Michael Benson's True Crime Bundle (89 page)

Well, Rachel told him, if you looked at it in one way it was Joshua’s fault. He’d encouraged her.

Pinellas County judge Paul R. Levine was not the sort of man who would send people to prison, or keep them in jail, for emotional reasons. In fact, he was a reasonable man, who believed that different crimes should be handled differently. He was, for example, a proponent of keeping serious alcohol offenders (domestic abusers and drunk drivers) sober rather than incarcerated, and he supported the use of alcohol bracelets, which enabled authorities to check the defender’s alcohol level continuously. One drop, and off to jail they went. Most stayed sober, thus saving that jail space for those who needed to be removed from society.

At the bond hearing for Rachel Wade, on April 16, 2009, Judge Levine found himself face-to-face with a woman who’d had her heart ripped out by violence. Again he would need to forget emotions and let the letter of the law inform his decision.

Standing before the bench, Gay Ludemann said, “Rachel Wade murdered my daughter Sarah in cold blood. And for what? A boy. A boy. How sad is that? … We miss and love our daughter. She is never out of our thoughts. Rachel Wade should not be allowed out of jail.”

Judge Levine explained that he had to give Rachel Wade bail because this was not a capital case. If the police had charged her with first-degree murder, he would have been able to order her held without bail. However, since it was a charge of second-degree murder, bail was mandatory.

He ordered that Rachel be returned to Pinellas County Jail on $500,000 bail.

This angered Sarah’s mom. “Rachel Wade knew where my daughter lived. She was coming after her.” Her whole family would feel unsafe if Wade was allowed to walk the streets again. “Are you going to let her back on the street so she can murder someone else?”

“No, ma’am,” Judge Levine replied patiently. “She has to post five-hundred-thousand-dollar bond in order to get out. That’s quite a heavy burden, I would think. The other thing, and I don’t mean to argue with you right now, I know—”

“And I’m not arguing with you, either,” Gay said. “I’m letting you know how my heart feels, the pain. My daughter is on a cold slab in a funeral home because of this girl! She took my daughter’s life. She knew if she stabbed Sarah in the heart, she would die.”

The question that the grieving mother was trying to ask was: Why wasn’t Rachel Wade charged with first-degree murder? Why wasn’t it a capital case, which would have meant no mandatory bail? Rachel brought the knife with her. How was that not premeditated?

Gay Ludemann would not get an answer to her question at the bond hearing. Afterward, the case’s lead investigator took a crack at it.

According to Detective Lynch: “One of the things we looked at before presenting the case to the state, and one of the things we looked at very hard, was whether or not there was some form of self-defense here.”

If Rachel brought the knife with her in order to protect herself, then the fact that she had the knife at the scene of the fight was not, in itself, evidence of premeditation.

“We knew, for example, that Sarah had driven to where Rachel was, that there were three girls in the van,” Lynch said. “Rachel, on the other hand, although she had two male friends on the scene, was the only female there on her side.”

Lynch felt it would have been difficult to prove to a jury’s satisfaction that Rachel had premeditation using the knife to kill Sarah.

Arguing in the other direction, if this was merely a street fight that had gotten out of hand, why wasn’t Rachel Wade charged with manslaughter? Would Rachel have been charged with manslaughter without the voice mails’ inflammatory verbiage?

Lynch said no. He didn’t believe that the voice mails were that dynamic. If they had been recorded minutes before the stabbing, maybe. As they were, recorded months before Sarah died, he didn’t believe they would be a deciding factor one way or the other.

Funeral services were held for Sarah Ludemann at Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery in St. Petersburg. Her family received friends on Saturday, April 18, from noon to three, and then from five to seven-thirty, at which time funeral services were held. Her family requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the Tarpon Springs Veterinary Academy.

For Sarah’s friend Amber Malinchock, it was at the funeral parlor that Sarah’s death became real for her. She still couldn’t get the image out of her head: Sarah lying there in her coffin, wearing her prom dress.

All of Sarah’s friends attended the funeral, of course—all except one: Joshua Camacho. Charlie Ludemann had forbidden him from attending.

