his press conferences in his office.

"So," Duncan got right to it. "You want to go death, I take it?"

"Have you seen the crime scene photos?" Brunelle asked in reply. "Hell yes, I want to go death."

Duncan frowned. "How strong is the evidence? I don't want to seek death if we're not going to get it. It's all about expectations."

Brunelle wanted to counter, 'I thought it was all about justice,' but he knew better.

"It's solid. His accomplice wants to testify against him."

"So cut one killer a deal to get death on the other?" Duncan considered. "Jury's not gonna like that. They're not going to impose the death penalty on one if the other isn't getting it."

"The other isn't eligible. She's fifteen."

Duncan nodded. "Okay, that helps."

"And he raped her. The codefendant," Brunelle clarified. "Not the victim."

"Raped her?"

"Well, statutory rape," Brunelle explained. "He's more than forty-eight months older than her."

"Still," Duncan rubbed his chin. "It explains the disparity in treatment. What are the aggravators?"

Brunelle frowned. This was the hard part.

"There are three I think might apply," Brunelle started. "Committed during the course of a burglary. Deliberate cruelty to the victim rising to the level of torture. And um," he hesitated, "committed to maintain or elevate status in an identifiable group."

"The gang aggravator?" Duncan looked sideways at Brunelle.

"Well yeah. That's what everybody calls it, but it has wider application than that."

Duncan's eyes narrowed. "Let's start with the burglary. Did they steal something from the house?"

"Doesn't look like it," Brunelle admitted.

"So how is there a burglary?"

"Well," Brunelle smiled, "burglary is unlawful entering with intent to commit any crime. Murder is a crime."

"So you're going to bootstrap the murder to aggravate itself?"

Brunelle shrugged. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Duncan smirked. "What else you got?"

"Deliberate cruelty to the level of torture."

Duncan raised an eyebrow. "Did they do that?"

"Depends on your definition of torture," answered Brunelle. "They bound her hands, hung her upside down, and slit her throat."

"Not to diminish the tragedy here, Dave, but that doesn't sound like torture. In fact, I think that's the so-called humane way of killing animals so the meat is kosher."

"Well, I'll let the defense attorney argue that it was humane," Brunelle replied. "We're not animals. That girl knew what was happening to her."

Duncan shifted in his seat. "What's the last one? The gang one? What's the identifiable group he's trying to elevate himself in?"

Brunelle grimaced. If Duncan had disliked the other aggravators, he was going to hate this one.

"Vampires."

Duncan waited for a minute, perhaps hoping it was a joke.

"Seriously," added Brunelle.

Duncan leaned onto his desk. "Look, Dave. Everybody thinks I'm gonna run for governor one of these days. But you know what? I'm not. Who needs that crap? Roads and schools and parks and prisons and everything else under the God damn sun. No, I got it good here. Bring justice to the community, give some speeches, and I've been doing it so long, no one even files to run against me anymore."

He leaned back into his chair again. "I let you charge that, I'll be looking for a new job next election day."

Brunelle knew Duncan was right. He was grasping at straws. This had to be a death case. Or at least life without parole. But if they couldn't prove one of those aggravating factors, Karpati could get away with only twenty years. He'd only be forty when he got out. That wasn't justice.

"I think the torture one is your best bet," Duncan said. "I'll let you go capital, but not on vampires. You'll need to prove that what they did was torture."

Brunelle bit his cheek and nodded. "Arraignment's first thing tomorrow."

"Then you'd better get moving, Dave, and figure out how to make that stick. You'll need an expert."

Brunelle smiled. "I know just who to talk to."

"Dr. Anderson?" Brunelle rapped on the assistant medical examiner's office door. It was right off the examining room at the morgue. Brunelle supposed if it didn't bother her to stick her hands into decomposing bodies, she probably didn't even think about having her office near the examining room.

Kat was sitting at her small desk, typing something into her computer. She turned around at the knock.

"Why, if it isn't David Brunelle, Assistant District Attorney?" She smiled. A bright, full lipped smile. "What brings you to my humble office?"

Brunelle tried not to stare at her pretty mouth, but it only led to his eyes dropping to her curvy body. He looked away, at some gruesome autopsy photographs on her desk, and was able to gather himself again.

"The Montgomery murder," Brunelle managed to say. "I need to pick your brain a bit."