Burying the Lede

by Joseph LeValley

  Lisa didn’t comment. She just hugged him closer until eventually his head slid down and found an adequate pillow on the flesh of her leg. He pulled his legs up onto the couch and fell asleep.

  Daughter of Murder Victims Describes Intruder’s Jacket

  Description Matches Jacket Found in Accused Man’s Car

  Tony Harrington, Staff Writer

  ORNEY, Iowa – Ten-year-old Alissa Ennis, daughter of Jerry and Anne Ennis who were found dead in their rural Orney home last January, provided tearful testimony Thursday in the trial of Ralph Adam Wells, 29, who is accused of killing the girl’s parents.

  Ennis described to an emotional courtroom being awakened from her sleep on the first floor of the farmhouse on the night of the murders. She testified that she saw a man exit from the stairway to the upstairs bedroom, where the two bodies were found. The man walked through the first floor of the house to the kitchen and turned on a light. The girl said the man’s face was obscured by what appeared to be a ski mask. However, she said she clearly saw the man’s bright yellow jacket with bold lettering on the back…

  Chapter 10

  The next morning was overcast and cool, as if winter was making an early grab for a day or two of what otherwise had been a great September. Tony was sorry Lisa had left before he awoke. A note on the fridge told him she had an early breakfast with her dad. She wished him a good day and signed it, simply, “Love.”

  “Jesus,” Tony gasped. He then glanced upward and addressed the heavens. “Sorry, Lord, but is that really possible?”

  He arrived at the courthouse in plenty of time and, miracle of miracles, found Doug Tenney there ahead of him.

  “Holy cow,” Tony said as he walked down the marble corridor. “Did your landlord finally discover your pot farm in the basement and throw you out?”

  “Jeez…” Doug said, grimacing and backing away. “That’s not funny when you’re standing in a hallway surrounded by law enforcement officers.”

  “Oops, sorry,” Tony smiled, then spoke loudly to the walls. “Just kidding, folks!”

  Doug reached into his shoulder bag and pulled out a convenience store donut bag, passing it to Tony, who looked inside and chose one without frosting.

  “So seriously,” he said, “what brings you here early?”

  Doug made a face and said, “My boss decided it would be a good idea for the Big K to do a live remote from the courthouse this morning. If you ever listened to us, you would have heard me eloquently describing yesterday’s events and speculating about the excitement to come.”

  “Really?” Tony deadpanned. “Excitement? If you can make today exciting, I will start listening to your 5-watt ham radio station or whatever that thing is.”

  “Hey,” Doug shot back. “Don’t make fun of us. Since I started reading your stories on the air and pretending they were accurate, the Big K is up to twenty-four or twenty-five listeners. We even sold an ad last week.”

  The two men grinned and finished their donuts, then entered the courtroom and took their seats.

  ***

  Pike called several witnesses who had known Ralph Wells all their lives and who testified they had never known him to be violent and had never known him to be involved in using or selling illegal drugs.

  After each round of direct questioning, Nelson’s cross-examination was equally predictable.

  “So you’ve known Ralph Wells all your life?”

  “Yes, since grade school anyway.”

  “So you consider Mr. Wells to be a friend?”

  “Yes, I guess so. We still play pool together and sometimes meet to watch football or just hang out.”

  “Do you consider yourself a good person, I mean the kind of person who looks out for and supports his friends and neighbors?

  “Yes, but…”

  “And you’re hoping your testimony today will help Ralph, is that right?”

  “Yes, of course, but…”

  “No further questions, Your Honor.”

  The point was clear. No matter how many friends Pike paraded through the courtroom, their testimony on behalf of someone they wanted to help just wasn’t very compelling.

  Pike then called a couple of expert witnesses. One testified regarding his review of the crime scene investigation and autopsy record, attempting to call into question the time of the murders. Tony knew if Pike could succeed in establishing that the killings occurred earlier in the evening, when Wells was still being seen by people in the bar, then he would have an alibi.

