The Burden

by Andre Gonzalez

  “They were normal recruiting conversations. He had a strong interest in joining the company, and we really loved his background. It was an easy hire for us.”

  “Were you ever aware that he had been fired from his previous job before joining E-Nonymous?”

  “No.”

  “Would you have hired him if you knew that fact?”

  She paused and considered the question.

  “Honestly, it’s hard to say. We would have asked him about it, learned the circumstance around the firing, and decided from there.”

  “In the four years of employment, excluding the first three months of 2016, had there ever been disciplinary action filed for the defendant?”

  “Nothing ever reported to the People team, no.”

  “In January of 2016, the defendant was placed on what you called a performance improvement plan. Were you involved in that process at all?”

  “Yes. I worked directly with Shelly Williams and Mark Fernandez, Jeremy’s director and manager, on drawing up the paperwork and recording it in our system.”

  “Did you think anything was out of the ordinary about this disciplinary action against him?” Geoff asked.

  “No. It was a standard PIP.”

  “Did Shelly or Mark discuss any of the matters with you before filing the PIP?”

  “Yes. Shelly did. It’s common for a manager to want to discuss matters before jumping to any rash decisions. Shelly had felt she was out of options after speaking with Jeremy on multiple occasions.”

  “Can you explain how the PIP process works once an employee is placed on it?”

  “A PIP serves as a thirty-day probation period. The employee will no longer qualify for bonuses, promotions, or raises during that time period. During the thirty days the employee is expected to improve their performance based on specific metrics outlined in the PIP. If they do, they can come off it after thirty days. If they don’t, then further discipline could take place, up to and including termination.”

  She sounds like a legal document come to life, Jeremy thought.

  “And what happened in the defendant’s case?” Geoff asked.

  “He made drastic improvements and came off the PIP after the thirty days. All had returned to normal according to Shelly.”

  “So it worked then?”

  “Yes, I’d say so.”

  “Is it true that your company conducted its review process around this same time?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did that factor in with regard to the defendant?”

  “The reviews occurred while he was on the PIP. He was denied a raise with the stipulation that we would have another review with him at the end of summer.”

  “Was that stipulation normal?”

  “No. We wanted to give him a fair shot, since the timing didn’t work out in his favor. He had been with the company for so long and was still highly valued.”

  “So the company wanted to take care of him despite all of this,” Geoff said, more to himself than to her. “Were you also involved in the process of terminating his employment in March?”

  “Yes.”

  “Tell us what happened, please.”

  “There was an incident where an employee on Jeremy’s team went to Shelly to complain about some things Jeremy had said about her.”

  “Janae Ortiz?”

  “Yes. Jeremy had apparently been gossiping about Janae when he thought she wasn’t around. She went to Shelly, and Shelly became fed up with giving Jeremy more chances. It was the last straw for her.”

  “And it was at this point she filed the paperwork to terminate his employment?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you recall the date of his termination?”

  “March 11, 2016.”

  “We all know what happened on that day instead. Thank you for your time, Ms. Marsh.”

  Geoff stepped away from the podium with a confident swagger.

  Linda stood and walked slowly to the podium as she shuffled a stack of papers.

  “Good afternoon, Ms. Marsh. I don’t have too many questions for you today. First off, is it normal for managers to warn an employee that they might be fired?”

  Linda had come out with the hard punch she wanted, and Melissa was taken aback. “I’m not sure what you mean,” she replied in a soft voice.

  “The events leading up to the day have been heavily discussed. One thing that’s been consistent throughout is the fact that Shelly Williams pulled Jeremy Heston into a conference room on March 10 and warned him he might be fired. Is that normal?” Linda spoke in a condescending voice.

  “Well, no.”

  “Is it normal to take an employee’s word regarding another employee’s actions without conducting some sort of investigation?”

  “No.”

  “Was there any investigation by the People team into the gossiping of which my client was accused?”

  “No.”

  “Then why was the next step in the process to jump to termination?”

  “Jeremy had just come off a PIP. Also, Colorado is an at-will state, meaning we can terminate anyone’s employment without any reason.” Melissa had returned with some sass, but her attempt enraged Linda.

  “Thank you, Ms. Marsh, I know the employment laws in the state I’ve been practicing in for the last two decades.” Linda raised a thick stack of papers. “This is the official company guidelines for Open Hands, Incorporated. Section four, article three says that any employee undergoing disciplinary action should first be placed on a Performance Improvement Plan so long as their offense is not extreme.”

  “Correct.”

  “I didn’t ask you anything. Have you ever read this document?”

  Melissa slunk back in her seat. “Yes, of course.” Her voice had the shamed pitch of defeat.

  “I’ve learned a lot about the Open Hands company. To me they seem like a very fair, fun, and levelheaded to company to work for. Would you agree?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I want to know why this one instance was not handled fairly. Accusing someone of gossip is not grounds for termination in most companies. Especially after no investigation. Your team didn’t even talk to Jeremy about the incident. You just took someone’s word on the matter and made a very rash decision afterward. Did the events of March 10 go as they normally would have for any other employee?”

