“Isn’t it true,” Vanderbeck quietly said, “no one ever saw this alleged boyfriend, Bob Olson, because he doesn’t exist…”
“No,” Brittany said emphatically.
“And that, along with all of the other lies you told, this was just another one?”
“No, that’s not true.”
“And isn’t it true that you murdered your daughter then threw her in the river like so much garbage just to get your single girl, party lifestyle back?”
“No! That’s not true,” she yelled back at him.
“I have nothing further, your Honor.”
“Re-direct?” Connors asked Marc.
“No, your Honor,” Marc replied.
“The witness is excused,” Connors told Brittany. While Brittany hurried back to the defense table, Maddy Rivers got up and started walking toward the exit. “Call your next witness, Mr. Kadella.”
“The defense calls Julie Makie, your Honor.”
“Objection, your Honor,” a puzzled Vanderbeck stood and said.
“She’s on my witness list, your Honor.”
“Overruled.”
Maddy came back in holding the elbow of a young woman. Makie was a sandy-haired pretty girl in a simple, unadorned way. Dressed in slacks, a sweater and plain flat shoes, she came across as everyone’s daughter or cousin you’d like to have. She passed through the gate, looked at Brittany and gave her a little smile. For her part, Brittany looked totally shocked to see her.
She was sworn, seated and gave her name and address. Marc, having thoroughly prepared her, had her explain who she was, where she worked and where she had been since the previous summer. Julie admitted to the jury that Marc had flown her back to Minnesota several days ago and put her up in a nice hotel by the airport.
At this point, Vanderbeck requested a meeting in chambers, which was granted. The jury took a quick break while the lawyers went back stage again.
“Your Honor, we were not notified about this witness,” Vanderbeck meekly complained.
“She was a co-worker of Brittany’s. She’s on our witness list. If your investigators didn’t find her to interview, that’s not my problem. You had notice by way of the witness list. I don’t have to drive witnesses to the sheriff’s office for you,” Marc replied.
“We knew of her, your Honor. We could not find her. She vanished.”
“I found her. Or, more precisely my investigator found her. Again, not my problem.”
“We’re being ambushed, your Honor.” Vanderbeck tried to protest.
“That does appear to be the case and he’s done a nice job of it,” Connors replied. “What is she going to testify about?”
“The mysterious Bob Olson.”
“She saw him?”
“Yes, your Honor.”
“This ought to be good,” Connors said.
“Your Honor, we need some time to prepare…”
“No, you had months to find her. You just admitted you knew about her. Although,” he turned to Marc, “I am a little uncomfortable with you keeping her hidden in a hotel.”
“Judge, you said it. They had months to find her. We did. She volunteered to testify but couldn’t afford to fly back. So we flew her back, put her in a hotel for a few days. She’s our witness. We did nothing wrong.”
“I agree,” Connors said with a shrug. “Let’s go.”
Julie made a great witness. She was calm, smart, articulate and quite sure of herself. With just a few questions from Marc she took the jury through her story.
Just before she got to the bombshell of identifying Bob Olson, Marc placed a large poster board with the six drawings Maddy had emailed her. At that point Marc motioned for Hart and Vanderbeck to join him at the bench.
“Do you want me to put Ms. Rivers on the stand to confirm this? She’s here and we can do it.”
“We’ll stipulate, your Honor,” Hart conceded. When she got back to her table Hart made a statement for the record stipulating that these were the drawings emailed to Makie.
Marc had Julie tell the jury that when she received them she recognized one immediately. It was the drawing of Bob Olson.
“You’re sure you saw him before?”
“Yes.”
“When and where?”
By the time she finished Connors was pounding his gavel for quiet. Several members of the media had scrambled out of the courtroom, barely waiting to hit the door before using their phones.
Hart conducted the cross exam but it was ineffective. Having had no chance to interview her or prepare an examination, the best Hart could do was try to make her appear less credible. Hart’s best effort was to take shots at her for not coming forward sooner. To make it look like Julie and Brittany had become best friends and had concocted this entire story about seeing Bob Olson in a last second effort to fool the jury. It came across as weak and desperate. Julie testified they were hardly best friends and admitted she knew Brittany had been arrested but heard nothing about Bob Olson. Because of that, she had no idea she might have information and could be a witness. It wasn’t long before Hart gave it up.
Marc rested his case. Connors asked the prosecution if they were calling any rebuttal witnesses and when informed they were not, ordered both sides to give closing arguments the next day. Marc again made the obligatory formal request for dismissal which Connors quickly denied.
The jury filed out, the gallery started to empty and Julie Makie greeted Brittany with a hug.
“Why didn’t you tell me you found her? I wouldn’t have been so stressed out.”
“I didn’t want your testimony to be tainted. I wanted Vanderbeck to pound you about Olson and then spring our little surprise. I just hope it worked.”
Melinda Pace received her cue from the director that the cameras were running. She stared straight at the camera and said, “Stop the presses, ladies and gentlemen. Notify Hollywood that we have the winner for the next academy award for best actress on a witness stand. In all my years as a lawyer, reporter and journalist covering trials, I have never seen a performance to match what Brittany Riley put on today.”
