Rattled by the revelation that his opponent was Sulzberger’s mystery woman, Hunter barely took in a word of the statement. He spent his time staring at the computer in front of him, thinking of a way to expose the woman. Social media was out, CCTV footage was out, phone location data was out—without a slip up from her, he had nothing. The key to his case was sitting next to him, tempting him, laughing at him, and he had no way to expose her.
“Mr. Hunter,” Judge Harrison interrupted his silent reflections. “The court is waiting for you to begin.”
Hunter looked up from the computer, all the eyes of the court on him, waiting for him to rebut the opposition, but he was lost in his train of thought, lost in his sense of attack.
“May it please the Court. In this case, how Jane Doe died will not be in dispute.” Hunter began reading off the page in front of him. His voice was monotone, his mind elsewhere than his speech.
“We know that Jane Doe died of a forceful blow to the skull on October 2. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office has come to this conclusion and has stated as much in their statement of death. We know where she was found by the cleaner, Ms. Martina Lopez, on the morning of October 2.
That’s what we know. Those are facts. Indisputable.
But that’s not what this case is about.”
Hunter began to find his rhythm, his tempo.
His voice.
“This case is about what we don’t know. This case is about what’s missing in the facts.
This case is about where reasonable doubt exists in the assumptions made by the prosecution.
When the prosecution has finished with their case, you’ll feel that all the questions have not been answered. You’ll feel like there are missing pieces of the puzzle—and that’s because parts of the puzzle are missing. The important parts. The parts that actually show you what this picture is.
We do not know what caused the blow to Jane Doe’s face.
We do not know where Jane Doe died.
We do not know who killed Jane Doe.
There is no evidence, no evidence, that proves any of those important questions. And without answering those questions, reasonable doubt will continue to exist. It must.
There are no witnesses to Jane Doe’s death.
There is no evidence which states Robert Sulzberger caused her death.
There is no evidence to state that Robert Sulzberger had any hand in Jane Doe’s death.
My name is Tex Hunter, Criminal Defense Attorney for Mr. Robert Andrew Sulzberger, and with my team, I’m here to serve the court. The way I will do this is by ensuring that the process of justice is administered fairly and justly.
Putting an innocent man away for a crime he did not commit is not justice. That’s not fair and just.
As jury members, I need you to remember that, right here, right now, Robert Sulzberger is an innocent man.
Right now, Robert Sulzberger has a clean slate.
Despite what you’ve heard, he doesn’t start this case as guilty. You cannot assume that because the prosecution claims that he’s guilty means that he is. No. The onus of proof is on the prosecution. The onus to present evidence is on the prosecution.
And that onus of proof must be proved beyond all reasonable doubt.
Beyond all reasonable doubt.
The prosecution will try to explain their case to you using science, testimonies, and stories. But no matter what they tell you, no matter what they present to you, remember that no evidence answers three important questions. Remember that they’ve missed the important factors of the case.
Where did she die?
Who killed her?
And why did she die?
The prosecution will present evidence that they think will prove the assumptions, but you must remember that none of their evidence proves anything. The evidence that they’ll present does not prove their theories about how Jane Doe died.
And they are just that—theories.
Nothing more.
At the end of this case, you will ask yourself questions about the charges against Robert Sulzberger.
Is there enough evidence to prove that he conducted this act?
Is there enough evidence to prove that he murdered this person?
At the end of this case, you WILL have reasonable doubt in your mind. And you will have that doubt because there’s not enough evidence to prove these charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
No witness saw Robert Sulzberger and Jane Doe together.
No DNA evidence proves the prosecution’s theory.
No blood proves their theory.
And there are no fingerprints that prove their assumptions.
That’s because Robert Sulzberger did not have a hand in her death.
There is nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, which proves that Robert Sulzberger had a hand in the death of Jane Doe.
Nothing.
You may feel sad for the loss of a young woman’s life, but don’t let that feeling cloud the fact that there’s not enough evidence to convict this man.
At the end of this case, I will stand before you again and highlight all the missing pieces in the prosecution’s story.
You will have a feeling about this case. You will feel it deep inside. That feeling will be reasonable doubt.
At the end of this case, you cannot find Robert Sulzberger guilty because there’s simply no evidence to say that he committed the act.
And that means you must find Robert Sulzberger not guilty.
Thank you for your service to this court.”
Chapter 32
The jury took to the prosecution’s first witness, Detective Thomas Rodman, immediately. He was every mother’s dream, every father’s wish. His broad shoulders, perfect grooming, and warm smile covered the pain, tragedy, and hatred that he’d witnessed in his twenty years on the job. Walking into the basement to find a beaten Jane Doe tied to a chair didn’t even rank in his ten worst moments as a detective with the Chicago PD.
Michelle Law began her questioning to the standard expected: establish his credentials as a wonderful servant to the community, outline his world as one of family, church, and decency, and reiterate his ability to do a service to his community with honor.
Then came the character attack on Robert Sulzberger.