  The expert testified the body temperatures were lower than expected when first examined on the scene. He said the cooler temperatures indicated the events could not have had occurred as presented, with no delay between the gunshots that awoke Alissa Ennis and the killer’s departure from the house, followed by Alissa’s call to 9-1-1 and the first deputy’s arrival at the house. However, the discrepancy wasn’t big enough, in Tony’s opinion, to be convincing. It was an old farmhouse and the upstairs was cold, heated only by vents in the floor that allowed first-floor heat to rise. Cold room, cold bodies, Tony thought.

  This, in fact, was the exact point Nelson made in his cross-examination.

  The second expert actually testified about clothing. Pike used him to make the point about the thousands of yellow jackets in the world. He even testified about the number of yellow jackets distributed by NAPA. This, Tony knew, was grasping at straws.

  Nelson didn’t bother to cross examine him at all.

  After a brief recess, the defense resumed with Pike calling Wells’ wife, Amber, to the stand. As she took the stand, she looked even paler and more frail than the night Tony had seen her at the trailer house. She looked like a sickly teenager, but testified that she was twenty-two and had a two-year Associate of Arts degree from the community college in Fort Dodge. She worked as a secretary at the local grain elevator.

  She wore a modest white dress, gathered at the middle by a wide blue belt and accented with a blue and white scarf around her neck. The billowy scarf made Amber look tiny, as if her head was about to disappear into its folds.

  After establishing the basic facts about herself and her marriage, Pike went right into asking Amber about Wells’ interest, or not, in firearms. She seemed sincere as she described Wells’ distaste for guns and was adamant the .22 rifle hadn’t been out of his trunk even once in the three years they had been married.

  When Pike asked Amber about the night of the murders, she described how she had become concerned because her husband was out even later than usual. When it was nearly 2 a.m., she got out of bed, she said, and decided to walk out to the road to see if he had driven into the ditch. She said she worried that he had tried to drive home while intoxicated and had an accident.

  “I know it was silly to think he would be right there, but I couldn’t just lie in bed any longer. I had to do something.”

  “So let me ask you, Amber. Did you get dressed?”

  “Not really,” she replied. “I just put my robe on over my pajamas, and then put my winter coat on over that.”

  “Did you put on shoes?”

  “No, I just pulled Ralph’s work boots on over my slippers. That just seemed simpler and warmer than putting on my shoes.”

  Pike walked over to the evidence table and picked up the plastic evidence bag with the boots the deputies had confiscated. Tony smiled, realizing where Pike was going.

  “Amber, would you please examine the boots in this bag and then tell the court if these are the boots you wore that night?”

  “Yes. Yes I’m sure they are because Ralph had two different shoe laces in his boots. He had the original red laces on the left boot, but he had tied together a couple of ordinary black shoelaces for the right boot after he broke the original one. You can see it right here.”

  “Thank you.” Pike smiled and then grew somber. “Amber, I’m going to shift gears now. You weren’t in the courtroom, but a previous witness said your husband was angry with Jerry Ennis because he cheated
him out of money in a drug deal. Do you believe that to be true?”

  “Absolutely not.” Amber’s voice grew louder and more pointed. “Ralph isn’t exactly a coward,” she glanced at her husband apologetically, “but he hates confrontations and he wouldn’t have the courage, or the ambition, to get involved in illegal drugs. In fact, I’ve never seen him angry at another person. He’s just this harmless guy who tries to get along.”

  At Pike’s urging, Amber testified quietly but without hesitation about her husband’s good points, as well as his not-so-good points. Tony once again found himself admiring Pike’s tactics. Get it out on direct, Tony thought, so you don’t let the opposition do it. The bottom line of Amber’s testimony was that her husband was lazy and spent too much time with his friends in the bar and too little time with her.

  “But,” she said, “he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

  “Mrs. Wells,” Pike said, “this may or may not be directly relevant to the case, but your testimony has made me wonder, and so perhaps others are wondering, about your marriage to Ralph. Your description of Ralph doesn’t exactly paint a picture of an ideal husband, does it?”