The camera went to a wide shot to show all three people, Melinda, Farben and Briscomb on the set. Another twenty-two minutes of carefully edited highlights and commentary. At the end of it, Melinda scoffed at Brittany’s performance and the “alleged” sighting of Bob Olson by a last second witness she referred to as Brittany’s best friend. Farben disagreeing a bit with Melinda conceded it was a good day for the defense but believed she would still be found guilty. Andrea Briscomb flat out told both of them they were wrong. She predicted that the jury, after several days of deliberations, would acquit her. Briscomb then went on to remind the audience that a not guilty is a long way from innocent.
SIXTY-SEVEN
To Marc’s surprise Danica Hart arose from her chair when Judge Connors told the prosecution to begin their closing argument. This is the final spotlight moment of a trial; the last chance to sway a jury to decide the case your way. Marc would have bet just about anything that Vanderbeck would be the one to give it. Hart, arguing to the jury was of greater concern. He believed she would be more professional, dispassionate and convincing than Vanderbeck.
The closing statement or, more normally and accurately called the closing argument is the lawyers’ chance to argue their case to the jury. It is one last chance to pull their evidence, witnesses and exhibits together to convince the jury to see things their way.
While listening to Hart, Marc quickly realized she was simply going to mostly ignore the defense case. Apparently she decided their best bet was to walk the jury through the prosecution’s case.
She started out by giving the jury a brief explanation of what a circumstantial evidence case is. Essentially it is one in which there are no eye witnesses to the event. The evidence is laid out for the jury and the conclusion is clear.
Hart skillfully used the television screen to go over every piece of evidence, each witness’s’ testimony and all
of the exhibits. During the presentation she hammered two main themes: “Who stood to gain and use your common sense?” Hart was also careful not to overdo either of them. She interspersed both the question of “who stood to gain” and “use your common sense” not too much and not too few times throughout her argument.
The one piece of the defense case she could not ignore was the testimony of Julie Makie. If the state was to get a conviction, they had to show, beyond a reasonable doubt that the story of the missing boyfriend was a fantasy. Hart gave it her best shot and made Marc squirm a little and wondered if she wasn’t pulling it off.
Using a voice inflection bordering on obvious sarcasm, she tried punching holes in Makie’s credibility as the conveniently reclusive best friend, co-worker who came riding in at the last minute. What a significant coincidence it was that out of the hundreds of people who were questioned, Julie Makie was the only one to have seen the mysterious and vanished Bob Olson. Hart again made the point to the jury to use their common sense and disregard Makie’s testimony as an obvious last ditch effort to help a friend.
Hart concluded her presentation of the evidence by going over the most damning part of the story. Again using the television to put up the photos they had all seen many times, she relived Brittany’s behavior during the ten days before Becky was reported missing. Of course, the very last photo to be displayed was the wet T-shirt contest winner.
When this went up on the screen, Hart, who had been standing a respectful distance in front of the jury, took two steps toward Brittany. She silently stared at her for several seconds, looked at the image on the TV then turned back to the jury.
Marc slipped his left hand under the table where Brittany had her hands clasped together. She grabbed his fingers so tightly he almost let out a yell. While Hart continued, the two of them sat silently, Brittany trembling and praying she would finish soon.
Hart looked at the jury, slightly shook her head, pointed at the television and said, “This is what she was up to while her daughter decomposed in the mud, the weeds and the filth of the Mississippi River.”
Marc, his fingers still being crushed under the table by Brittany, looked over the jury and noticed more than a few sniffles and tears. He considered objecting since there was no evidence that Becky had been put in the river at that time. He decided against it. Why draw even more attention to it when Hart was moving on?
While keeping the wet T-shirt photo on the screen, Hart began to slowly pace in front of the jury.
“Let’s talk about reasonable doubt for a moment,” she began. “Reasonable doubt does not mean beyond all doubt. Use your common sense, use your common sense, use your common sense,” she repeated while slowly making eye contact with every juror. “Motive, ladies and gentlemen. Who stood to gain? Who was going to be relieved of the burden of raising a child by herself? Brittany Riley. Who was going to be able to go back to her party girl lifestyle? Brittany Riley. Who was going to be paid five hundred thousand dollars from an insurance policy?” Hart paused, shrugged her shoulders, looked over the jury and said, “Brittany Riley. And all of the evidence points right at her and no one else. Use your common sense and find Brittany Riley guilty on all counts.”
Hart had spoken for two and a half hours without notes and it seemed to take less than half that time. Before she started, Marc felt very confident about his case; maybe a little too confident. Hart’s presentation had slapped him back to the reality that this case could still be lost.
Connors was back on the bench precisely at 1:00 o’clock. It was his intention to get the closing arguments over and get the case to the jury today.
Marc started out, as Hart had done by thanking the jury for their time, service and sacrifice.
