The Lawyer's Lawyer

CHAPTER Sixty-One



Sam Jeffries took the jurors with him on his imaginary tale about finding the body of the killer of his wife and daughter. He left out the fact that he had bashed the man’s head in and taken his gun. Nobody needed to know those facts. Not when they were considering the fate of the lawyer who had set his wife’s killer free, the lawyer who gave his daughter a death sentence. No, they didn’t need those facts. Jack Tobin was finally going to get what he deserved.

“What specifically did you do when you came upon the body, Mr. Jeffries?” Merton asked.

“I didn’t know whether he was alive or not, although there was blood everywhere. I checked his pulse.”

“And?”

“And he was dead. I then looked around for the shooter. This was in the woods right behind Danni Jansen’s house, so I thought it might have been Danni. She would never have left the body though. Nobody would have left the body unless there was foul play.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You shoot somebody, whether in self-defense or because they are fleeing a crime, you go to them immediately to see what their condition is. You don’t run in the opposite direction unless you want to hide something.”

“What did Mr. Tobin want to hide?”

Tom was on his feet. “Objection, Your Honor. Speculation.”

“Overruled.”

“What did Mr. Tobin want to hide?” Merton repeated the question.

“He wanted to hide the fact that he had murdered Mr. Felton in cold blood.”

Merton knew that he had gotten ahead of himself so he backtracked.

“What happened after you checked the pulse, determined that Felton was dead, and looked around for the shooter?”

“I called the station and ordered a forensics team and homicide detectives to come to the scene. I then pulled out my binoculars and looked toward Danni Jansen’s house. I saw a man knocking on her door and then I saw Danni come out and greet him.”

“Anything else that you did?”

“I saw a backpack on Felton so I put on some rubber gloves, turned the body over, and opened the backpack. There were some clothes, a toothbrush, and some papers.”

“Did you look at the papers?”

“I did. One was a document called a claims bill and the other was a contingency fee agreement.”

“Are you familiar with what a claims bill is?”

“Yes. As chief of police I have attended many seminars where claims bills have been discussed. A claims bill in Mr. Felton’s circumstance is a request for the legislature to pay him for all the years he lost when he was wrongfully incarcerated.”

“And the contingency fee agreement?”

“That was an agreement between Felton and the defendant whereby Felton was going to pay the defendant one-third of what he got.”

“And how much were they requesting in the claims bill?”

“Twenty million dollars.”

Somebody in the audience let out a loud gasp, which opened the door for the rest of the gallery to start whispering among themselves, causing Judge Holbrook to bang his gavel several times.

“Order in the court! Order in the court! I will have this courtroom cleared if there is not immediate silence.”

The gallery stopped murmuring almost immediately.

“If that happens again,” the judge said, “I will have you all removed.” He then directed his attention to Robert Merton. “You may proceed, Counselor.”

“So the claims bill requested twenty million dollars. What was Mr. Tobin’s take?”

“Approximately six million six hundred and sixty-six thousand dollars.”

The murmuring started again but stopped when Judge Holbrook picked up the gavel and looked out into the gallery.

“And what happened to Mr. Tobin’s take when Thomas Felton killed your daughter?”

Tom could have objected. Nobody had ever determined that Thomas Felton had killed Kathleen Jeffries, but everybody assumed it, including Jack. An objection now would only make him look like an idiot when Jack later testified that he thought Felton was the killer.

“It was gone. The legislature was never going to give Thomas Felton any money. All he was going to get was a one-way ticket to hell.”

“Now I want to go back to something you said earlier in your testimony: You said that Jack Tobin, the defendant, wanted to hide the fact that he killed Thomas Felton in cold blood. Why did you assume he had killed Thomas Felton in cold blood?”

“Because Felton had caused him to lose his payday by killing my daughter.”

“And in your opinion, that was his motivation to kill Felton?”

“Objection, Your Honor. Opinion testimony.”

“Overruled. Proceed.”

