“You also used the word ‘perimortem.’ That would mean what?”
“Perimortem means at or about the time of death.”
“Rigor mortis—this is a stiffening of the body?”
“Yes.”
“That condition begins after death?”
“That’s correct.”
“Let me ask you, does stress affect the onset of rigor mortis?”
“Sometimes.”
“If it were a factor, would that cause rigor mortis to occur more quickly than other times?”
“Yes, the onset would be quicker.”
“There is a classic example, I think, of a soldier in battle?” Benjamin continued.
“Yes.”
“What is that example?”
“Well,” she said, “the classical example that’s used to describe what we call accelerated or more quickly than usual onset of rigor is the fellow who’s actually pointing his gun at somebody and somebody shoots him right through the head and he stays right in that position. He’s fixed.”
“That is the stress factor?”
“Presumably,” Fierro said. “This is all very anecdotal.”
“A body that dies in May and is left above ground out of doors, would you estimate that would be stiff in twelve hours?”
“Under ordinary circumstances. It would depend partly on the weather.”
“All right,” Benjamin continued. “And it would be softer, ma’am, approximately how many hours after death?”
“We would expect rigor to pass in about forty-eight hours.”
“All right. Now, at thirty-six hours, would there still be rigor present?”
“Yes, but it would be a little softer.”
“And then your estimate of forty-eight hours, that’s when the body would no longer be stiff?”
“Often it’s not stiff. Sometimes it is. But I would expect that after forty-eight hours that I would be able to tell that rigor had passed, or was passing.”
Though Benjamin never directly tied Fierro’s explanation of how long rigor mortis remains viable, in earlier cross-examination he had questioned Scott about the condition of Jeannie’s body when he, Pernell and Savin went to the church construction site to move it to Amelia County. In interviews with police, Scott had said the body had been moved on Thursday, almost six days, and perhaps as much as 130 hours, after Jeannie apparently was killed sometime early on Saturday morning, May 6. In cross examination by Benjamin, Scott had confirmed his own preliminary hearing testimony that Jeannie’s body was stiff so that it cracked where it was forced into the trunk of the car.
Although reporters speculated about whether Benjamin would allow Pernell to take the stand, Stark was not surprised that he didn’t.
He thought the admission of the tape recording into evidence had eliminated that possibility. Benjamin, he was sure, did not want to expose Pernell to questions about what had happened on the night of March 7, 1989, when that tape had been mysteriously, perhaps miraculously, recorded.
Benjamin was still chafing about the admission of the tape, and after presenting his lone witness he moved for a mistrial, arguing that the tape had denied his client a fair trial.
“After hearing that tape, there is no way in the world that a jury could continue to presume Mr. Jefferson innocent or that they could intelligently, impartially and fairly weigh…the evidence…” Benjamin argued. “All the tape does is establish a propensity for violence or other bad character traits which were not in issue.”
Judge Warren denied his request and adjourned court for the day, but not before setting an unusual Saturday session for closing arguments.
Outside, the clouds had opened up and rain was falling in torrents. Reporters had hurried from the courtroom to position themselves near the top of the stairs leading out of the courthouse, and when Carrie and Ben emerged, they began asking questions. Both days of testimony had been difficult for the Pricketts—hell, Ben called it—and they didn’t want to talk about it.
“We’ve got nothing to say,” Ben told them strongly. “Can’t you just leave us alone?”
The Pricketts sought shelter in a witness room until the reporters and the rain had moved on.
27.
The Missing Pieces
WHEN STARK FACED THE JURY to begin his closing remarks a few minutes after nine Saturday morning, he was well aware that his case rested on the testimony of some “unsavory characters,” as he described his chief witnesses, and that there had been inconsistencies in their testimony.
Nobody had explained, for example, why officers hadn’t been able to find Jeannie’s body when St. Augustine led them to the church construction site more than five days after her death. Nobody had explained why the body had been stiff when Pernell had forced it into the trunk of a borrowed car. The contradictory testimony about rubber gloves and guns still hadn’t been made clear. But none of that caused Stark great concern.
“I felt that none of those inconsistencies was sufficient to change the outcome of the trial,” he said years later. “Almost any time you have more than one witness involved in relating the same action, you get inconsistencies. That’s the difference in the way different people see the same events.”
This was much the same message that Stark delivered to the jury.