On April 21, in the middle of the afternoon, Jilica Smith came to Sarasota police headquarters for a follow-up interview. Jilica gave her birth date and explained that she was at the stabbing scene because she was friends with Janet and Joshua Camacho. They were like family, and she had been to their house “plenty of times.” She knew Sarah because she was Joshua’s friend, “because she is always there.” Sarah was Joshua’s girlfriend. Jilica hadn’t known Sarah long—not to have conversations and chill with—not really until Janet moved to Pinellas Park, whenever that was. Sarah was always good for a ride, if they needed to get to a store or something.

She didn’t know Rachel. She’d heard Sarah arguing with Rachel on the phone, and Rachel’s name was repeatedly mentioned during conversations. “I only know what she looks like because of that night,” Jilica said. She had heard that there were previous confrontations between Sarah and Rachel, but she had not been around for any of those.

On the night it happened, she’d been hanging out at Janet’s house with Joshua, Sarah, Janet, and maybe the other brother Jay, who was in and out. They were hanging out, sitting on the couch and playing video games. Joshua was getting text messages from Rachel that said that she wanted to fight Sarah. Rachel wasn’t mad at Joshua, just Sarah. Joshua showed the texts to Jilica, but at first didn’t tell Sarah about them.

Sarah’s dad called a couple of times and reminded her that it was a school night and she needed to get home. Sarah said she’d be home soon.

“Joshua didn’t want to get drama started because he knew if he told Sarah about it, Sarah was going to get mad,” Jilica explained. Rachel had been seen outside, repeatedly “riding up and down the block.”

Eventually Sarah did find out what was going on, although Jilica didn’t remember a specific moment when that had occurred. Sarah was calm one second, mad the next, when she somehow discovered what was going on. She was being taunted, and she could not let that stand.

After that, Jilica went outside and sat in a car with her boyfriend. Janet was also outside in a car. Jilica wasn’t sure who she was with, but she thought it might be a family friend.

The red car went by again after they were outside. Jilica was impressed with the driver’s staying power. It felt like she’d been cruising the block for a long time.

At one point, the red car parked at the end of the block at the stop sign and blinked its lights. Jilica thought it odd, but she made no comment as she was otherwise occupied. The red car left, but she wasn’t aware of when.

After about fifteen minutes, Janet announced that they were getting rid of the boys, and just the girls were going to go to McDonald’s. Sarah was driving. Jilica said that sounded good. They got into Sarah’s van.

Jilica didn’t remember which McDonald’s they planned to visit. She said that she didn’t want to eat, anyway, so she was in her own little world, sitting in the back, behind the front passenger seat where Janet was. Sarah and Rachel were on the phone with one another, and Sarah had the phone on speaker. Jilica had her own phone out and was texting someone. Jilica had not picked up on the level of hostility—it was just talking smack—until she heard Rachel say, “I’m going to stab you and your Mexican boyfriend.” That caught Jilica’s attention.

“I was like, ‘Hold on, what’s going on?’” Jilica said.

She admitted to Detective Lynch that she had no way of recognizing Rachel’s voice and had to rely on the word of Janet and Sarah that it was Rachel who made the threat. Lynch wanted to know what the anger between Rachel and Sarah was about. Jilica said Sarah was just trying to figure out Rachel’s problem.

Sarah was asking, “Why you talking crap? Why are you saying these things about me?” Sarah said, “Where you at? Where you at?” And that was when Jilica knew they weren’t going to McDonald’s anymore.

Jilica began to fret aloud from the backseat: She didn’t know this girl. She didn’t know who she might be with. This just didn’t feel right. Word on the street was that Rachel was crazy. She wouldn’t want anything to do with Rachel, and she hoped Janet and Sarah didn’t want to have anything to do with her, either.

At some point during the ride, maybe before the phone call, they ran into a girl named Ashley at a stop sign. Jilica didn’t know whose friend Ashley was, but Sarah and Janet knew her.

Ashley said, “Hey, Rachel is at Javier’s house.”

That got Detective Lynch’s attention. Here was the missing piece of the story!

Jilica didn’t know Ashley’s last name. And she was not sure what color Ashley’s car was. Maybe white. She didn’t know the make. Ashley was by herself, though. She was a white girl, a teenager, looked like she might be Italian, a little bit on the darker side, but not Spanish. Jilica remembered that.