“Jesus,” Tom said to Jack. “You’d think the judge would at least want to make it look like a fair fight.”

“You’d think,” Jack said.

“Yes,” Sam Jeffries answered. “That’s my opinion.”

“How do you know it was Jack Tobin who killed Felton?”

“He told me—right at the scene. He and Danni Jansen showed up minutes after I arrived on the scene. Tobin told me he had killed Felton.”

“And what facts do you have that the defendant lured Felton into the woods?”

“One of the things we recovered was Felton’s cell phone. Two nights before the shooting, Jack Tobin had called Felton and he called him again moments before Felton was shot.”

The crowd started buzzing again. Judge Holbrook didn’t say a word. He simply smacked down the gavel and everything was quiet again.

“How did those facts add to your investigation?”

“Well, once we saw the claims bill and the contingency fee agreement, we knew Tobin had the motive to kill Felton. The telephone told us how. The first call two days before was probably to set up the meeting in the woods. The call moments before the shooting was to make sure Felton was there and to pinpoint his location.”

“But why the woods?” Merton was eliciting the testimony piece by piece as if he were solving a mystery right in front of his audience. It was working. The jurors and the gallery were on the edge of their seats.

“It set up a perfect alibi for Tobin. He was in the woods to protect Danni Jansen. Felton came by and he shot him—of course, after Felton supposedly pulled a gun.”

“But there was no gun?”

“No. We searched every inch of those woods within a thousand feet of where the body lay and found nothing.”

“I’m going to test you a little bit here, Chief Jeffries,” Merton, the quizmaster said. “If the scenario you laid out for the jury is true, and the defendant set Felton up for murder, why didn’t he plant a gun on Felton after he shot him? Wouldn’t that have cemented his story?”

“Yes, it would have. I think Tobin was planning on doing exactly that. Unfortunately, I showed up before he could plant the gun. So he went to Danni’s house instead, making up the story that he was concerned about her safety.”

“Objection, Your Honor. Speculation.”

“Overruled. You may proceed, Mr. Merton.”

“Why didn’t he just leave the scene?”

“He couldn’t. He had set up a camp there in the woods. We found his credit card and clothes. There was too much evidence that he was there for him to flee the scene. Besides, we could trace the bullet to his gun. It was quick thinking on his part to do what he did.”

“What about the gun you said he was going to plant—did you ever find that?”

“No.”

“Did you take him into custody that day?”

“Yes, we took him to the station for questioning.”

“Did you search him?”

“At the station, yes.”

“So, where did the gun go?”

“We believe he threw it away, sometime after he shot Felton and before we took him into custody—before he met up with Danni. Danni Jansen is an experienced police officer. He wouldn’t have been able to dispose of the gun in her presence.”

“Did you look for that gun?”

“We did but I have to explain the timing. We initially were searching for a gun that Felton supposedly had on his person, so we were searching in the neighborhood of the body. We only kept Tobin in custody a couple of hours. By the time we put all the pieces together and even considered the possibility of a planted gun, Tobin was free and had the opportunity to go back and retrieve the gun himself. So we never had any realistic expectation of finding it.”

At this point in the questioning, Merton walked to the far wall next to the prosecution table and picked up a large rectangular object that looked like, and in fact was, a piece of foam board. There was an easel leaning against the wall as well, and his assistant, the pretty brunette female lawyer who had been doing nothing up to this point, grabbed the easel and walked with Merton. At his direction, she set up the easel and he placed the foam board on it. There was an elaborate diagram on the foam board and it was now facing the jury so they could see it clearly. There was a house and a yard and woods and they were all in color. Tom had been at the scene several times so he recognized the diagram right away.

“Do you recognize this diagram that I have set up in front of the jury?” Merton asked Sam Jeffries.

“Yes. It shows Danni Jansen’s house, her backyard, and the woods surrounding her backyard.”

