Michael Connelly - The Gods of Guilt

I traded looks with Lankford before pulling out my chair and sitting down.

“I thought you weren’t going to make it,” Jennifer whispered to me in a panicked tone.

“You would have done fine. But listen, things have changed since last night. I need to handle this. I’m sorry, but there isn’t enough time to explain the change in strategy. Things have happened.”

“What things?”

Before I could answer, the court clerk noticed that all attorneys were present and told us the judge wanted to discuss the new witness list in chambers. We got up and the clerk opened the half door to her corral, which gave us access to the hallway behind the courtroom.

Judge Leggoe had been expecting two lawyers. She saw Jennifer and told me to pull a chair over from a conference table to the arrangement in front of her desk. We sat down in front of her, Jennifer between Forsythe and me. I had smoothly grabbed the chair on the right so the judge would be looking at me on her left.

“I thought it better to hold this hearing in chambers so maybe we can speak a little more freely,” Leggoe said. “Rosa, we can go on record now.”

She was talking to the court reporter who sat off the rear left corner of the judge’s desk with her steno machine in front of her. I noticed that the judge didn’t go on the record until after making her comment on her desire to keep the media away from the court business at hand.

I could have objected to the in-camera hearing but I didn’t think it would get me anything and it certainly would not score me any points with the judge. So I went along to get along, even though I felt Jennifer staring at me and waiting for me to object. As a general rule, it is better for the defendant to hold hearings in open court. It guards against public suspicions that backroom deals are being made and information is being hidden.

The judge named all those present for the record and proceeded.

“Mr. Forsythe, I assume you’ve had time to study the defense’s amended list of witnesses. Why don’t we start with your response?”

“Thank you, Judge. My investigator and I have had barely enough time to review the list of names. And, Your Honor, calling it an amended list is a misnomer. Adding thirty-three names is not amending. It is reinventing and it is unreasonable. The state can’t be expected to—”

“Your Honor,” I said. “I need to interrupt Mr. Forsythe here because I think the defense can offer a compromise that will cut through a lot of this and might even make him happy.”

From my inside coat pocket I withdrew a copy of the list I had worked on in the car that morning after Lorna had exited onto Alvarado and started making good progress toward the courthouse. We had stopped talking about the previous night’s activities in Glendale and I had gone to work on the list and what I planned to present to the judge.

“Go ahead, Mr. Haller,” the judge said. “What is your proposal?”

“I have a copy of the amended list here, and I have struck all the names I think we can compromise on.”

I handed the page to her. I did not have a duplicate to share with Forsythe. It only took the judge five seconds of study for her eyebrows to shoot up in surprise.

“Mr. Haller, you’ve scratched off all but one, two…four of the names. How could twenty-nine names that were so important to you yesterday be so easily and expeditiously dismissed?”

I nodded like I agreed with the absurdity of my actions.

“All I can say, Judge, is that in the past twenty-four hours the defense has experienced a sea change in its thinking about how best to present the defense of Mr. La Cosse.”

I looked at Jennifer. She knew about the Marco Polo play but had no idea what had happened the night before in Glendale. Still, she recognized her cue and nodded in full agreement with me.

“Yes, Your Honor,” she said. “We think that we can proceed with just the four remaining names added to our original witness list.”

The judge squinted her eyes suspiciously and handed the document across the desk to Forsythe. He scanned it quickly, obviously zeroing in on the names I wanted to keep rather than those I was willing to jettison. Soon enough he frowned and shook his head. I hadn’t expected him to just give in.

“Judge, if counsel had made this offer yesterday, I could have saved my investigator a night’s work and the taxpayers of this county the overtime cost associated with his efforts. That aside, the people appreciate that counsel is willing to cut down the number of additional witnesses. However, the people still have issue with the names that remain on the list and so I must object to the outstanding amendments.”

The judge frowned and looked at her watch. She had probably thought the issue would be settled quickly and she could get the jury back into the box before nine thirty. No such luck.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s go through the names. Quickly—we’ve got a jury waiting. State your objections.”

Forsythe checked the list and chose his first battle, ticking the paper with a finger.

“Counsel has put my own investigator on his list, and the people plainly object. This is simply a ploy to get my investigator on the stand and attempt to learn the prosecution’s strategies.”

I faked a laugh and shook my head.

“Your Honor, defense stipulates that no question will be asked of Investigator Lankford that involves Mr. Forsythe’s so-called strategies. I also want to note that we have entered the defense phase of the trial and the prosecution phase has ended. Any strategy employed by the state is clearly already on record or at the very least is obvious. But I also must add that Mr. Lankford is one of the main investigators on this case and the defense is allowed to vigorously question how the state gathers and analyzes evidence and the statements of witnesses. Lankford is an important witness and there is no precedent that would preclude him from being called by the defense.”

The judge looked from me back to Forsythe.

“What’s your next objection, Mr. Forsythe?”

By not making a ruling on a witness-by-witness basis, the judge was revealing that she likely would make a ruling that took all four names into account and would have something in it for both the prosecution and defense. She would attempt to split the baby in a Solomonic approach. I had anticipated this when I had scratched names off the list earlier. Lankford was the one witness I wanted. Stratton Sterghos’s name was simply a plant on the list designed to get a reaction—which I had gotten in spades on the video. I never intended to actually call him and therefore could lose him now. The other two names were a neighbor in the building where Gloria Dayton had lived and Sly Fulgoni Sr. I could lose them all as well, though Sly Sr. would be quite upset about his vacation being cancelled.

“Thank you, Judge,” Forsythe responded. “Next the people object to the inclusion of Stratton Sterghos. Our efforts last night have turned up not a single connection between him and this case. He lives in Glendale, far from the events that comprise this case. I am told he is a retired obstetrician who appears to be on vacation at the moment and out of contact. We could not talk to him and therefore we are hampered in our understanding of what Mr. Haller is hoping to achieve by calling him as a witness.”

I jumped in before the judge even had time to turn to me and ask for a response.

“As Your Honor knows, the defense is presenting an alternate theory in the motivation behind Gloria Dayton’s murder. This has already been argued at length in regard to our inclusion of Agent James Marco, Trina Rafferty, and Hector Moya on our original witness list. Same thing here, Judge. We believe Stratton Sterghos may be able to provide testimony that links the Dayton murder to a double homicide that occurred across the street from his home ten years ago.”