In less than half the time that Hart took, Marc went over the state’s case and the holes he had punched in it. The explanation of the ten days when Brittany failed to report her daughter missing backed up by her psychiatrist. The efforts Brittany made to find Becky. Marc used the pictures of the DNR agent to show them the extreme improbability bordering on impossibility that Brittany could have carried that cinderblock and a thirty pound child into the deep water of the river. All the while he did this, he was using a large whiteboard that had been wheeled into the courtroom. It was placed less than ten feet in front of the jury. With each piece of the state’s evidence he talked about, he wrote a letter on the whiteboard, beginning with the letter A. But, they were scattered and spread out. Not listed in a straight line. When he finished with the last one, he placed the marker he was using on the tray of the framework. He stepped close to the jury box and looked them all over.
“Here’s what they’re trying to do,” he almost whispered. “They’re trying to get you to do their job for them. They’re trying to get you to connect the dots for them.” Here he stepped back and pointed at the scattered letters on the whiteboard symbolizing the state’s evidence.
“The prosecution has thrown their evidence up on the wall and with a sly wink and a nod, they are trying to get you to draw the line from Point A to their conclusion to find guilt.” Marc stepped back to the whiteboard and using the marker, drew a crooked and convoluted line through all of the letters he had written on the board. Marc finished drawing his line, looked at the jury and, stunned that he had not drawn an objection, continued. “That’s not your job. That’s their job. They are supposed to connect the dots for you, not you for them.”
He flipped the white board over to show the other side to the jury. On this side he had previously written the same number of letters only they were in a straight line across the board.
“This is what they are supposed to do for you. Start here, at Point A,” he said using the marker to point at the letter A. “And draw a straight line from A to B to C to D until they get to guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” He rapped the board with the knuckles of his left hand and said, “This is what it is supposed to look like, and it is not your job to make it so, it’s theirs. It’s not your job to connect the dots for them. It is their job to connect the dots for you. The reason they aren’t able to do that is because Brittany Riley is not guilty.
“Julie Makie.” Marc said as he walked back toward the jury. “Ms. Hart did an admirable job of trying to show that Ms. Makie lacked credibility. Why? Julie Makie had no reason to lie. She was an acquaintance of Brittany’s, a co-worker. She wasn’t a close friend let alone a best friend who might be convinced to lie. They worked in departments at Macy’s that were close to each other, they had lunch together a few times. That’s it. They didn’t socialize together. Didn’t go out together, they were casual acquaintances from work. Then, just before this happened, Julie had to go home to be with her family. Her dad had cancer and she went to help her mother. After her dad became better, she went to China and was out of touch from this highly publicized trial. What possible reason did she have to come back here and lie? The truth is she has no reason to lie and she didn’t.
“The prosecution did everything they could to portray Bob Olson as a figment of Brittany Riley’s imagination; a massive lie that she concocted to place blame on someone else. They scoffed at the notion that he was real. Then along comes Julie Makie and under oath, without ever having spoken to Brittany Riley about this, identifies the drawing Brittany helped make as someone she saw while working at Macy’s. Someone she saw checking out Brittany in the Men’s Department near where Julie worked. The state has come up with nothing to refute her testimony. Bob Olson is a real person.
“The defense has no obligation to find the real culprit. This isn’t TV and I’m not Perry Mason. It’s up to the police to solve this crime and not the defense. But, we did it. We did find him or at least identify him sufficiently to create reasonable doubt.
“The Holy Grail of the state’s case, the most important piece of evidence they needed to bolster their claim that Brittany wanted to free herself from motherhood was to find someone, anyone to testify that she was a bad mother. Using the power of the government,
they sent their investigators to every corner of this state and talked to everyone and anyone who knew Brittany, searching desperately for someone to tell them this; to tell them Brittany Riley was a bad mother who wanted to get out from under the burden of raising a child on her own. In fact, they did it over and over and even went beyond harassing some of them to badger them into saying this. And, ladies and gentlemen, they found no one. Not a single person who really knew her who had anything to say except that she was a loving, caring young mother for whom the sun rose and set with her daughter.
“Finally, Ms. Hart skillfully used the themes of who would gain by Becky’s death and to ‘use your common sense’. I agree with her. Use your common sense. If you are going to believe the state, what you have to believe is that Barbara Riley insisted Brittany take out an insurance policy for Becky to use as an investment and savings account. Brittany then took thirty thousand dollars from the proceeds of her husband’s death, her own money, and deposited it into that policy on the same day the policy was obtained. Then barely two months later, murdered the daughter she adored to get the money from that policy.
“And this young woman, who everyone said was a loving, caring mother woke up one day and decided to murder her daughter. And they, the prosecution, want you to use your common sense to believe this.” At this point Marc paused and stood in front of the jury and silently looked each of them in the eye.
“Use your common sense, ladies and gentlemen. There is reasonable doubt all throughout this case. Find Brittany Riley not guilty and let her go home and try to pick up the pieces of her life.”
SIXTY-EIGHT
Marc looked at the clock on the dashboard which read 7:12 A.M. He stopped at the stop sign where County 42 meets Minnesota 55. Before making the right hand turn on 55 to head toward Hastings, he patiently waited for a large semi with a line of several cars to go by.
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