The End - Part 8

Trepidation, curiosity, and excitement filled me as Det. Lewis and I walked down the hall, took a left, walked down another hall and came to the double doors of the courtroom. I entered through the door on the left with no further conversation or instructions other than what was said to me before. Keep my eyes on the State's Attorney. Answer her questions as previously discussed. It's all just a conversation between her and me.



When I walked in I had no idea where to go! Where was the so-called stand? There wasn't one...at least not like in the movies or traffic court. No one directed me so I stopped moving forward while my eyes swept over the room trying to decide the direction I should take. The rows of benches were on my right. Ahead of me and at the end of the room was the jury on the left and the judge straight ahead. In front of the judge were two tables pushed together where the prosecution and defense were sitting along with the accused. The court stenographer was somewhere sandwiched in between the tables and the judge's bench along with a burly and unsmiling officer of the law.



Since no one was directing me and I still didn't clearly see where I should sit, I just started to walk straight ahead. As I neared the front, the judge yelled at me to stop and pointed to the chair I should take. Geesh! I'm new at this! And Holy cow! I have to walk right behind the accused and then practically sit on his lap!? Imagine this part of the courtroom to be a rectangle. The judge was the long line at the top. The jury was the short line on the left. The lawyers and the accused were the long line at the bottom and I and the heat were the short line on the right with me closest to bottom.



Before I sat down I was sworn in. "I do." Two simple words that somehow made the judge take his eyes off of whatever paperwork he had on his desk and look up at me. I was told to sit so I did. The chair was inside of a type of booth and when I looked straight ahead there was the jury. I had to turn my head to the left to see the lawyer's tables. It all seemed like such an odd way to have things set up. The lawyers were sitting close enough to each other they could compare manicures and the jurors on the far left did not have a clear visual path to the person that was testifying.



I started off in a state of controlled fear but soon relaxed. The defense lawyer was a young woman that didn't look scary and the accused wouldn't look at me at all. He was probably drilled not to do so as it would have been interpreted as aggressive. The state asked her questions and they were pretty much what we already reviewed. I think she would have hopped on the table and cheered if she could have because of how I responded.



At one point the SA asked me about how I had described the guy's build in my statement. She then asked me if anyone in the courtroom had that kind of build. Well, Mr. Law Enforcement was a big guy so he fit the bill and since up until that point I had only seen the accused seated, I had no idea what his build was. I pointed out the trooper, or whatever he was. They jury laughed and the judge made a face. The SA asked the judge if she could ask the accused to stand and was given permission. The second he stood up I recognized him as the man. There was no doubt in my mind and I said so.



The defense lawyer(dl) now had her turn. I was all set for battle but there wasn't one. I wondered if she had given up because she didn't believe his innocense so didn't care and was just doing the minimum. I found out later that he had concocted some insane story in his defense that no one in their right mind would believe...even if it were a movie of the week. The dl asked me why I had to wear glasses. I told her it was because I have an astigmatism. She then asked me to explain what that is. I'm sure she wasn't expecting my trying to describe the deformity to the lens of the eyeball that causes it. Eventually she asked me a very stupid question. She said, "So, without your glasses your vision is blurry." I know. That wasn't really a question, but I had an answer. I looked at her and said, "Hence the glasses." I was proud of myself as I had made the jury laugh again! Even the judge and the trooper had to smile.



The SA had just a few follow-up questions for clarification purposes and then the judge told me I was excused to go. As I was getting my purse and standing up to leave he said, "That was a special testimony."



The guy ended up being found guilty. He was sentenced to 30 years. The SA thinks he will have to serve about 24 of those.

Really?

Shanel and I said our hellos and I introduced myself to her. I'm going to be 50 this October so just about everyone looks young to me now. Especially cops. They look like they just graduated 6th grade. Shanel seemed young to me, too. Maybe it was just the circumstances. Or, maybe it was the poor decisions she made in the past. Or, possibly more fitting, it was that she seemed to not have a grasp on life in a mature way. Have you ever talked to a person and realized their reality is not all that close to your version? Maybe that was it.

Whatever it was about her that gave me that impression wasn't as important as what she must have been experiencing waiting to take the stand that morning. I'm sure whatever I was feeling she had it 10 times worse. I told her how sorry I was for what happened. That small gesture of compassion opened up the flood gates.

She told me how one her dead fiance's sisters had called her with death threats. How his family still blames her for what happened and all of the ways they had been harrassing her. She talked about renting the house from her stepfather and how since the fire he hasn't let her back in and hasn't shared any of the insurance money with her. She didn't have the funds to retrieve her clothes from the dry cleaners and she wasn't the one that sent them there. Her car was still parked behind the locked gate in the driveway and she had to get a lawyer to fight to retrieve that, too. As she was telling me the details of her life going years back, I heard a combination of wailing and quiet sobbing.

