The Lawyer's Lawyer

CHAPTER Seventy



Tom finally got a day that matched his mood—dark, overcast, stormy. The wind blowing hard. He was deep in the clouds himself. Merton had outfoxed them completely. Jack had not made good strategic decisions, although Tom couldn’t blame Jack too much. The man had a woman who not only broke the law to save him but came into court and testified about it under oath. Tom could understand why Jack wanted to stand behind her and her testimony. His Kate would have done the same thing, he was sure. Women like those two were rare indeed.

Those reflections didn’t help him as he headed to court on this blustery morning. This trial had drilled home for him once and for all that in the criminal justice system, strategy trumps truth. It was the way of the world these days. He was about to make his closing argument and he had no strategy. All he had was truth.

Jack was waiting when he arrived in the courtroom. He looked relaxed and fresh.

“I’m ready,” he said. “It’s going to be a good day.”

“Am I missing something?” Tom asked.

“I don’t think so. Why do you ask?”

“You’re awfully cheerful.”

“All I can tell you, Tom, is that I believe in people and nobody has failed me yet.”

Tom thought Jack had finally lost it. The man was delusional—speaking in riddles. There were no other people. Or were there?

Just then Merton arrived, resplendent in a blue suit and a flowery red tie. He, too, looked relaxed and confident.

The bailiffs were busy ushering the gallery in. When they were all set, promptly at nine o’clock Judge Holbrook entered the courtroom. Everybody rose.

“Be seated,” he said. Then he addressed the lawyers. “Do we have anything to discuss before we bring the jurors in?”

Both of the lawyers said no. After Danni’s testimony the day before, Tom had rested. Merton had no rebuttal. Tom had made a halfhearted oral motion for acquittal, and Judge Holbrook had denied it on the spot. Then they had briefly discussed the jury instructions.

The stage was set this morning for closing arguments.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the judge said to the jurors when they were seated, “the lawyers are going to make their closing arguments now. I want to remind you again that what they say is not evidence. You must use your own recollection of the testimony you heard from the witness stand in making your decision. When the lawyers are finished, I will give you the applicable law and you will apply the facts that you determine to the applicable law in making your decision.

“The prosecution will go first because the State has the burden of proof. Then the defense will have an opportunity to speak to you, followed by a brief rebuttal by the prosecution.

“Mr. Merton, are you ready to proceed?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

Robert Merton strode to his place next to the podium. He had no notes with him. He was confident that he could hit all the high points from memory.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. First, I would like to thank you for your attention during this trial. I know that you have been separated from your families for the better part of a week, and I assure you I will be as quick as I possibly can. This trial is almost over but before it is over, you as jurors must do your job. It’s not an easy job deciding the guilt or innocence of a person, but it is an obligation you have agreed to undertake. I am confident that you will make the tough decisions that are needed.

“I told you when this trial began that the State would prove that Jack Tobin had intentionally planned and carried out the murder of Thomas Felton. The evidence is undisputed that the defendant shot Felton and that Felton died from that gunshot wound. It is also undisputed that Felton signed a contingency fee agreement with the defendant to pay him one-third of whatever he received from the Florida legislature. The defendant was going to file a claims bill with the state requesting twenty million dollars. The organization the defendant worked for had no knowledge of the contingency fee agreement and, in fact, the agreement was a violation of the organization’s own rules and bylaws. The defendant himself testified that when Felton killed Kathleen Jeffries, the claims bill and his contingency fee died with her. The defendant lost a potential fee of seven million dollars—certainly enough motive for murder.

“What other facts support this murder by the defendant?” Merton took the opportunity to point his finger right at Jack. “Do you remember the telephone calls? Both made by the defendant, one, two days before the murder, setting up the meeting, the other, minutes before the murder, making sure Felton had shown up. You also remember Chief Jeffries testifying that he believed that the defendant, after he shot Felton, planned on planting a gun on Felton but was thwarted in this plan when he heard Chief Jeffries coming on the scene. Chief Jeffries told you he believed that the defendant had tossed the gun he was going to plant in the woods as he ran to Danni Jansen’s house. And you heard Danni Jansen, before she changed her testimony, tell you that the very night of the murder, she saw the defendant, Jack Tobin, coming from the woods exactly where Chief Jeffries believed Tobin would have thrown the gun.

“Motive and opportunity, ladies and gentlemen. It’s all there and it’s undisputed. Mr. Tobin had an explanation for everything but his explanations didn’t ring true. For instance, he said that the contingency fee agreement was Felton’s idea, but then he admitted that Felton didn’t know what a contingency fee agreement was. It was Tobin’s idea to lock him in legally. Then you heard Tobin tell you that he was going to give any money he received to Exoneration. Unfortunately, he never told anyone at Exoneration about that. And, unfortunately for him, Ben Chapman, the CEO of Exoneration, testified that such agreements are not allowed by the organization and Jack Tobin knew that.

