YUKI CASTELLANO WAS five foot two in heels, but she commanded the room in her fire-engine-red suit as she left the podium and took a position ten feet away from the jurors. Then she began to lead them directly into the heart of her case.
Yuki said, “On October eleventh, after their evening out, Marc Christopher opens his apartment door and the defendant follows him inside. He strips off his clothing in the living room, and after using the bathroom, feeling the effects of dinner and much beer, he goes into the bedroom and falls facedown on his bed.
“He wakes up because the defendant is sharply calling his name. He turns over and sees the defendant is holding a gun pointed right at his face and saying that she wants to have sex. At that moment Mr. Christopher thinks she’s just kidding around.
“He tells the defendant that he is wasted. Can’t. Doesn’t want to. Needs to sleep. So what does the defendant do? She opens Mr. Christopher’s closet and brings out a handful of his neckties. She demands that he tie his feet to the footboard or she will shoot him.”
Yuki continued, walking slowly in front of the jury box, taking the time to look at each of the jurors.
She went on.
“Mr. Christopher says, ‘You’re being ridiculous, Briana. Come to bed.’ But that’s not what happens. The defendant taunts Mr. Christopher, tells him that she is going to do whatever she wants with him. Again Mr. Christopher asks her to ‘knock it off.’ He says, ‘Briana, stop.’
“But she doesn’t stop. She waves her gun in his direction and again orders him to tie his ankles to the footboard. Mr. Christopher knows that the defendant is drunk and maybe she’s crazy, too. He figures that the gun is loaded and might even go off by accident.
“The defendant is not slurring her words, but she is acting totally unhinged, and now Mr. Christopher has gone from stupefied to irritated to terrified. This crazy woman may actually fire the gun. That, Ladies and Gentlemen, goes directly to the victim’s state of mind.
“Mr. Christopher will tell you that he tries to convince himself not to panic; rather, he tries to mollify her. He says, ‘Jesus, Briana, what’s gotten into you? Are you okay? You’re freaking me out! Please put the gun down.’
“That’s when the defendant screams at him, ‘Do what I tell you, you little bitch.’”
Yuki paused and saw that the jurors looked stunned.
Then she went on.
“Mr. Christopher gets it. The defendant is not joking. He is shaking, and as he ties up his ankles, the defendant makes her next demand. She tells him to tie up his left wrist to the headboard.
“Thinking he may be in his last moments on Earth, Mr. Christopher reaches over to his nightstand”—Yuki acted it out—“and surreptitiously presses the Record button on his clock, which is in fact a disguised spy cam. He will tell you that he’s thinking if the defendant murders him, at least the police will be able to find who killed him.
“And the terror does not stop. Now that Mr. Christopher’s left hand is tied to the headboard, the defendant secures his right hand, leaving Mr. Christopher lying naked, spread-eagle, faceup on the bed.
“He’s staring down the barrel of a gun.
“I urge you to imagine how that must have felt.”
CHAPTER 44
YUKI HAD NOT taken her eyes off the jury since she began her opening statement, and she didn’t do it now. Nor had the jurors taken their eyes away from her.
She wanted to keep it that way.
She said, “At this point the defendant puts down the gun and undresses. Then, naked, she advances on Mr. Christopher, who is trussed to the bed and utterly helpless. The defendant takes her victim’s genitals into her hands and mouth and manipulates him until he is erect. But she’s not done. Not yet.
“Even though Mr. Christopher begs her to stop before she does something she will regret, the defendant mounts him and succeeds in having him penetrate her. She has sexual intercourse with him without his consent.”
Yuki paused to let her narrative sink in. Then she asked rhetorically, “So what happens after that?
“Just before the video recorder runs out of space, we see that both parties are asleep. Mr. Christopher will tell you that in the morning, when he wakes up, the defendant is gone and his wrists are untied. He releases his ankles, and although still shaken to his core, he goes to work—where both parties avoid each other. Like the legendary plague.”
Yuki said, “What is the defendant thinking? We will probably never know, but the victim will wonder for the rest of his life.
“For his part, Mr. Christopher will testify that he feels mortified and he’s worried—what if the defendant is now pregnant? Is he responsible? What will happen to him at his job? Who is he now that he has been violated by a woman that he cared about, when it is clear to him by her actions that she didn’t care for him at all?
“Days go by and Mr. Christopher is having nightmares and a crushing depression. He neglects his job. He stops socializing with friends. It takes a couple of weeks for him to fully understand and get angry about what was done to him.
“He understands now that he has been raped,” Yuki told the jurors, “sexually assaulted, and he is ashamed. He blames himself for not knowing the woman he was dating at all. And as rape victims often experience, the pain doesn’t fade in the passing days. In fact, it gets worse.
“Two weeks after the assault Mr. Christopher goes to the police. Over the next few days Briana Hill is interviewed, arrested, and charged with rape.”
Yuki let the word rape resonate in the silent courtroom. Then she told the jury about the witnesses who would testify for the prosecution: the police officer; the video technician; the psychologist specializing in human sexuality; and Paul Yates, another man who had gone out with the defendant.
And then she began to wind her opening statement to a close.
“We will also introduce to you the unedited recording that Mr. Christopher made of this assault, and you will see for yourself what happened to him on the night of October eleventh.
“Now, some might say, ‘So she made him have sex at gunpoint. Big deal. They’d had sex before.’
“But it is a big deal.
“Marc Christopher said no. As Judge Rathburn told you,” Yuki said, “forcing someone, menacing that person, causing that person to be reasonably afraid that he would be harmed, to have sex with someone without his consent is a felony. You will see that Mr. Christopher did not consent and that Ms. Hill clearly knew that he did not.
“She took what she wanted for her own gratification, without any regard for Mr. Christopher at all.
“After our witnesses have testified and you have seen the evidence, the People will ask you to find the defendant, Briana Hill, guilty of rape and punish her for that crime.”
CHAPTER 45
YUKI STEPPED AWAY from the jury box filled with a tremendous soaring feeling. She had delivered the best opening statement of her life. No regrets. No wish for a redo. She’d done good.
As soon as she was reseated at her counsel table, Judge Rathburn said, “Mr. Giftos. Is the defense ready to make their opening statement?”
James Giftos stood up, looking as straight and sharp as a knife. He responded to the judge, saying, “No, Your Honor. We reserve the right to make our statement at a later time.”
“Okay, then,” said Rathburn. “Ms. Castellano, please introduce your first witness.”
Yuki was surprised by Giftos’s decision. He was leaving her version of Marc Christopher’s night-from-hell story uncontested in the jury’s mind until he put on his case. Normally, that would be a risky, even reckless move. But Giftos wasn’t reckless. He had a plan. What was it?
“Ms. Castellano,” the judge said.