  “I don’t know.” Melissa voice had shrunk into shame.

  “How convenient. No more questions.”

  Linda glided back to her seat with a wide smile that sent chills down Jeremy’s spine. A juror’s jaw hung open. His attorney was batshit crazy and he loved it.

  27

  Chapter 27

  Tuesday, October 31, 2017

  Day 7 of the trial

  The second week of the trial brought more nostalgia for Jeremy. Seeing Clark had sparked a flood of memories and Halloween morning brought another blast to the past, when he saw the man who had indirectly sparked this whole thing.

  Dr. Siva sat in the box, broad-shouldered and confident. The last eighteen months had aged him, and white had started to replace the gray. Jeremy’s old mentor kept his eyes on him much like Clark had, but this time Jeremy wanted to meet his stare.

  “Dr. Siva, how do you know the defendant?” Geoff asked.

  “I’m a professor at Denver State University. Mr. Heston was one of my students.”

  “I understand that you had a closer relationship with the defendant than with most of your students.”

  “Correct. Mr. Heston and I met every month at my office, to catch up on life—and his coursework, when school was in session.”

  “So you met with him even when school wasn’t in session?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Why?”

  “When I first met Jeremy outside of class, he had come by with a question on an assigned paper. Talking with him showed me he had a bright future as a psychologist. It was a hunch, but you can always tell the special students apar
t.”

  “What sparked the monthly meetings?”

  “After our first meeting, I asked him to drop back in after he had completed the assignment. I wanted to know what he had come up with.”

  “What was the assignment?”

  “It was a high-level assignment where the students could write about any topic as long as it related to mental health. Mr. Heston chose to write about the effects of schizophrenia.”

  “Did you know he had a family member that suffered from the disease?”

  “Not at the time, but I did learn that later on.”

  “How many students have you had monthly meetings with throughout your career as a professor?”

  Dr. Siva bobbed his head side to side as he mentally counted them. “There have been eight others that I can recall.”

  “So it’s not a common occurrence?”

  “Not at all. I like to connect with my highly talented students and guide them throughout this field. It’s competitive and complex to get started in a career as a psychologist or psychiatrist.”

  “How did these conversations go with the defendant?”

  “When he started his initial job after obtaining his bachelor’s degree, I warned him of the corporate world potentially being a roadblock in his path as a psychologist. He loved the company so much though, it didn’t resonate with him until later.”

  “Did he ever discuss his director, Shelly Williams, with you?”

  “Yes, he did. In the months leading up to this attack, her name started to come up, but it wasn’t anything that would suggest such a violent outburst.”

  “What did he say about her?”

  “All he ever mentioned was how she held him back, turned him down at every opportunity that arose. Things happened exactly as I feared they would; she crushed his high hopes.”

  “You said you try to guide your special students to careers in psychology. How did you do this with the defendant?”

  “I saw my younger self in him. I encouraged him to think big, think of ways to change the world. Maybe he could have found the cure to something. Now we’ll never know.”

  Jeremy’s gut twisted into hard knots. He had always wanted to tell Dr. Siva that this was all a big experiment to shed light on mental health, but he knew that the less his professor knew the better off they both would be.

  “Dr. Siva, I know you never had formal interviews with the defendant, like the other doctors in this trial, but in your professional opinion did the defendant ever show signs of mental illness?”

  Dr. Siva paused and scratched his head with dry, cracked fingers.

  “Schizophrenia is very much hereditary. I never personally saw signs, but then again, I only had an hour each month to really talk with Jeremy.”

  “No further questions.”

  Fuck, Jeremy thought. That last statement could come back to haunt him. If the person closest to Jeremy—in the psychology field—wouldn’t testify to his insanity, how could he expect the verdict to be any different?

  Wilbert rose immediately as Geoff turned away from the podium, wasting no time beginning his cross-examination.

  “Dr. Siva, you spent a lot of time with Mr. Heston over the two years before the shooting. Would you say it’s possible you may have not noticed signs of a dormant mental illness?”

  “It’s very possible, yes. Though as a psychologist, you constantly study people in your life to see what makes them tick.”

  “Dr. Siva, you created a notion in Jeremy’s mind that the corporate world would fail him. You sat back and watched as he came in each month and told you how poorly he was being treated. Did you ever talk with him about other employment options?”

  “Of course. I told him I had connections if he wanted to work in the field. I also encouraged him to consider opening a practice of his own.”

  “And when Mr. Heston expressed no desire to do these things, it must have upset you, right?”

  “It didn’t upset me. To each their own. Jeremy was a bright student and I wanted to present him with multiple options. I assumed he’d be fine with whatever route he took.”

