“She didn’t. Someone dragged her back to the stairs and positioned her head down, on her back. And, there, she bled out and died.”
Devlin pauses to give the jury time to chew on the image of this lovely young woman, desperately crawling on hands and knees trying to get away from her assailant, who pursues her and finishes the job he started when he pushed her down the stairs. I turn slightly to the left, just enough to glimpse Jennifer’s mother weeping.
Devlin starts up again, switches gears. “Did you find any evidence of a break-in? Jimmied locks on the doors, broken windowpanes?”
“There was nothing like that.”
“What did that tell you?”
“That the perpetrator either had his own key, or he was let into the house by the victim. If the latter was the case, there’s a strong chance she knew him.” Stone’s final words cause several of the jurors to look at David.
Devlin asks a series of questions establishing David’s presence in the house. Stone testifies that David’s fingerprints were found throughout the house, as were strands of his hair. Stone also describes the items of David’s clothing found in the master bedroom closet: a suit, some shirts, shoes, boxers—all in David’s sizes—along with some ties and a belt.
Devlin concludes his questioning, and Judge Henry orders a fifteen-minute break for everyone to stretch their legs.
As soon as the jury returns, I start in on Matthew Stone. “You began by telling the jury that part of crime-scene processing is to secure and control the area—did I hear that right?”
“Yes.”
“And this idea of securing the crime scene is a fundamental principle of crime-scene processing, isn’t that true? A golden rule, so to speak?”
“I think that’s fair to say.”
“And a key part of securing the crime scene is restricting access?”
“Yes.”
“The integrity of the crime scene must be maintained, and that means you don’t allow people to come in and drop hairs and prints and dirt all over your crime scene, right?”
“Absolutely.”
“But it didn’t quite work out that way for you in this case, did it?”
My question takes Stone aback.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Your crime scene was invaded and contaminated by someone who had no business being there.” Stone doesn’t answer, just stares at me. He has no idea where I’m going with this. I press forward, saying, “You hadn’t even been at that crime scene for an hour when someone came in—not wearing booties, not wearing gloves, not wearing a plastic cap on his hair—and traipsed all over that house. Isn’t that so?”
Stone gets it now and turns to Devlin.
I follow his eyes and say, “Yes, it was Mr. Walker himself.” I’d learned about Devlin’s intrusion onto the crime scene from Tommy, who found out about it from an acquaintance on Stone’s CSU team.
Devlin shoots to his feet, objects, and demands a sidebar. Judge Henry overrules the objection and refuses the sidebar but tells me to get to the point.
“How long was he there before you knew he was there?” I ask Stone.
“I don’t know.”
“Because he didn’t sign in?” I don’t wait for Stone to answer. “He just waved his DA credentials, and your officers let him in, isn’t that right?”
“I spoke to my team about that afterward. I do remember that now.”
“Their letting him in and his presence in the house upset you at the time?”
Stone exhales loudly. “I wasn’t happy.”
“When your men dusted the house for prints, did you find Mr. Walker’s prints?”
“Well, yes. As we just discussed, he came to the house.”
“Did you find hair samples belonging to an African American?”
Stone’s eyes bore into me now. “Yes. Along with your client’s prints.”
“Did Mr. Walker go into the basement after he entered the house?”
“I believe so, at some point.”
“Is it possible Mr. Walker tracked some of the victim’s blood across the basement floor?”
Devlin’s on his feet again. “Objection! This is ridiculous!”
The idea that Devlin tracked Jennifer’s blood all over the basement floor is, indeed, absurd. I’ve gone too far, and the judge sustains the objection and tells me to move on to another subject. I don’t mind that I’m being shut down at this point. This entire line of questioning isn’t for the jury anyway—it’s for Walker himself. He’ll know why soon enough.
I ask whether, in addition to David’s and Devlin’s prints, the CSU team found other prints. Stone says yes, a number of prints. “Then there’s no question that Mr. Hanson and Mr. Walker were not the only men to have been in that house prior to Ms. Yamura’s death?”
“No.”
I pause and switch tracks. “Earlier, you’d said there was no evidence of a break-in, and you based that on the lack of broken windows or jimmied locks. You said that indicated to you that the perpetrator either had his own key or was let in by Ms. Yamura. But there’s a third option, isn’t there?”
Stone takes the question seriously and considers it. Before he can answer, I say, “The doors, or at least one of them, could simply have been unlocked.”
“Uh . . .”
“If a door was unlocked, anyone—a neighbor, burglar, thief—could have walked into the house without the need to jimmy locks or break windows, right?”
“Well, yes.”
“And isn’t that the first thing a burglar does when he’s trying to get into someone’s house to rob it? Check to see if a door is unlocked so he won’t have to pry his way in?”
“I suppose.”
“And had the door been unlocked, so that the burglar gained entry without a sound, he could have suddenly happened upon Ms. Yamura and attacked her once she saw him, before she had a chance to scream, right?”
“That’s possible,” Stone concedes, “though, in my experience, most burglars don’t commit violent crimes, especially murder. Even under duress.”
“Unless they’re two-time losers, and one more strike will get them life,” I say.
Devlin objects and the court sustains him, but my point has been made.
“So, now that we’re talking about a home invasion, let’s discuss all the things that your crime-scene investigation found to be missing. Would you pull up one of the photographs showing Ms. Yamura’s wallet?” The witness does so. “That’s it? Lying open on the kitchen counter?”
“Yes.”
“Had it been emptied of all the cash?”
“There was no money in it.”
“Please pull up one of your pictures of Ms. Yamura’s bureau, in her bedroom.” Again, the witness complies. “The drawers have all been opened?”
“Yes.”
“You found them that way when you arrived?”
“Yes.”
“But her clothing was inside, including her underwear?”
“Uh, yes.” Stone sounds confused.
“So the perpetrator wasn’t a pervert looking for women’s undergarments?”
“Ah, no.”
“As to what he was looking for, is that a jewelry box sitting on top of the bureau?”
“Yes.”
“Also with all its drawers opened?”
“Yes.”
“Any jewelry inside?”