A Cure for Night (26 page)

37

A
LL RIGHT,"
Myra said.
"Let's try it where you're just a total asshole."

It was late Sunday afternoon, and Myra and I were in the neutral territory of a conference room in our office. We were role-playing, with me pretending to be the detective and Myra crossing me. With the other witnesses we'd at least had some idea of what their testimony was going to be and how we were going to attack it, but with the detective—based on their appearance before Judge Ferano we were guessing it was going to be Franklin, but we didn't even know that—we were going to be totally winging it. So Myra and I had brainstormed for every possibility we could come up with of what the detective's testimony would be and how he would present it, and had spent the afternoon running through the possibilities.

It was also entirely possible that the police would've found a way to clear Devin Wallace in Malik Taylor's murder by the time Monday morning rolled around. If so, the detective wouldn't testify, and the jury would just be allowed to resume its deliberations. On the other end of the spectrum, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that the police would've come up with direct evidence connecting Wallace to Taylor's murder. It wasn't impossible that they would've arrested him.

We'd run through that scenario at the start, but hadn't spent much time on it: if Wallace had been arrested Myra wouldn't need much practice to get the important concessions out of the detective. It was the middle ground that mostly concerned us, situations where there was enough that the judge let us go forward and bring in the detective's testimony but not enough to make it a slam dunk that Wallace was involved. If that was the case, we'd be hard-pressed to get much out of the detective, homicide cops being old hands at rebuffing defense attorneys.

We'd been at this for a few hours now, and I was running out of ways to pretend to be a recalcitrant cop. We spent about twenty minutes with me in asshole mode—hostile, sarcastic, refusing to admit the obvious.

"Okay," Myra finally said. "I think I'm as prepared as I can be,
under the circumstances. Let's call it."

Myra and I hadn't talked about the other night, hadn't even acknowledged it. Now that we were suddenly back in the throes of the trial, I didn't feel comfortable bringing it up. If it was bothering Myra at all she was doing a good job of hiding it; she seemed entirely focused and businesslike, lacking any trace of the openness and vulnerability that occasionally leaked out of her.

"You think it's a game changer if we get this sort of testimony before the jury?" I asked.

"If we get the judge to reopen the case at all, I think it's at
least a bit of a game changer. The jury will understand that something strange
is happening."

"Where are we if the judge just throws it back to the jury without letting us call the detective?" I asked.

Myra shrugged. "No worse off than we were a few days ago," she said.
"Latrice's evidence is collateral, Yolanda's shaky in three different ways, and
Lester Bailey's a lying snitch. I guess the question is whether we've given the
jury enough for them to think Yolanda's lying. She was an eyewitness, after all,
and she made the ID right off the bat. The problem is, we never came up with a
reason why she'd pin it on Lorenzo."

"Why would she?"

"I don't have the faintest idea," Myra answered. "Nobody ever gave
us anything between them suggesting why she would."

"Well, if she was just looking for a fall guy, she knew Lorenzo did business with Devin," I said.
"One way or another, that would've led the police to a motive. Or maybe Yolanda
heard something about Lorenzo coming to look for Devin earlier. She could've
known Devin owed Lorenzo money, known a charge on him was likely to stick."

"You never know," Myra said. She'd finished packing up her bag and was putting on her coat. I realized that I didn't want her to leave, not yet. My earlier resolve not to broach the subject of the other night crumbled. I lacked her apparent ability to wall off doing the job from everything else. I didn't know whether I should admire her for it or take it as a sign of just how fucked-up she was.

"So," I said, trying to keep my voice playful, "anything else we
should talk about?"

"We've got to go back to court tomorrow, Joel," Myra said. "Isn't
that enough drama for now?"

"Why does anything else have to be drama?"

"You think you and me wouldn't be drama? I'm not the easiest
person in the world, and I'm guessing you still can't put one foot in front of
the other without looking down."

"I'm doing fine," I protested. "I even fall asleep most nights."

"I was raised by someone in recovery, Joel," Myra said. "And you
don't look to me like someone who's there yet."

"It doesn't have to be drama," I said. "At least, not anytime
soon."

That at least got a smile from Myra. "I don't need an office fuck buddy," she said.

"I wasn't offering to be your office fuck buddy. All I was going
to say was, after the trial—"

"Let's deal with after the trial after the trial," Myra said.

38

I
T WAS
a little after ten on Monday morning, and nobody knew what was about to happen.

Detective Franklin had arrived alone at Judge Ferano's chambers at nine o'clock. The detective had done his best not to tell us anything, but he'd said enough that Judge Ferano had decided to reopen the case so that we could call him.

Judge Ferano had addressed the jury briefly, merely informing them that he was suspending their deliberations to allow the defense to call a new witness. The jurors looked to be visibly unhappy with this turn of events; no doubt they'd been hoping their service had been nearing its end.

Myra began by asking Franklin some innocuous background questions, trying to give the jury time to settle back down and focus on what was happening, while also giving herself a chance to get a sense of the detective's courtroom demeanor.

"Detective Franklin," Myra said, "are you testifying here today
because you want to be?"

Franklin appeared slightly surprised by the question. "I don't know many people who come to court for fun," he answered.
"Except lawyers, of course." This got a small laugh from the jury.

"You're here at the instruction of the judge, correct?" Myra said.

"That's right."

"And do you know why Judge Ferano asked you to be here today?"

"Malik Taylor was killed last Thursday night," Franklin said. "I'm
investigating his murder."

Myra paused, letting the detective's words sink in. She had positioned herself near the corner of the courtroom behind the jury box, so that the detective was looking in the jury's direction. I was watching the jury as Franklin spoke, and the effect was electric: we finally had their full attention.