“When you arrived at the house of Mr. Sulzberger, what did you find?”
Rodman cleared his throat. “First, we had to find the cleaner, Ms. Martina Lopez. Dispatch informed us that she wasn’t waiting inside the house, and she was, in fact, waiting across the street in her car with the engine running.”
“Did she explain why she was waiting there and not in the house?”
“She said she was scared of Mr. Sulzberger and his power. She wanted to make sure that we were not corrupt police officers, and that the police department knew that we were there. She had to confirm this with the dispatcher before she would exit her car.”
“How was Ms. Lopez when you first talked to her?”
“Understandably, she was very shaken and scared. She barely said a word. Her arms were folded across her chest, and she was still crying. We couldn’t stop her from crying the whole time.”
“Did she show you the scene of the crime?”
“She led us to the location of the body, but she wouldn’t reenter the basement. By the time we had located Ms. Lopez and entered the house, the paramedics had also arrived. Ms. Lopez waited at the door to the steps of the basement while we went down to investigate the scene. Once we determined the room was secure, and there was no further threat, the paramedics entered, and they declared the woman as deceased.”
“Was Ms. Lopez a suspect in the crime?”
“At that point, yes. Everybody was a suspect before we started the investigation, but we quickly ruled Ms. Lopez out as a suspect as she had an alibi for the night before—she had been working since midnight at her other cleaning job at a Downtown office building, and CCTV footage and other workers later confirmed that. She wo
rked from midnight until 8 a.m. when she then left to go to her job at the Sulzberger house.”
“Hard worker,” Law quipped. “What exactly did you find when you stepped into the basement?”
“We found Jane Doe tied to a chair. The paramedics checked her pulse and her vital signs, but there were none; however, that was clear to everyone in the room. Her face was bloodied, and her head was tilted to the side, and there were no signs of any reactions from her.”
Law tapped a few keys on her computer and the images taken by the police photographer appeared on the court monitor. “Was this the scene that you were confronted with?”
There was an audible gasp from the jury. That was understandable. Most people didn’t see the dirty underground of city life in their daily grind. They go to their coffee shops, sit in their air-conditioned offices, and spend their evenings at the gym or in a restaurant, all the while ignoring the horrors of human behavior that existed only a step away from them.
“Yes, that’s the scene that we entered into. You can see that the body is tied to a dining room chair and placed in the middle of the room.”
Heads in the gallery turned away as Law continued to scroll through the pictures.
“And is that when you made the call to take Mr. Sulzberger in for questioning?”
“It is. I made the call to dispatch, and Detective Jemma Knowles was close by his office. She went to talk to him. After a quick discussion, she brought him down to the station and into a room for questioning. At that point, he was very open about talking with us. After I talked to him for an hour at the station, it was clear that I should place him under arrest. He stated, very clearly, that he was the only one home that night.”
The next twenty minutes were spent detailing the scene. It is said that a picture paints a thousand words, and the prosecution made sure that they used every single one of those words to emphasize the brutality of the crime. When she was done with the scene, Law moved her focus to Sulzberger’s first interview with the police, where they pulled apart the transcript, seemingly line by line.
After all was said and done, the jury had hung onto every word from the detective, convinced by his deep voice, piercing eyes, and show of authority. First impressions count, and the prosecution had started well.
It was now the defense’s turn to change that.
Hunter began his cross-examination. “Detective Rodman, when you entered the house, was Mr. Sulzberger present?”
“No. He advised us that he had left the residence at five o’clock that morning to go to the gym and then to his office.”
“Was this the usual routine for Mr. Sulzberger?”
“He claimed it was.”
“Were you the one who called him at his office?”
“No. As I stated earlier, we sent another detective to talk to him at his office, Detective Jemma Knowles. Detective Knowles asked some questions of Mr. Sulzberger and then asked him to come to the station to answer further questions. Mr. Sulzberger voluntarily came to the station for questioning. At that point, he was not in custody, and we advised him that he was free to leave at any time. And—”
“But he didn’t leave?”
“No. He chose to stay and answer the questions.”
“So, at that point, you’d advised him that a woman was found deceased in the basement of his home and he still chose to answer all of your questions. Is that correct?” Hunter sat behind his desk, looking over the paper file in front of him.
“Yes. And when it became clear that he should be charged with the crime, and we made the decision to arrest him, we read the Miranda warnings to him. It was then that he exercised his right to remain silent.”
“But he’d chosen to talk freely before that?”
“That’s correct.”
“Did he have to talk to you when questioned? Before you read him the Miranda warnings?”
“No, he didn’t have to talk to us.”
Hunter paused, allowing that information to sink into the minds of the jurors. He deliberately tapped his index finger on his top lip, demonstrating to the jury that he was thinking about the importance of that information and they should too.
When he saw a number of heads nod in the jury box, he continued.
“Detective Rodman, were there any blood splatters on the floor around the placement of the body in the basement?”
“No, you can see in the pictures that there weren’t any.”