  “Have you ever studied the effects of environmental factors on mental health?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Then you should know that events like what happened to Mr. Heston—the constant rejection, the letdown—could have caused him to have an outburst like this.”

  “Yes, it’s very possible. It could have started with depression and escalated. Again, I didn’t have the chance to examine Jeremy. He could have easily hid his depression during the hour each month when we met.”

  “No further questions.”

  Holy shit! Jeremy thought. He wanted to stand and applaud his defense attorney. Wilbert had planted seeds of doubt. Even though Dr. Siva wasn’t on the stand as a psychiatrist, Wilbert had found a way to weave in his expertise and explore the possibility of a wavering mental state.

  Wilbert returned to their table with a stern face as Dr. Siva walked slowly from the witness stand.

  28

  Chapter 28

  Thursday, November 2, 2017

  Day 9 of the trial

  The days after Dr. Siva’s testimony had included more testimony from some of Jeremy’s old coworkers, but no one he gave a shit about.

  Linda warned him of a grand finale of sorts as the prosecution neared its end of witnesses. Dr. Reed and Elayna were set as the two final witnesses. She had also informed Jeremy that the defense’s lone witness, Dr. Brown, was prepared and ready to go for her testimony.

  Jeremy didn’t believe enough had been done to create a case for insanity. He felt helpless, stranded on an island of bickering attorneys, a hard-ass judge, and a simple-minded jury. The only way off the island was to pray to God that something would resonate with the jurors, to allow them to see things the way his fucked-up mind did.

  Am I really insane?

  Jeremy had considered it before, but never took the thought seriously. Did insane people know they were insane? He was on pills after all, and two doctors agreed that he suffered from mental insanity. Schizophrenia pumped in his veins.

  Nah. I’m not crazy.

  Jeremy refused to believe he was anything other than a normal man figuring out life in his twenties. He had suffered heartbreak, rejection, friendships falling apart, and he had dealt with it.

  This was all a planned experiment from the beginning. Planned to the finest detail, up to and during the day of the shooting. Everything after that was in God’s hands.

  Crazy people don’t make plans.

  The time in jail was finally getting to him. He’d been having conversations with himself lately, but didn’t think much of it. Who the fuck else was he supposed to talk to?

  “We call Dr. William Reed to the stand,” Geoff said, interrupting Jeremy’s internal debate.

  Dr. Reed strolled to the witness stand with slouched shoulders and a wide grin. Clearly not his first court appearance, Jeremy thought.

  Dr. Reed wore a pinstriped suit, shiny black shoes, and a flashy Rolex. The jurors gawked at him.

  “Dr. Reed, good morning and welcome,” Geoff said.

  “Good morning, Mr. Batchelor.”

  Jeremy had the feeling he was about to get fucked in the ass by this hotshot psychiatrist and the district attorney.

  “Can you please tell the jury your background?”

  “I’ve worked as a forensic psychologist for the last twenty years. I also have my PhD and am a practicing psychiatrist back home, when I’m not working on a case.”

  “How many criminal cases have you worked on?”

  “Over one hundred. I’ve honestly lost count.”

  “Can you tell us about the extensive interview process? What did it consist of?”

  “The interview process is designed to learn about the defendant, from the time of early childhood all the way up to the present day. The questions are designed to identify certain behavioral patterns from each time frame in his life. We look at h
ow those patterns could have changed over time based on environmental factors.”

  “What did you find when working with the defendant?”

  “I conducted over twenty hours of interviews with the defendant, within a month of the crime he committed, along with some follow-up meetings leading up to this trial. I believe that the defendant is mentally ill, but was legally sane at the time of the shooting.”

  Jeremy shot a look at Linda, who avoided eye contact and wrote on her notepad with a tight-lipped smile. Mentally ill but legally sane? What kind of crock of shit is that?

  “What was your initial diagnosis?”

  “I found the defendant to have schizotypal personality disorder. This is a disorder that is characterized by severe social anxiety and can include paranoia and hallucinations.”

  “Now, you mentioned that the defendant is mentally ill, but legally sane. Can you elaborate on what that means exactly?”

  “Yes. Under the legal system, someone being considered insane implies that they either did not know what they were doing, or they were unable to decipher the difference between right and wrong.”

  “And you believe that the defendant acted not under either of those conditions?”

  “Correct. The schizotypal disorder would have affected him in a way that made him awkward in social settings, but would not have clouded his judgment. He knew what he was doing and he knew it was wrong.”

  Geoff paused his questioning, wanting that last statement to hang in the air as long as possible. This was his moment to win over the jury and he had to play each move to perfection.

  “Dr. Reed, have you found this disorder to be something that is present all throughout life, or can it be developed over time?”

  “Both. A person can be born with this disorder and grow up socially awkward. A person can also develop it later, because of environmental factors in their life.”

  “Such as?”

  “While it’s not common, it can develop from neglect and abuse. Rejection from society can also cue a person to adjust their outlook on life.”