“Your Honor, I have marked a smaller version of this diagram as State’s Exhibit number ten. I’d like to introduce it into evidence at this point.”

The judge looked at Tom. “Do you have any objection, Counselor?”

“No, Your Honor.”

“State’s Exhibit number ten is admitted. Proceed, Counselor.”

“Now, Chief Jeffries, I have a pointer here and I would like you to come down and take this pointer and show the jury approximately where you found the body, where you first saw Mr. Tobin, and where you looked for this gun you believe Mr. Tobin threw away.”

Sam Jeffries got up from the witness stand, lumbered down to the easel, took the pointer from Robert Merton, and proceeded to show the jury all of the important locations specified by Merton in his question. It was a very effective presentation.

“Once again, can you show the jury where you looked for the gun Mr. Tobin threw away?”

Again using the pointer, Jeffries showed the jury the specific area. “We looked here in the area of woods and backyard to the left of Danni Jansen’s house.”

“Why did you look there?”

“Jack Tobin is right-handed. If he is running toward Danni’s house and he needs to get rid of the gun, that is the most logical place that he would have thrown it.”

“I have no further questions, Your Honor.”

“Cross-examination, Counselor?” the judge asked Tom.

“Yes, Your Honor.” Tom stood and walked to the podium.

Tom had no intention of cross-examining Jeffries on most of the issues that he had raised. There was no need. Jack was going to testify and Jack would address just about everything. Tom had a few points he wanted to make and that was it. As an experienced trial lawyer, he knew less was sometimes more. Make it simple. Keep the jury focused.

“Chief Jeffries, why were you out there in the woods on a Sunday morning?”

“Why?”

“Yes, that’s the question. Why?”

“I anticipated Felton might come after Danni. Danni was on the task force. Felton had threatened her in the past. He killed my daughter to get back at me. It was logical that he would come after Danni, and it was logical that he would come through the woods where he could not be seen.”

“But why you?”

“Why me what?”

“Why were you out there on Sunday morning? You have a whole police force under you. You could have had two or four or six officers out in those woods or, even better, a SWAT team, couldn’t you?”

“I could have but I chose to do it myself.”

“Because it was personal.”

“Yes.”

“We’ve already had two of your police officers testify in this case, and I asked each of them if there were any general orders to watch the woods behind Danni Jansen’s house and they said there weren’t. Is it true that you did not put out any general orders to your officers to be especially vigilant of the woods behind Danni Jansen’s house?”

“Yes.”

“And again, that’s because it was personal.”

“Yes.”

“If Felton was after Danni Jansen, why didn’t you just wait for him in her house?”

“I wanted to. She wouldn’t let me. She wanted to catch the son of a bitch as much as I did. Excuse my language, Your Honor.”

The judge didn’t respond.

“So you obviously wanted to get him because of what he did to your family. Why did Danni Jansen want to get him?”

“Objection, Your Honor. He’s asking this witness to speculate about what was in Danni Jansen’s mind.”

“I’ll rephrase the question, Your Honor.”

“Proceed.”

“Did Danni tell you why it was personal for her?”

“Yes.”

“What did she tell you?”

“Objection, hearsay.”

“Your Honor, I anticipate that Danni Jansen will be the State’s next witness.”

“Is that true, Mr. Merton?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“I’ll allow it.”

“What did she tell you?” Tom asked again.

Sam was an experienced witness. He knew when Merton objected that he didn’t want him to answer the question. But Sam couldn’t help himself. He wanted the jurors, everybody, to know that Danni wanted Felton almost as bad as he did.

“She was on the task force when he was terrorizing this city. Danni has a daughter. Felton had threatened her daughter in the past. She wanted him apprehended.”

“It was personal with her, too.”

“Yes.”

“So you were patrolling the woods—was that on a daily basis?”

“Yes, several times a day.”

“And Danni Jansen was sitting in her house waiting for Felton to come?”

“Yes.”

“And from the evidence you uncovered, Jack Tobin was living in the woods waiting for Felton?”