  “No,” she said, almost in a whisper while looking down at her feet.

  Judge Schroeder interjected, “Mrs. Wells, please be sure to answer in a manner that the jury and the court reporter can hear.”

  “Sorry, Your Honor,” she said, looking up and turning to the jury. “No, Ralph isn’t the perfect husband.”

  “So why,” Pike asked, “may I ask, did you marry him?”

  Nelson rose quickly, saying, “Your Honor, please. Is this relevant in any way to the case?”

  Schroeder answered, “I have no way to know at this point and neither do you, Mr. Nelson. However, the question seems harmless enough, so I’m going to allow it. Mrs. Wells, please know in the State of Iowa you can’t be required to testify for or against your husband, so it’s completely up to you which questions you answer.”

  “I don’t mind, Your Honor,” Amber Wells said, turning to Pike. “I married Ralph because he’s harmless. You see, I grew up in a household with an abusive father. My mother, my sister, and I lived in fear of my dad every day for nearly twenty years. It was a horrible situation. Intimidation and actual physical abuse were common. In the end, my dad put my mother in intensive care, and the authorities finally put him behind bars. I vowed I would never live like that again. When I met Ralph, I could see he had his flaws. But I also could see he loved me, and I knew I would never have to be afraid of him. And I was right,” she added, wanting to get in one last thought as tears began to trickle down her cheeks. “I have lived a peaceful, happy life with Ralph, right up until the night the deputies dragged him out of our home.”

  “Thank you, Amber,” Pike said, patting the railing in front of the witness stand and letting the grandfather in him shine through. “I have no further questions.”

  Nelson once again declined cross-examination.

  Score one for the defense, Tony thought, as Judge Schroeder gaveled the recess for lunch.

  ***

  After lunch, Pike called Ralph Wells to the stand. This, of course, should have been one of the highlights of the defense but it simply wasn’t. Whether because of his IQ, his nervousness, or his lack of good answers, Wells was completely ineffective in defending himself. He was wearing a dark suit with a plain maroon tie. The suit seemed to be the right size, yet his chubby frame didn’t seem to belong in it. His curly hair was clean and combed, but somehow still looked unruly. Tony couldn’t help it. As he studied Wells, everything about the man shouted “loser” back at him.

  Pike had to have debated about putting him on the stand at all. However, the state’s strong case made it essential. Pike knew Iowa juries wanted to hear from defendants. He had zero chance of convincing them Wells was innocent if Wells was unwilling to take the stand and say so.

  In fact, Wells said all the correct things about his growing reluctance to hunt, his lack of criminal behavior, his lack of knowledge about the Ennises or their deaths, but Pike had to lead him through it every step of the way. Wells never offered one fact or thought on his own. He answered each question as briefly as possible, and squirmed in the witness chair as he did it.

  Even when Pike asked him directly, “Mr. Wells, please tell the court, did you kill Jerry Ennis?”

  “No.”

  “Did you kill Anne Ennis?”

  “No.”

  “Did you have any involvement, in any way, with their deaths?”

  “No.”

  That was it.

  Jesus, Tony sighed. Even a person with half a brain knows when the key question of guilt or innocence comes around, you have to look each juror in the eye as you say loudly and with conviction, “I did not do this!” This poor bastard is clueless.

  On cross-examination, Nelson was brutal, taking full advantage of Wells’ demeanor and inability to explain what happened. Claiming he passed out in the bar and then not being able to explain why no one saw him there was the epitome of a weak testimony. Saying these things with a quiet voice and averted eyes compounded the problem. Wells looked and sounded like a very bad liar.

  Nelson pounded on him to admit he was a murderer. Wells continued to say no, but as the prosecutor’s accusations grew louder, the defendant seemed to withdraw even further into himself.

  Pike objected regularly throughout Nelson’s badgering, and eventually Judge Schroeder said that enough was enough.

