that evening, did you?
MRS. GRISTEDE: No, I did not.
MR. JAYWALKER: Or a thud?
MRS. GRISTEDE: A thud?
MR. JAYWALKER: Yes, as though someone had
just fallen to the floor.
MRS. GRISTEDE: I don't recall that.
MR. JAYWALKER: Now, you say you had to turn
the volume up in order to hear
the TV?
MRS. GRISTEDE: That's correct.
MR. JAYWALKER: Don't they show you everything
in great big capital letters?
MRS. GRISTEDE: Yes.
MR. JAYWALKER: But you still turned the volume
up to hear it?
MRS. GRISTEDE: I like to hear them say it. Be
sides…
MR. JAYWALKER: Besides what?
MRS. GRISTEDE: Besides, my eyes aren't so good.
Great, thought Jaywalker. He finally gets the old bat to admit that while her hearing may be perfect, she's half blind. The only problem was that she'd never claimed to have seen anything, only to have heard his client arguing with the victim right around the time he was stabbed to death.
* * *
José Lugo took the stand. Lugo was a short man in his forties, with a dark mustache that accentuated the serious expression he wore. He sat on the edge of his seat and answered Tom Burke's questions as though his own free dom hung in the balance.
Yes, he said, he'd been the doorman on duty during the four-to-midnight shift on the day before he'd received a call from his boss, Tony Mazzini, to come in and talk to the detectives. Lugo knew Barry Tannenbaum, the occu pant of Penthouse A, and his wife, Samara. Asked by Burke if he could identify Samara, he hesitated for a split second, then pointed directly at her. Jaywalker couldn't be sure, but he thought he heard Lugo mumble an apology as he did so.
Lugo recalled that Mrs. Tannenbaum had arrived at the building early that evening, though he couldn't recall the exact time. But Burke was ready to help him out.
MR. BURKE: I show you what's been marked as People's Exhibit Seven for identification, and ask you if you recognize it.
MR. LUGO: Yes. It's the sign-in book, the
log we keep at the doorman's
station.
MR. BURKE: I offer it into evidence.
MR. JAYWALKER: No objection.
THE COURT: Received.
MR. BURKE: Will looking through that book help you remember what time Mrs. Tannenbaum ar rived that evening?
MR. LUGO: It should.
MR. BURKE: Please take a look.
MR. LUGO: Yes, here it is. She arrived at six-fifty. Ten minutes to seven.
MR. BURKE: Did she sign the book herself?
MR. LUGO: No, I signed in for her. I'm allowed to do that, so long as I know the person. Besides, she's Mr. Tannenbaum's wife. Was.
MR. BURKE: Did Mrs. Tannenbaum leave while you were still on duty?
MR. LUGO: Yes.
MR. BURKE: Do you recall what time that was?
MR. LUGO: It says here—
MR. BURKE: You're not allowed to read.
Just—
MR. JAYWALKER: No objection to his reading. It's
in evidence.
MR. BURKE: Thank you. Mr. Lugo, you may
read.
MR. LUGO: Eight-oh-five.
MR. BURKE: That's what time she left?
MR. LUGO: Didn't I just say that?
MR. BURKE: I guess you did. Now, how late
did you work that night?
MR. LUGO: Till midnight.
MR. BURKE: Were you at the front door the
entire time?
MR. LUGO: The entire time. Except when I
had to— (To the Court) Your
Honor, can I say "pee"?
Laughter.
THE COURT: You just did.
MR. LUGO: Except when I had to pee. But then I locked the door, so nobody could come in or go out.
MR. BURKE: And from the time Mrs. Tan nenbaum left at eight-oh-five, until the time you went off duty at midnight, did anyone else come in to visit Mr. Tannenbaum, or leave after visiting him?
MR. LUGO: No.
MR. BURKE: Do you want to check the log
book to make sure?
MR. LUGO: I already did. The answer is no.
On cross, Jaywalker asked the witness if he'd noticed
anything strange about Samara, either when she'd arrived or when she'd left.
MR. LUGO: Strange?
MR. JAYWALKER: Yes. Like, was she covered with
blood?
MR. LUGO: Blood?
MR. JAYWALKER: Blood.
MR. LUGO: I didn't see no blood.