“No, he was luring Felton into the woods.”

“I know that’s your opinion and your opinion is based on the telephone calls to Felton’s phone, correct?”

“Yes.”

“But you didn’t listen to those phone conversations?”

“No.”

“In fact, you don’t even know that there were phone conversations, correct?”

“No.”

“And you don’t really know for a fact why the calls were made, correct?”

“I’ve stated my opinion.”

“I understand that, but you don’t know why those calls were made, do you?”

“Not for an absolute fact.”

“And you did find camping equipment, clothes—items that indicated that Mr. Tobin was living in the woods, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Probably waiting for Felton just like you and Ms. Jansen?”

“I don’t know that.”

“Well, you’ve given a lot of opinions already on your direct examination. Isn’t that a logical conclusion—you were waiting for Felton, Danni Jansen was waiting for Felton, and Jack Tobin was waiting for Felton?”

Merton was on his feet. “Objection, Your Honor. He’s badgering the witness. The question was asked and answered.”

“Overruled. Answer the question, Mr. Jeffries.”

“I don’t know.”

“But the evidence—the clothing, the camping equipment—it doesn’t coincide with your theory that Jack Tobin lured Felton into the woods, does it?”

“I don’t understand the question.”

“Let me ask it another way: The physical evidence shows that Tobin was camping in the woods waiting for Felton, not that Tobin was luring Felton into the woods.”

“The camping equipment was all a ruse—all part of Tobin’s plan.”

“That’s your opinion.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Were you armed when you were in the woods?”

“Of course.”

“And did you anticipate that you might have trouble with Felton if you came across him?”

“Yes.”

“And was Danni Jansen armed?”

“Yes.”

“For the same reason?”

“Yes.”

“And was Jack Tobin armed?”

“Yes.”

“For the same reason?”

“No. He wanted to kill Felton. Danni and I are police officers. That’s a big difference.”

“Isn’t Danni Jansen a retired police officer?”

“Yes.”

“She has the status of a private citizen just like Jack Tobin?”

“Yes.”

“So she and Tobin were armed as private citizens, correct?”

“If you say so.”

“I’m not testifying, Chief Jeffries, you are. Please answer the question.”

“Yes.”

“Now, if you, walking in the woods, armed, came across Thomas Felton, maybe a hundred yards away, and you told him to stop, and he turned, and you thought he had a gun and was about to fire, would you shoot?”

“It all depends.”

“On what?”

“If I thought I was in danger for my life, I might be justified—but I’d better be pretty damn sure he had a gun.”

“What if he didn’t?”

“Then I’d be facing discipline.”

“From the police department?”

“From my superiors in the city and possibly the state. All police officers have standards they have to abide by. One of those standards is a use of force matrix. Essentially, you can only use force necessary to counter the force exerted against you.”

“So you would be subject to disciplinary action but not criminal charges?”

“No. Not under the facts that you described.”

“Okay. Let’s take Danni Jansen walking in the woods, same circumstances.”

Sam Jeffries had had enough. This lawyer was not going to squeeze him anymore.

“You’re not getting this, Counselor. Danni Jansen was one of the finest homicide detectives this department ever had. This scum, Felton, threatened her daughter and he was out there. Still, she would have apprehended him if she had the chance. She was justified carrying a gun and I would put her in the same category as myself. She would not have shot unless she had to.”

“Which means no criminal charges, correct?” Tom shot the question out quickly. He knew when he had a witness going his way, even though the witness didn’t know it.

“That’s correct.”

Tom had what he needed. Going any further would have been a crap shoot. He’d set the scenario to argue to the jury that if they believed Jack’s version of the facts, his good-faith belief that Felton had a gun, then according to Chief Sam Jeffries, there should be no criminal charges.

“I have no further questions, Your Honor.”

“Great cross,” Jack told him when he sat down.

“We’ll see,” Tom replied. “We’ll see.”