She was pretty sure that at some point during the ride, they’d cruised by Sarah’s house because she remembered seeing Sarah’s dad’s car, which was easy to notice because it was a taxicab. Jilica wasn’t sure why Sarah drove past her own house, unless it was to see if Rachel was there. That was the reason that made the most sense.

Jilica apologized to the investigator. She realized that she was there, and all, but she still felt like she didn’t know anything. “I’m still pretty confused about what happened myself,” she said.

Sarah had not stopped at her house. No one got out of the van until they pulled up behind the red car. They got there quickly. No one had a chance to think things through. No one in the van had a weapon of any kind. As they pulled up, Jilica saw Rachel crossing the lawn, heading toward the street, toward them. Lynch showed her a diagram that had been made from Janet’s version of the facts. Jilica said that Janet had the position of the cars correct, and the spot where Javier and his friend were standing, but the diagram was wrong when it came to Rachel. Janet said Rachel was leaning on the front of her car when the van pulled up. Jilica disagreed. She clearly remembered Rachel crossing the lawn. Janet and Jilica agreed that when Sarah first got out of the van, when her feet first touched the ground, Rachel was already between the vehicles and approaching fast. It was when she crossed in front of the van that Jilica got her first look at Rachel’s face.

“I saw the knife,” Jilica said.

It was in Rachel’s left hand and held in a threatening manner. She didn’t see the stabbing; and the next thing she remembered, she was holding Janet around the waist, holding Janet back, protecting her because that girl still had the knife in her hand.

The confrontation between Sarah and Rachel was quick—two or three seconds, no more than that. As soon as she saw Janet coming, Rachel backed off. During the ruckus, Jilica dropped her phone and somehow it managed to end up underneath Rachel’s car. She had her shoes off and she went under Rachel’s car, trying to get her phone. It was too much at one time to process properly. She retrieved her phone. When she got back up, she saw Sarah standing there, just inside the van’s open driver’s door, holding her chest.

Janet and Rachel were fighting on the lawn. Janet had a shoe in her hand and was trying to knock the knife out of Rachel’s hand with it. Jilica managed to get her own sandals back on. Janet had the same pair, but she lost her shoes that night. Two pairs of sandals were recovered at the scene: one black, Janet’s; one white, Sarah’s. It seemed crazy now, but at the time Jilica thought Sarah was okay, and that her real worry was Janet’s safety.

Rachel was still waving her arms wildly, still had the knife, and Jilica remembered saying, “Janet, no,” and pulling her friend away from Rachel, toward the van. She glanced back at the van and didn’t see Sarah anymore. Janet went around to the other side of the van and screamed that she saw blood. Jilica got down on the ground with Sarah.

Janet headed back for Rachel, who had run up between houses. After that, Rachel didn’t have the knife anymore. Sarah’s phone was ringing. It was Joshua. Jilica told him Sarah was down and bleeding. Then she called 911.

As she gave the lady the info, she noticed that Javier was on the phone; she realized they had called 911 simultaneously. The operator gave Jilica instructions for first aid. She needed something to apply pressure with; Javier gave her his orange shirt. Other people were showing up. At some point, a man showed up and took over tending to Sarah.

Jilica stood up and began screaming at Rachel, “You just stabbed someone! You are going to jail!”

Jilica again tried to pull Janet away from Rachel, now fearful that the cops were going to arrive any second and might not be quick to figure out the good guys from the bad guys.

“It’s not about us now,” Jilica recalled saying, thinking the focus should really be on safety. “Think of your kids,” Jilica said to Janet.

Rachel kept saying, “I’m done, I’m done!” She didn’t want to fight anymore. Rachel tried to go in the house; but for some reason, she didn’t. Instead, she took a seat on a lawn chair. She was smiling. No remorse!

Lynch asked, “At any time, did you ever hear Joshua encourage Sarah to go fight Rachel?”

“No,” Jilica replied.

Had she ever heard Joshua encourage Rachel to fight Sarah? Jilica silently shook her head.

Jilica again apologized. Everything caught her by surprise that night. Back at Janet’s house when Joshua showed her the texts from Rachel, she wasn’t impressed because—as it had been explained to her—Rachel was crazy and she did this sort of crap all of the time. Rachel and Sarah were perpetually threatening to kick each other’s asses, but they never did. Jilica had no idea why this night was different.