MR. JAYWALKER: Not on her clothes?
MR. LUGO: No.
MR. JAYWALKER: Her face?
MR. LUGO: No.
MR. JAYWALKER: Her hands?
MR. LUGO: I didn't notice her hands.
MR. JAYWALKER: But you would have, if they'd
been covered with blood,
wouldn't—
MR. BURKE: Objection.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. JAYWALKER: Do you recall what she was
wearing?
MR. LUGO: Clothes.
MR. JAYWALKER: I was hoping for a bit more de
tail. Other than clothes, do you
remember anything specific?
MR. LUGO: No, I don't remember. It was a
long time ago.
MR. JAYWALKER: It was. But there was nothing
unusual about her clothes that
you remember?
MR. LUGO: No.
MR. JAYWALKER: This was August, August in
New York City, right?
MR. LUGO: Right.
MR. JAYWALKER: You don't remember, for exam ple, that Samara was wearing a long coat, for ex ample, or a jacket that seemed too warm for that time of year, do you?
MR. LUGO: No, I don't remember anything
like that.
MR. JAYWALKER: When she left, was she carrying
anything?
MR. LUGO: Like what?
MR. JAYWALKER: Oh, like a knife, or a bloody
towel.
MR. LUGO: No, I don't remember anything
like that.
MR. JAYWALKER: And did she seem upset when
she left? Or in a hurry?
MR. LUGO: No, she seemed regular.
On redirect, Burke got Lugo to admit that Samara might have been carrying a handbag, and might have been wearing a lightweight jacket, although he really couldn't say one way or the other.
They broke for lunch.
"How's it going?" Samara asked, on the way downstairs.
Jaywalker put a finger to his lips. He didn't think there were any jurors in the elevator, but he didn't want to take a chance. Once, years ago, he'd gotten into trouble by mentioning to a colleague that he was on trial and "shov eling shit against the tide." A juror had overheard him and reported it to the judge. Luckily, the juror had been only an alternate.
"I don't know," Jaywalker lied, once they were safely out on Centre Street. "Things could be worse, I guess." He refrained from adding, And soon enough, they will be.
"But you don't think we're dead yet, do you?"
"What you mean we, white woman?"
It was an old joke, probably older than Samara. Which might have had something to do with why it didn't seem to strike her as particularly funny.
In the afternoon session, Burke called a young woman employed as a programming assistant at ABC. Armed with a thick binder, she testified that on the evening of the murder, a year and a half ago, Wheel of Fortune had aired at seven-thirty Eastern Standard Time, and had ended at eight.
Jaywalker asked her no questions.
Detective Bonfiglio was recalled and told that he was still under oath. Burke reminded him that when he'd been excused that morning, he'd just described how he'd had conversations with Mrs. Gristede of Penthouse B, and Mr. Lugo, the doorman who'd bee
n called in.
MR. BURKE: Following those conversations,
did you do something?
DET. BONFIGLIO: Yeah. By that time, CSU was finished and the morgue guys had come and taken the body. I ordered the crime scene sealed.
MR. BURKE: Meaning what?
DET. BONFIGLIO: Meaning the apartment was locked from the outside, crime scene tape was used, a notice was put on the door, and a seal was applied to it, so if anyone was to try to enter, they'd have to break the seal.
MR. BURKE: What did you do after that?
DET. BONFIGLIO: Me and my partner, we exited the premises, and we did thereafter proceed to the home of Samara Tannenbaum, to pay her a visit.
And in his best copspeak, Bonfiglio recounted their visit to Samara's. He described her initial claim that she hadn't seen her husband in about a week, followed by her admission that she'd been at his apartment the previous evening. Also her denial that the two of them had argued, similarly retreated from as soon as she'd been told that they had a witness who said otherwise.
MR. BURKE: Can you describe her general
demeanor?
DET. BONFIGLIO: She was real nervous like, she—
MR. JAYWALKER: Objection.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. JAYWALKER: Move to strike.
THE COURT: Yes, the answer is stricken, and
the jury will disregard it.
Fat chance, Jaywalker knew. Still, even though he couldn't expect the jurors to unhear it, he'd had to keep it out; otherwise Burke would be permitted to refer to it in his summation. But Burke was determined to get it in.