“You know, I expected a unique defense from these two talented lawyers. I just didn’t know how diabolical it was going to be. The defense let me put on my case and then developed a story to refute it using one of the prosecution’s own witnesses and a former police officer—Danni Jansen. They believed they could pull this off. They still believe it. But you must not let them. You must see Danni Jansen’s testimony for what it is—a pack of lies.

“First, she told you that for the first time ever she was revealing that she had planted the bowie knife at the scene where Vanessa Brock and Pedro Diaz were murdered. When I asked why now, she said because she didn’t want an innocent man to go to jail. I asked her if she had any interest other than that and she said no. We know that was a lie. Jack Tobin was her lover and is still her lover. She had an agenda and she lied about it. But that was just the beginning of her lies. In her first break-in, she stole a knife; in her second supposed break-in, she stole a gun—all in the interests of justice, not for her lover. You remember the revolver—no prints, nothing to connect it to Felton at all. You remember her admitting she could have bought it at Walmart or Kmart, or at a gun show. Well, I submit to you that she didn’t buy it anywhere. I submit to you that this was the gun Tobin had planned to plant on Felton’s body. This vile woman was in on this deal all along. Where did Tobin run when he shot Felton and heard Chief Jeffries coming onto the scene? To Danni Jansen’s house. Who showed up with Tobin at the scene with the story of the self-defense shooting? His lover, Danni Jansen!

“Not only did she do everything to vindicate her lover, she also did everything she could to implicate Chief Jeffries in criminal activity—a man who had lost both his wife and his daughter at Felton’s hand.

“You don’t need to ask this woman if she has no shame. She doesn’t.”

Merton was like a preacher, his voice rising with every accusation. He was definitely on a roll when suddenly—

“Stop! No more! Do not say another word!”

Merton heard the shouts. He turned to look at the same time everybody else did, including Judge Holbrook, who was almost as indignant as Robert Merton that somebody had the gall to disrupt the proceedings in his courtroom.

Sam Jeffries walked down the middle aisle of the courtroom and inside the bar. He stopped right next to where Jack was sitting.

“Chief Jeffries, what is the meaning of this?” Judge Holbrook demanded.

“I have known Danni Jansen for over twenty years, Your Honor. She has dedicated her life to the city of Oakville. She was an outstanding homicide detective. I will not have you, sir,” he pointed at Merton, “calling her a vile woman.”

“Chief, I appreciate your feelings toward this woman but this is not the time or the place,” Judge Holbrook said, seeing that the man was extremely distraught. The bailiffs were ready to move in at the slightest gesture from the judge.

“It’s the perfect place, Your Honor, because Danni Jansen was telling the truth. She found that gun in my house. I took that gun from the crime scene. I took it because I wanted to frame Jack Tobin.”

Bedlam broke out in the courtroom. People were in shock and they were talking about it. Judge Holbrook’s prior admonitions were a distant memory now. He had lost control of his courtroom, but he wasn’t giving up. He stood up, banging his gavel. “Order in the court! Order in the court!” When that didn’t work, he changed his tune. “Clear the courtroom! Clear the courtroom!”

The bailiffs, the only people who were listening, began to clear the courtroom. Members of the press didn’t need to be encouraged. They were running to get their story out. Everybody else needed a little urging. As the courtroom started to empty, order began to return.

Jack whispered in Tom’s ear, “As soon as everybody is out, stand up and make a motion for dismissal.”

“Okay,” Tom said, still a little bewildered himself.

“Sam,” Jack said. Sam Jeffries looked down to his right where Jack sat. “Don’t say another word. You will only incriminate yourself more. Let Merton decide if he’s going to dismiss the case. You’ve said enough.”

When the gallery emptied out for the third time since the trial had begun, Tom stood up.

“Your Honor, I make a motion to dismiss this case against my client based on the admissions made by Chief Jeffries here in open court.”

“Mr. Merton, do you have anything to say?” Judge Holbrook asked calmly.

Merton was still standing in front of the jury, but he was no longer the preacher breathing fire and brimstone. He was speechless and bewildered.

“Mr. Merton?”

“I don’t know what to say, Your Honor.”

“Well, Mr. Merton, your main witness, the chief of police, has just stated that he framed Mr. Tobin. Does that help you?”

Merton suddenly realized that the jury was still in the room. There was no coming back from this mess.

“The State has no objection to a dismissal of its case against Mr. Tobin based on the admissions of Chief Jeffries,” Merton said finally.

“Case dismissed,” Judge Holbrook said. “Mr. Tobin, you are free to go. I want those officers who have been guarding Mr. Tobin to take Chief Jeffries into custody.”

Sam Jeffries had not said a word since Jack told him not to say anything, not because he listened to Jack but because he was struck dumb at the realization that the man he had set up for murder was giving him legal advice for his own good.