Keefe’s testimony went as expected. She told the jury how she came to be the victim’s traveling companion, that on the night Olivia had been murdered, she told Keefe she was going to meet a friend for dinner, and that she didn’t say if the friend was a man or woman.
“Did you ever see her again after she left the hotel to go to dinner with the friend?” Meredith asked.
“No.”
“How did you find out about her death?”
“A couple of detectives showed up at my hotel room door at midmorning on Thursday and told me they’d found her body.”
“Nothing further, Your Honor,” Meredith said.
The prosecutor was just putting in the evidence she would need to build a timeline to show the jury the sequence of events. She could not use any facts in closing argument that weren’t either admitted into evidence or stipulated to by me.
I stood. “Ms. Keefe, you’ve testified that Ms. Lathom did not tell you the name of her friend, but did she say anything to you about whether the friend was an old friend or somebody she had recently met?”
“She never said and I didn’t have any reason to ask her about that kind of thing.”
“Do you know what happened to the rental car that Ms. Lathom took to dinner that night?”
“No. One of my contacts at the publisher told me it was a good thing we had insurance, because the car had never been found, and the rental company wanted the publisher to pay for it.”
“Did Ms. Lathom ever mention to you that she had a friend in the area before she told you she was going to dinner?”
“No. Well, at least if she did, I don’t remember it and I think I would.”
“Did you notice any interaction with Ms. Lathom and another person at any time that would make you think that person was the friend with whom she was going to have dinner?”
“Not really, but she did spend some time talking to a man at the Barnes & Noble store just before the signing.”
“Had you ever seen the man before?”
“No.”
“Did she mention him after the signing?”
“No.”
“Did any law enforcement officer ever ask you about the man who was talking to Ms. Lathom?”
“No.”
“So as far as you know, there was no follow-up on the man?”
“Objection.” Meredith was on her feet. “Ms. Keefe couldn’t possibly know that.”
“I predicated that question on her personal knowledge, Your Honor.”
“Overruled,” the judge said. “You may answer, Ms. Keefe.”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Keefe said.
“Did anyone ever contact you about the man?”
“No, sir.”
“No further questions, Your Honor.”
“Ms. Evans?” Judge Gallagher asked.
“Nothing further, Your Honor.”
“May the witness be excused?”
Both Meredith and I said, “Yes.”
“Call your next witness,” the judge said.
“The state calls Dr. Melissa Cooper.”
The court deputy escorted a tall, attractive woman into the courtroom. She went straight to the witness stand, turned toward the clerk, and raised her hand to be sworn. As they say, this wasn’t her first rodeo. I had met her when I took her deposition several weeks before. She was a meticulous and very experienced crime scene technician and had been a witness in many trials during her career.
Meredith stood. “State your name for the record, please.”
“Melissa Cooper.”
“And what is your occupation?”
“I’m chief of the Fifth Judicial Circuit forensics lab.”
“What is your educational background?”
“Bachelor degree in biochemistry from Oglethorpe University, Masters in Forensic Science from Rollins College, and PhD in Forensic Science from the University of Central Florida.”
“I’d offer this witness as an expert in forensic sciences, Your Honor.”
“Voir Dire, Mr. Royal?”
The judge was offering me the opportunity to ask questions of the witness to attack her credibility as an expert before he ruled. If the court accepted her as an expert, she would be able to give opinion testimony on issues within the field of forensic science. I knew she testified regularly in this court and Judge Gallagher was not about to reject her as an expert today. Besides, she didn’t seem to have any opinions that would hurt my client’s case. “No, Your Honor,” I said. “I’ll stipulate to Dr. Cooper’s expertise.”
“Do you handle all the scenes where a crime has been committed in Sumter County, Dr. Cooper?” Meredith asked.
“Most of them, and all of them to some extent. Sometimes, we have to send evidence to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab in Orlando.”
“When would you do that?”
“When there is evidence that is beyond our means, that we don’t have the equipment or the expertise to investigate fully. Like DNA, for example.”
“Do you lift and identify fingerprints in your lab?”
“Yes.”
“Did your agency investigate the crime scene in the case of the murder of Olivia Lathom?”
“We were never able to determine where the crime scene was located. We did go over the place where the body was found with a fine-toothed comb.”
“Where was that?”
“Paddock Square in Brownwood.”
“Did you find any blood at the scene?”
“No.”
“Did you find any other evidence in Paddock Square?”
“No. It was maybe the cleanest scene I’ve ever been to. But then it wasn’t the crime scene.”
“Did your lab receive a gun, specifically a twenty-two-caliber Smith and Wesson model 67 revolver, to test for fingerprints?”
“Yes. My fingerprint tech, Madison Seyler, took it in and examined it.”
“Nothing further, Your Honor.”
“Mr. Royal?” asked the judge.
“Thank you, Your Honor. I just have a few questions. Dr. Cooper, did your team do a full crime scene survey of Esther Higgins’ house?”