MR. BURKE: Detective, did you have a chance
to observe Mrs. Tannenbaum
while you questioned her?
DET. BONFIGLIO: Yes, I did.
MR. BURKE: Tell us some of the things you
observed.
DET. BONFIGLIO: Observed? I dunno, I observed
her face, her arms, her legs,
her—
MR. BURKE: I mean regarding her demeanor.
DET. BONFIGLIO: Oh. She was pespirin' a lot. You know, sweating. And her hands was like shaking. And she'd look away from me, every time I tried to make eye contack wid her.
MR. BURKE: Did there eventually come a
time when you took some po
lice action with respect to her?
Jaywalker, who'd been about to rise, eased back in his chair. Burke, to his credit, had skipped the part about Samara's saying she wanted to call her lawyer, as well as her refusal to consent to a search of her apartment without a warrant. Eliciting either of those facts would have been improper, since they represented nothing but Samara's in vocation of her constitutional rights—in this case her right to counsel, her right to silence and her right to be free from unreasonable searches—and no inferences adverse to her could properly have been drawn by the jury. Still, there were plenty of prosecutors who would have tried, whether out of ignorance or arrogance. Jaywalker was only half sorry Burke hadn't; if he had, at least Samara would have had something to argue on appeal.
DET. BONFIGLIO: 'Scuse me? I don't unnastand.
Burke shot a look over at Jaywalker, who gave him a nod, meaning, Go ahead, lead the witness; I won't object. Although the two of them had never gotten far enough to try a case against each other before this one, they were un failingly on the same page.
MR. BURKE: Did there come a time when
you placed Mrs. Tannenbaum
under arrest?
DET. BONFIGLIO: Yeah.
MR. BURKE: And what did you arrest her
for?
DET. BONFIGLIO: For the murder of her husband.
MR. BURKE: Thank you. Detective, I now draw your attention to later that same day. Did there come a time when you and other members of the de partment executed a search warrant in connection with this investigation?
DET. BONFIGLIO: Yeah.
MR. BURKE: Where did that take place?
DET. BONFIGLIO: At Mrs. Tannenbaum's town
house.
MR. BURKE: When did that take place?
DET. BONFIGLIO: That same night, at twenty-two
hunnerd hours. Ten o'clock, to
youse.
MR. BURKE: Would you tell the jurors what
you found, and where you
found it?
DET. BONFIGLIO: There was a buncha stuff found. But me, personally, what I found was wedged in be tween a toilet tank and the wall in a upstairs bath room. It was three things, ackshully. First, a blue bathroom towel, with some dark red stains on it. In side it was a lady's shirt, same kinda stains. An' in side that was a knife, like a steak knife. It had stains, too.
One by one, Burke had a court officer hand the items to the witness, so that he could identify them. Although the stains on them were small—far smaller, for example, than the stain on the sweater the jurors had seen in the photo graph of Barry Tannenbaum's body—they were nonethe less visible. With no objection from Jaywalker, the items were received in evidence. Burke asked permission to publish them to the jury, and Judge Sobel agreed.
This time the procedure was a little different. Before handing the items to the jurors, a court officer supplied each of them with a pair of latex gloves. The handling of bloodstained items had changed drastically since the dawning of the age of AIDS.
Jaywalker watched the jurors out of the corner of his eye as they passed the exhibits among them. As far as he could tell, neither the towel nor the blouse caused too much of a reaction. But when it came to the knife, there were jurors who recoiled from it and refused to touch it, even through gloves, and others who took the opportunity to stare at Samara with cold, hard looks. Even from where Jaywalker sat, a good twenty feet from the jury box, there was no missing the serrated edge, the sharply-tipped point and the pronounced hilt.
For Jaywalker and his client, this was an exceedingly uncomfortable moment, the kind of moment that made him want to crawl underneath the defense table and out of sight. But being a defense lawyer meant he couldn't do that. So instead he just sat there, pretending to review some notes and trying to look as nonchalant as possible, despite the fact that he felt as though he'd just been hit with a sledgehammer. Even when the jurors had finally com pleted their inspection of the knife, a process that had seemed to take hours, Jaywalker's agony wasn't over. Burke wanted more out of Bonfiglio.
The Tenth Case Page 20