Shanel looked from me to the top of the staircase. I turned my head, too, and discovered the source of the tears. It was the sweet older black lady from the bathroom earlier that morning. She was accompanied by an older genteman who looked to be her husband. He had his right arm around her and his left arm holding her left arm. She needed the support walking down the stairs as she dabbed her eyes with tissues and softly cried. A few beats behind them was a young woman carrying a little boy no older than two. She was the one moaning. She cried over and over, "They took my mother. They took my mother." She was using the wad of tissues in her free hand to wipe her eyes. I can still feel how her pain ripped into my heart. The little boy had a look on his face that said he didn't understand what was going on but he knew it wasn't good and now was the time to be quiet.

They rounded the corner and walked out of sight down another hallway.

You and I both know I have no idea what happened or whether their family member deserved to be sentenced. I do know the amount of pain I had just witnessed was the same as what I have seen and experienced at funerals. It took a bit of time for me to recover from the tide of their grief that had just slammed into me and make sure I didn't get pulled into the undertow as my emotional knees buckled.

Shanel had resumed telling me her life story and continued to do so until Det. Lewis walked into view to tell me the court was ready for me.

A Trial? - Part 5

The murder took place in November, 2008. I hadn't heard anything from anyone after I gave my statement so I didn't know if they caught the guy and if they had did he agree to a plea? If he hadn't, would I still be needed? The whole episode went off my radar. Every so often I would look out the living room window and think about it, but that lasted all of 1 to 2 seconds.


One day this past January I got home from work and there was a message from Det. Lewis. Please call him back as it is in regard to blah, blah, blah. Great. I guess this thing wasn't over yet. I was also called by the Assistant State's Attorney (ASA). She told me how important by testimony was as it backed up what Shirlonda said in her statement. What a good witness I was because of the details I remembered. By the time I got off the phone with her I was dripping flattery.


After a couple of trial dates came and went it became real. There was an assigned courtroom on an assigned day with a real jury, judge, lawyers, and defendant. Det. Lewis would again be my chauffeur. It's actually a part of his job I never would have thought was the norm for a homicide detective. I suppose babysitting the witnesses is important, too. We don't want them to run off, now, do we?

Every Monday and Friday is casual day at work. On Monday, April 26th, I went to work dressed not in jeans but business casual. That's always fun getting sideways glances from other employees. Was I being snooty? Was I too good for jeans today? Why is Nancy not following the rules?

I was waiting on Det. Lewis' call letting me know a jury was picked and he would meet me out front to take me downtown. This was supposed to take place around lunchtime. As I slogged through the morning the minutes moved in slow motion punctuated by frequent trips to the bathroom. I hadn't heard a thing so at 12:30 I called the Assistant States Attorney to find out what was happening. The call was spotty so the ASA ended up texting me. Apparently it was proving to be difficult picking a jury. I would be picked up by Det. Lewis tomorrow morning from home. I don't think I visited the bathroom again that afternoon.

That evening I spoke with Det. Lewis to firm up the next day's plans. The issue was some kind of big accident somewhere that impeded the jurors from making it in. The court's switchboard was lit up all morning. Det. Lewis would be calling me some time between 11 and 12ish to pick me up. Okey dokey! It's not like this dragged on before so this was different!

Let's turn the page to the next day and Det. Lewis has pulled up. After I get in the same crummy car from almost two years ago, Det. Lewis and I fall into the same easy chatter. We ended up talking about his kids and his life. I think I've said it before, but he really is a nice man. We have formed an easygoing rapport that is very enjoyable.

After we pull up to the courthouse and park, he texts the ASA to find out the current status as that morning someone scheduled our courtroom for a bail hearing. What? Yes. It's true. Do you think the jury has been picked yet? You are correct. It hasn't.

Instead of waiting in the witness room, Det. Lewis takes me to, I think, the ASA office area. It is comfortable with a couch and TV. Det. Lewis sat on the far end of the couch and I sat on the other end. The secretary has the TV tuned to one of the soaps. It hasn't been since 1982 that I have watched one of those. I saw a couple of actors that I recognized from General Hospital even though I don't think we were watching General Hospital. I could not believe the cheesiness and started interjecting my own lines into the script. I was sure I was the only one enjoying my one-sided banter so I decided to read the book I had taken with me instead. Det. Lewis did a sitting up recline and quickly fell asleep. He snores.