“Yes.”
“Did you specifically look for blood?”
“Yes.”
“Why would you be looking for blood in her house?”
“The medical examiner had preliminarily found that she had been shot in the back with a small-caliber pistol. There wouldn’t have been a lot of blood in the place where she was killed, but we expected to find some.”
“Did you find any blood in Ms. Higgins’ house?”
“No, sir.”
“Could any blood have been cleaned up before you got there?”
“If it had been, we would still have found traces.”
“How would you have found traces?”
“We spray a chemical called Luminol over an area. It will react with the iron in blood and, in a dark room, emit a blue glow. We used this procedure at many points in the house and garage and did not get a hit.”
“Could somebody have cleaned up the blood and then keep the Luminol from working?”
“The only thing that would work to clean blood up to the extent that we couldn’t find at least trace amounts of blood would be bleach. If bleach was used, the Luminol would react with the bleach and the area where the blood had been would light up with a blue glow.”
“And that didn’t happen in this case?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you examine her car and her golf cart?”
“Yes. No blood in either.”
“Did you use it on any of her clothes hanging in the closet?”
“We did. No blood.”
“Would that be the case if she’d washed the clothes?”
“Even if they’d been washed several times, we’d find traces of the blood.”
“As an expert in crime scene investigations, did you draw any conclusions as to whether Ms. Lathom was killed in Ms. Higgins’ house?”
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“It was my opinion that the victim was not killed in that house.”
“Was the body transported in either of Ms. Higgins’ vehicles?”
“No. Not in my opinion.”
“No further questions, Your Honor.”
“May the witness be excused?” Judge Gallagher asked.
“With the stipulation that she’ll be available if we need her again,” I said.
“Dr. Cooper’s office is about two blocks from here,” the judge said. “I think we can get her if we need her. He looked up at the clock. “I think it’s that time of day. We’ll be in recess until nine thirty tomorrow morning.”
CHAPTER 45
I CALLED J.D. in Longboat during the afternoon break and asked her if she could get to Bushnell and meet with the Sumter County Sheriff the next afternoon. She didn’t think it’d be a problem and said she’d talk to me that evening.
J.D. called while I was eating a take-out French dip sandwich and a Diet Coke from McCalisters in Brownwood and watching what passes for a news show on TV. “I’m all set with the meeting at three tomorrow afternoon,” she said.
“Are you coming up tonight?”
“No, sweetie. I had a busy day and I’m beat. I’ve still got some paperwork to get done so I can take the next few days off. I’ll see you tomorrow evening at Esther’s. Do I need to stay undercover when I get up there?”
“Are you still a blond?”
She laughed. “So far. It’s not growing out very fast.”
“Then just be yourself. If anybody asks you about it, just tell the truth. I do think you should stay out of the courtroom until Thursday. It’ll be too late then for any testimony to change because somebody recognizes you. And you need to see the results of all your hard work.”
“Do you want me to open up to the sheriff on the evidence?”
“Completely. Tell him he can see the evidence firsthand for himself if he’ll come sit in the courtroom starting with the session this afternoon.”
“Okay. I’ll go on to Esther’s house after my meeting. I’ll see you there.”
Wednesday morning found me back in the courtroom, sitting at counsel table next to my client. I kept thinking about the beach, but duty was calling. Esther and I had met for a few minutes before we went into the courtroom. Her spirits were high, as they had been all through the trial. I thought it takes a special kind of person to stay positive when the weight of the state is bearing down on her, doing its best to put her in prison for life.
Judge Gallagher took the bench and said, “Who’s up next, Ms. Evans?”
“Madison Seyler, Your Honor.”
Ms. Seyler was a young woman with dark hair and a ready smile. I had met her when I took her deposition on the same day I’d taken Dr. Cooper’s. I wasn’t expecting any surprises. Meredith took her through her background, education, and training in the sometimes arcane discipline of fingerprint technology. “Can you tell us what you were asked to do in this case?” Meredith asked.
“I was given a pistol, a twenty-two-caliber Smith and Wesson model 67, to examine for fingerprints. I was also given a plastic bag with five complete bullets and one cartridge from a bullet that had been fired.”
“Did you find any prints?”
“Yes.”
“Tell the jury where you found them, please.”
“I found a full set of fingerprints on the grip, or handle, of the pistol and partial prints on each of the six cartridges.”
Meredith handed the witness the pistol, carefully sealed in a plastic bag. “Is this the gun on which you found the prints?”
“It looks like the one.”
I stood. “Your Honor, Ms. Evans and I have stipulated that the pistol the witness is holding is indeed the murder weapon.”
“Thank you, Mr. Royal,” Meredith said and turned back to the witness. “Did you determine to whom the fingerprints belonged?”
“Yes. Esther Higgins.”
“On both the grip on the pistol and the bullets?”
“Yes.”
“How did you determine that?”