"Thank you, Detective," Myra finally said. "And are you aware that Malik
Taylor testified in this case?"

"Yes, I am," Franklin said.

"Are you aware whether or not Devin Wallace was present in this courtroom when Malik
Taylor testified?"

"Objection," O'Bannon said.

"I'll allow it," Judge Ferano said.

"It was my understanding that he was," Franklin said.

"Is it your understanding that Devin Wallace watched much of this
trial here?"

"Your Honor, the witness has no direct knowledge of this," O'Bannon protested.

"The witness has been conducting an investigation," Judge Ferano said.
"He can answer as to what his understanding is."

"I've been told that he was present, yes," Detective Franklin said.

"Tell me, Detective," Myra said, "have you questioned Devin
Wallace regarding Mr. Taylor's murder?"

"No," Franklin said. "I haven't."

"You never tried to talk to Mr. Wallace?"

"We haven't been able to locate him," Franklin said quietly.

"Have you tried his apartment?"

"Yes."

"More than once?"

"Yes."

"Are you keeping an eye on his apartment?"

O'Bannon stood and started to object, but Judge Ferano cut him off.
"We don't need to get into the nitty-gritty of an ongoing police investigation, Counselor," Ferano said to Myra.
"Let's move on."

Myra nodded. "How about Yolanda Miller, Detective?" she asked.
"Did you talk to her?"

"Yes."

"Did you talk to her before you tried to talk to Mr. Wallace?"

"Yes."

"Did Ms. Miller tell you things that made you want to talk to Mr.
Wallace as part of your investigation of Mr. Taylor's murder?"

Franklin took his time with that one, clearly wanting to think it through, or perhaps hoping for an objection.
"Yes, she did," he finally said.

"After your conversation with Ms. Miller you considered Mr.
Wallace a suspect, didn't you?"

"We were interested in talking to him."

Myra held the moment, looking at Franklin. He looked back at her impassively.
"Nothing further," she finally said.

O'Bannon did only a cursory cross of Franklin, confining himself to establishing the obvious. He had Franklin say that the police did not know that Wallace had killed Taylor, and had no direct evidence linking Wallace to the murder. His strategy appeared to be to try to minimize the importance of Franklin's testimony by having his cross be as brief as possible.

The judge had agreed to allow the parties limited additional closing arguments solely to address the new evidence presented.
"If you're thinking this all seems very strange," Myra began as she walked toward the podium,
"you're right. This hasn't happened on any other case I've ever had. New evidence isn't just supposed to arise at the very end of a trial. But that's what happened here, and it's now going to be your duty to put aside any conceptions you had before and reevaluate this entire case in light of this new information.

"That isn't an easy task. But if you don't think you can do it, you need to take yourself off this jury, because it's what's required of you. There can't really be any doubt, can there, that this new evidence changes the outlook of this case?

"It is now clear that the police are investigating Devin Wallace as a suspect in the murder of Malik Taylor. Ladies and gentlemen, Devin Wallace sat in this very courtroom and listened to the evidence we put on that it was Malik Taylor who shot him," Myra said, pointing toward the spectator section of the courtroom as she spoke.
"He was right there, taking it in. I have no way of knowing whether that evidence convinced you, ladies and gentlemen, but I have reason to suspect that it convinced Mr. Wallace.

"I'm sure you noticed that Detective Franklin wasn't exactly enthusiastic to be called here to testify. I don't blame him. He's in the middle of his own investigation, plus he's not in the business of coming to testify on behalf of criminal defendants. I'm not saying anything bad about the detective; I'm just saying I don't think he was happy to be here, which I understand. As he said, nobody likes coming to court but us lawyers, and to tell you the truth, even we aren't thrilled most of the time.

"But despite the fact that he didn't enjoy his time in the witness chair, Detective Franklin still made it entirely clear that Devin Wallace was his only real suspect in the killing of Malik Taylor. He also made it clear that Devin Wallace hasn't been seen since that killing.

"I've already talked to you about reasonable doubt, and what that means," Myra said.
"The judge has also instructed you on what it means as a matter of law. I won't say all that again; I'll just tell you how important it is that you evaluate this new evidence when you consider whether the state has met its burden of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

"I submit to you that, regardless of whether that was possible
before, it is no longer possible here today. Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I
suspect your doubts about this case are not just reasonable; I suspect they are
severe. For that reason, this new evidence makes it clear that the only just
verdict in this case is not guilty."

Myra took a moment, looking from juror to juror, before turning and heading back to her seat.

"
THERE'S NO
doubt that Malik Taylor was just recently murdered," O'Bannon began his rebuttal.
"There's no doubt that his death is a tragedy and a shame.

"But that doesn't mean that there's any doubt in the case you are here to decide. Because, ladies and gentlemen, you are not here to decide what happened to Mr. Taylor, or who might have murdered him. And from the evidence you heard in this courtroom, you do not know much of anything about what might have befallen Mr. Taylor. You don't know who might have wanted him dead, or why, how likely it might be that this was a random killing, that Mr. Taylor was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. You just don't know. And that's okay, because you are not here to decide who killed Mr. Taylor.

"The detective who testified here today told you that the police do not know who killed Mr. Taylor. He told you that he did not know if Mr. Taylor's murder had anything whatsoever to do with this case. And even if—just supposing, because there's no evidence that this is actually the case—even if Mr. Wallace did have some role to play in Mr. Taylor's murder, that wouldn't mean that the defendant didn't shoot Mr. Wallace and Mr. Lipton. We have no actual basis for thinking these crimes are related.

"It's important to remember that this new evidence does not have
any special weight just because it was brought in at the eleventh hour. You need
to look at the evidence in the case as a whole, not just what you were told
today. When you do so, you will find that you have more than enough evidence to
convict the defendant. Thank you."