“In an attack like this, would you expect to see blood splatters around the body if this was where the attack took place?”
“Not always. You can see that the impact of the strike is directly on the nose, not across the cheekbone. Any blood present may have dripped directly onto the victim’s body—if that was the case. Or the perpetrator may have cleaned the blood from the scene.”
Hunter looked over his shoulder. Kim Sulzberger’s eyes felt like they were burning into his back. He was describing the scene at her home, her place of sanctuary, her escape from the pressures of the world. Next to her, in the front row of the court gallery, was Mayor Nancy Quinn and Alderman Cindy Mendel, both desperate to be seen as supporting Robert’s wife, and paint their public image as compassionate.
“In your testimony with the prosecution, you stated that you had enough evidence to charge Mr. Sulzberger with murder. Do you have any direct evidence that Robert Sulzberger touched Jane Doe?”
“It’s hard to say. There’s certainly—”
“Please answer the question directly, Detective Rodman.”
“If we are to look at—”
“Yes or no, detective.”
“What was the question again?” Rodman stalled.
“Did you then, or now, have any direct evidence that Mr. Sulzberger laid a hand on Jane Doe?”
“It’s complex. He—”
“It’s not complex. It’s a yes or no answer to the question. Did you then, or now, have any direct evidence that Mr. Sulzberger touched Jane Doe?”
“Objection,” Law interrupted. “The question put to the defendant is complicated and requires further explanation.”
“I argue that it doesn’t,” Hunter said immediately. “It’s a simple and direct question. There can only be a yes or no answer. He either has the evidence that this happened, or he doesn’t.”
Judge Harrison grunted. “The objection is overruled. It’s a direct question that can be answered with a direct answer. Please answer the question, Detective Rodman.”
“No,” the detective mumbled.
“And do you have any evidence that directly places Mr. Sulzberger in the basement that night?” Hunter asked.
“He said he was the only one home that night. He said—”
“Again, this is a yes or no question, detective. Is there any direct evidence that places Mr. Sulzberger in the basement that night? Did he make any statements about being in the basement that night?”
“It’s not that—”
“Yes or no, detective. Is there any evidence that Mr. Sulzberger was in the basement that night?”
“No.” Detective Rodman moved around in the chair.
“Is there any evidence that Mr. Sulzberger handled Jane Doe?”
Rodman sighed.
“Please answer the question, detective. Is there any evidence that indicated that Mr. Sulzberger handled Jane Doe?”
“No.”
“Did you find any evidence on Jane Doe that indicated that Mr. Sulzberger had touched her?”
He shook his head.
“Please answer the question verbally, detective. Did you find any evidence on Jane Doe that indicated that Mr. Sulzberger had touched her at all?”
“No.”
“Did you find any evidence, anything at all, that stated that Mr. Sulzberger gave drugs to Jane Doe?”
Rodman looked to the prosecution lawyers. They avoided eye contact. “No, we did not.”
“Did you find any fingerprints from Mr. Sulzberger on Jane Doe or her clothing?”
; “No.”
“Did you find any DNA from Mr. Sulzberger on Jane Doe or her clothing?”
“No.”
“Did you find any evidence that was blood from Mr. Sulzberger on Jane Doe?”
“No.”
“Did you find any evidence that was blood from Jane Doe on Mr. Sulzberger?”
“No.”
“Did you find any evidence that Mr. Sulzberger had tied Jane Doe to the chair?”
“No.”
“Detective Rodman.” Hunter chuckled and shook his head, leaning forward on the table, eyebrows raised to relay his fake surprise to the jury. “During your police investigation, did you find any direct evidence that stated Mr. Sulzberger knew the deceased person?”
“It’s not that simple. It’s—”
“It is that simple, Detective Rodman. In fact, it’s so simple that you may answer the question with a simple and direct yes or no. During your police investigation, did you find any direct evidence that stated Mr. Sulzberger knew Jane Doe?”
“What we found—”
“Yes or no, detective.”
“Listen, what it was—”
“Detective Rodman! It appears that you’re avoiding answering the question. This is a simple question. Yes or no?”
The detective looked around the room, and then at the judge who nodded that he should proceed. He sighed. “No.”
“And, Detective Rodman, do you have any direct evidence, anything at all, that indicates Mr. Sulzberger struck Jane Doe?”
Detective Rodman looked away.
The crowd started to murmur.
Hunter raised his eyebrows further.
“No. We don’t,” the detective said.
Chapter 33
The testimony of the cleaner, Ms. Martina Lopez, went as expected.
Yes, she was there. No, she didn’t see Sulzberger that morning. Yes, she was distressed by what she saw. All very factual, all very convincing; however, none of the facts stated that Sulzberger was the killer. Tex Hunter made sure of that.
The third witness, next-door neighbor Marcy White, was much the same. Yes, she saw Sulzberger there that night. No, she didn’t hear any commotion. Yes, she heard the cleaner scream the next morning.
Power and Justice Page 17