“I entered the prints into the Automated Fingerprint Identification System maintained by the FBI and we got a hit.”
“Is that the program commonly called AFIS?”
“Yes.”
“No further questions.”
I stood. “Ms. Seyler, is there any way for you to determine how long my client’s fingerprints had been on the bullet cartridges?”
“No, sir.”
“So, they could have been there for years?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And the prints on the pistol grip?”
“There is no way to tell how long they’d been there.”
“No further questions, Your Honor,” I said.
“Just a couple,” Meredith said. “Ms. Seyler, did you find anybody else’s prints on either the cartridges or the pistol grip?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Nothing further, Your Honor.”
“Call your next witness, Ms. Evans.”
“Dr. Cassandra Wall.”
A woman in her thirties entered and took the witness stand. She turned, faced the clerk, and raised her right hand to be sworn.
“State your name, please,” Meredith said.
“Cassandra Wall.”
“Your occupation?”
“I’m the medical examiner for the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Florida.”
“What geographical area does that cover?”
“Five counties. Lake, Sumter, Marion, Hernando, and Citrus.”
“You’re a physician? An MD?”
“Yes.”
“Board certified in any specialty?”
“Pathology and Forensic Medicine.”
“As part of your duties as medical examiner, do you perform autopsies on murder victims?”
“Yes.”
“Did you perform an autopsy on Olivia Lathom?”
“I did.”
Meredith took the witness through the autopsy and her findings. “Did you arrive at a cause of death?”
“Yes. She died of a gunshot wound to her back. The bullet penetrated her heart and she died almost instantly.”
“When you did the autopsy, did you find the bullet that killed her?”
“Yes. It was just inside her left chest wall. The velocity of the bullet was pretty well spent by the time it entered her back, but it had enough energy left to penetrate her heart.”
“Thank you, Doctor. Nothing further, Your Honor.”
“Mr. Royal?” the judge said.
“Dr. Wall,” I said, “is part of your job the finding of cause of death?”
“Yes.”
“And why do you need to do that?”
“I have to determine whether the death is natural or suicide or caused by somebody else. If caused by someone else, I have to make the determination if it’s a homicide. And I have to be ready to testify in court about those issues.”
“And you did that in this case?”
“Yes. The cause of death was definitely the gunshot wound in the victim’s back.”
“Were you able to determine how far the shooter was standing from Ms. Lathom when he or she fired the bullet into Ms. Lathom’s back?”
“Several feet, at least.”
“How did you determine that?”
“There were no powder burns on Ms. Lathom’s clothes where the bullet penetrated the cloth. If the killer had been standing very close, the discharge of the weapon would have left powder burns.”
“Do you have an opinion based on a reasonable degree of medical probability, absent any other facts, as to whether the fingerprints on the gun and the bullets point to the killer?”
“No. That is outside the purview of my examinations.”
“Thank you, Dr. Wall. No further questions.”
The next witness was Robert Peralta, the ballistics expert. Meredith took him through his education and experience, and qualified him as an expert in h
is field.
“Tell the jury what your job was as it relates to this case,” Meredith said.
“I was asked to examine a bullet taken from the body of a woman identified as Olivia Lathom and determine if it came from a particular gun.”
“Were you given the gun to test?”
“I was.”
“Can you describe the gun?”
“It was a twenty-two-caliber Smith and Wesson model 67 revolver.”
Meredith showed him the gun in the evidence bag. “Does this appear to be the gun you examined?”
“It does.”
“Was the gun loaded when you received it?”
“No. The bullets had been extracted from the cylinder, but there were five rounds in a plastic evidence bag that I was told had been in the pistol when it was found by the police.”
“Were you provided with a bullet that you understood to be the one that killed the victim in this case?”
“Yes.”
Meredith held up the murder weapon. “Did you arrive at an opinion as to whether this pistol fired the bullet that killed Ms. Lathom?”
“Yes. That gun fired the bullet found in Ms. Lathom’s body.”
Meredith took him through the testing, how it was performed, and how he reached his conclusions. “No further questions, Your Honor,” she said.
“No questions, Your Honor,” I said.
Judge Gallagher looked at the clock and said, “It’s near enough to noon that we can break for lunch. The court will be in recess until one thirty this afternoon.
We were just back from lunch when the court deputy told Meredith and me that the judge wanted to see us in chambers. “We’ve got a problem,” he said as we entered his chambers. “One of the jurors got violently ill during lunch. He was taken to the hospital, but the emergency room doc over there tells us it’s just something that he ate that disagreed with him. He should be ready to go in the morning, but we need to decide whether to seat one of the alternates or wait until morning to see if the juror is back.”
“Which juror is it?” I asked.
“The prison guard.”
Meredith and I looked at each other. We both wanted that man on the jury. She thought he would vote guilty, and I was pretty sure he would go for the acquittal. “Why don’t we recess until in the morning,” she said. “If he’s not ready to go, we can seat the alternate.”
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