Broken: A story of hope and forgiveness
Page 43
Chapter 31
State’s Witnesses
“I thought you said the guy was pleading guilty?” Landon asked Barbara over the telephone. He was the one who had first seen Robert as he lay with critical injuries under the tarp so she needed him to be available just in case the defense balked at the pea hearing. If the defense insisted on a trial, the last thing she would allow to happen was the trickster defense attorney forcing her to take the continuance. So what if innocence civilian witnesses were inconvenienced? This was about justice for society; this was about putting a guilty man in prison regardless of the witnesses’ feelings. She puffed out her chest at the thought that she was doing her part to lock up a man who was sure to kill someone else if given one more day of freedom than she had the power to prevent. At the moment Landon was sitting in his dorm room study covey with an A.M. radio schematic spread out in front of him, a preliminary assignment in his introduction to circuits class, with his smart phone held to his right cheek. Justice was the furthest thing from his mind at the moment. Making an “A” on the assignment was his only real concern.
Barbara had been calling and talking to State’s witnesses for much of the afternoon, telling them all the same thing: that the case was for plea but the witnesses had to be available nonetheless. Again, her intent was to expect the best but plan for the worst. She had been around the block enough times to not trust defense attorneys. Some would do anything to get the advantage, she was convinced, and she had no intention of making their jobs any easier. The deputies and detectives were easy. It was their job to be in court when told, and they all lived within ten miles of the courthouse. They were just a telephone call away. It was the civilian witnesses that were difficult; she had to tell them to put their lives on hold for the sake of justice. It was one of the most emotionally trying parts of the job, but she knew it had to be done, for justice’s sake.
“He probably is,” she replied, vividly recalling the very same reaction the news elicited from Robert. She hoped that Landon’s reaction would be less extreme—that he wouldn’t slam the phone down like Robert had. “It’s just a precaution. If we’re not ready for trial, the defendant’s attorney might pull something, like make us continue the case. The judge will only give us one continuance, and if we waste it and something happens to keep one of the witnesses from being at the next hearing, then we’ll have to dismiss and re-file the case, which will only drag this thing on for another year or so. I don’t think you or anyone else wants that to happen.”
In her mind she kicked herself for not explaining it the same way to Robert. Maybe he wouldn’t have been so angry. Oh well, she thought, water under the bridge.
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“Just stay within a two hour drive of the courthouse. We’ll call you if we need you to drive to court. You’ll probably be released around 9:30. Okay?”
“Sure.” He paused as a lingering thought tugged on his conscience. “Barbara?”
“Yes.”
“How is he?”
“Who?”
“The victim.”
“He’s doing okay. His arm and shoulder are messed up, but he’s coming along well.”
“Good. I was hoping he’d be all right.”
“I’ll tell him you asked.”
“Thanks,” he replied. “Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
He turned off his cell phone and resumed looking at something that may as well have been a foreign language. He did pretty well in AP math classes in high school, but he was starting to wonder if that would be enough to get him through OSU’s rigorous engineering program. But his problems were no more than little challenges in the grand scheme of things, he now realized. At least he wasn’t that poor boy on the freeway. I wonder what he’s thinking right now, Landon considered, what he’s doing. It was a thought that dogged him daily, one that made him ever more grateful at the opportunities he’d been given. He bowed his head for the first time in his life and prayed, “God, I’ve never asked you for anything. But could you help that boy get through this? Could you please help me to understand how something like that can happen? Amen.”