  “I’m sorry, Your Honor, if I get overly emotional. Just one more question to clarify what we’ve been hearing from the defendant.” Turning back to the witness stand, Nelson asked, “So Mr. Wells, let me ask you about your testimony this way. If you didn’t kill this young couple in their home, can you explain how your gun came to be the murder weapon, how your jacket and boots came to be seen in their house, why you don’t have an alibi for your whereabouts at the time of the murder, and why your own sister testified that you wanted to kill Jerry Ennis?”

  Nelson’s voice had grown steadily louder as his question dragged on, but by the end Pike was on his feet and shouting, “Your honor! Please! That question violates so many rules of trial procedure I don’t even know where to begin with my objection!”

  Schroeder slammed his gavel on the sounding block and both men instantly were silent. “You don’t need to, Mr. Pike. The court reporter is ordered to strike the question and the jury is admonished to ignore it. Are you finished, Mr. Nelson?”

  “I’m sorry, Your Honor, yes, the state has no further questions of this witness.”

  “No.” A meek voice spoke from the witness stand.

  All eyes turned back to Wells, who had just answered the question the judge had ordered the jury to ignore. Then, Wells spoke again, “No, I guess I can’t.”

  Unbelievable, Tony thought, as murmurs from spectators swept through the courtroom and the red-faced judge told Wells he was finished and could step down.

  The judge then gaveled for silence once again.

  “Mr. Pike?” The judge stared at the defense counsel.

  “The defense rests, Your Honor,” Pike said, straining not to sound as stricken as he looked.

  The judge then announced the trial was in recess for the day. “We will reconvene at 9 a.m. Friday.” A bang of the gavel, a swish of robes, and the judge was gone. As the last people filed out of the courtroom Lawrence Pike was still sitting in his chair at the defense table, staring at the witness stand.

  Chapter 11

  Lawrence Pike leaned into the full-length mirror mounted on his closet door as he removed his tie. He peered closely at his own face, drawn and deeply lined. Where was the face of the young man he used to see? He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t surprised. He wasn’t embarrassed. He was exhausted. After nearly forty years of practicing law, he couldn’t remember ever having been so utterly spent, physically and emotionally. As he contemplated his image in the mirror, he realized he looked as old as he felt. At age 66, his hair shouldn�
�t be quite so white or quite so thin. His stomach should be smaller and his muscles bigger. He was five feet, seven inches and just shy of two hundred pounds. Pike knew his doctor was being kind when he referred to Pike as “out of shape.” The fact was, Pike had lived a bookish life. He loved the law. When he wasn’t buried in books and papers working on a case, he was studying legal journals and law reviews and even the criminal code itself. For Pike, the law was like a masterpiece of art. The more he examined it, the more the nuances and complexities, the textures and colors, revealed themselves. Throughout those four decades, Pike had been content to let others play rounds of golf or go to the Y to work out while he sat in his favorite chair and read.

  “And look where it got you, you old fart,” he said aloud, shaking his head. He moved slowly as he hung his suit and tie, pushed his dress shirt into the clothes hamper and pulled on an old Drake University sweatshirt. He slipped his feet into a pair of deck shoes and headed downstairs to the kitchen.

  It was times like these he most missed Ginny. His wife of thirty years had been taken by breast cancer five years previously. If she had been here, she would have fixed his drink, rubbed his shoulders, and encouraged him to relax while she cooked dinner. They wouldn’t have talked about his work, but knowing she was there and sharing his struggles would have been a huge help.

  Pike’s ancestry was a mix of French and German, which Ginny used to say explained how he could be both charming and stubborn. Pike preferred to think of himself as “ornery.” He also was proud of the fact he had spent many more hours of his life laughing than complaining or crying. Pike loved to tell stories and enjoyed a good yarn more than anyone he knew. But these were traits only Ginny and his closest friends ever saw. Now Ginny was gone and his friends too few in number and too far away.