“The people that were involved have different memories and different recollections of little matters, little details,” he told them. “It is because either their memories have faded somewhat or their recall is faulty in some particular. And I ask each of you to put yourselves in the position of the several witnesses and think back to some event that you either witnessed or participated in the better part of two years ago and think can you remember exactly what color socks someone was wearing or shirt or exactly what time this or that happened. Most of us cannot.
“And I think that the witnesses that you heard testify these past two days could not either. But they were very clear and their recall was very good about the essential elements of what happened because, I submit to you, it was forever burned in their memory.”
Stark told the jury that the four men who went to Chesapeake went for three different reasons, Savin and Zimmer to break into the home of a drug dealer, Scott to help Pernell scare his girlfriend, and Pernell for other purposes.
“It was Pernell who planned it all,” Stark said. “It was Pernell who approached Savin and he, in turn, told Zimmer, ‘We’ll go down to Chesapeake and knock off this drug dealer.’ He played the charade. Pernell knew that they weren’t going to a drug dealer’s house. Pernell knew that they were not going to simply scare Regina because it was his intention and his plan all the while to go and take her from her home and to kill her, and that’s what he did.”
Stark went on to detail Jeannie’s death. “Regina knew that Jefferson was going to kill her,” he said. “She had had earlier experiences with him. She had been abducted once before. He had threatened her life then and he’d been caught short because, miracle of miracles, there was a tape recording and he was made aware of it and he brought her back home. But this time, Regina knew that her luck had run out. She knew that she was going to be killed…As they drove down the road, he turned and fired and shot her right in the head.
“Do you remember the testimony?” he asked, pausing for effect. “She froze and blood came out of her mouth. The medical examiner shows you where she was shot, right in the left side, right in the left temple. St. Augustine didn’t know this.” He waved the autopsy report. “He’d never seen this. All he knew was what Jefferson told him and Jefferson told him correctly—he shot her in the head while they were driving down the road.”
Stark asked the jury to find Pernell guilty of capital murder.
“Now, what are the elements?” he asked rhetorically. “That the defendant killed Regina Marie Butkowski. I do not believe there can be any doubt in your minds that he did so. That the killing was willful, deliberate and premeditated. I do not see how there could be any doubt on that subjec
t. It was coolly and calculatingly done. It was thoroughly planned. It was planned for a good while. As a matter of fact, there was an abortive attempt early on in March when he took her. You heard the tape. He intended to kill her then but he did not do so.”
But in May, Stark said, “Regina knew that her luck had run out. She knew that she was going to be killed. They came to Amelia. And you know what occurred. They took the body out, dumped it near Nibbs Creek, poured gas on it, Jefferson did that, and he lit the fire.”
In closing, Stark sought to deflect any confusion that might have been created by Wayne Scott’s conflicting descriptions of the revolver Pernell had carried.
“Zimmer saw the pistol,” he said. “He described it as black. Mr. deKrafft described it as blue steel. Savin saw the pistol. He described it as black. Brown saw the pistol. He described it as brownish.
“Nobody—nobody—saw a chrome-plated pistol.
“She was killed with a thirty-two. It was a thirty-two Smith & Wesson, as the Medical Examiner’s report would indicate, and it was fired by Pernell Jefferson and nobody else.
“One final point, one final observation, if you will. Go back to the time when Regina and Pernell were having troubles. This was in March. And he goes down and takes her from the house, and you’ve heard the tape. He told Joey he intended to kill her but he didn’t. He then told Joey when he came back, and this was before the May incident, ‘If I can’t have her, nobody will.’
“Think about it. A cold-blooded killing. Capital murder, ladies and gentlemen. Capital murder. Guilty. Capital murder. Life imprisonment. And that’s what I ask you to do.
“Thank you.”
After a ten-minute recess, Benjamin watched the jury file back into the courtroom. For a moment, he remained seated, a legal size notepad in front of him. For Benjamin, the case had too many missing pieces; too much police work had gone undone, he thought, and his client had been damaged by testimony from witnesses of doubtful credibility.
He didn’t want to risk offending the jurors by casting aspersions on their law enforcement officers, however, and he began by praising Sheriff Jimmy Weaver and his chief deputy, Wes Terry.
“They did all that they could,” he said. “It’s important that you understand that, because your verdict is not a reflection on the Amelia authorities. Nothing I say or talk to you about today should in any way be taken as a reflection on them. They did their job.
“Let’s also acknowledge something else and that is that the tape that you heard the first day was one of the most chilling things that I hope we’re ever going to have to listen to. That tape froze our blood. That was the voice of a dead person calling back to us, and that was a horrible moment. That was horrible for all of us.
“We’ve got to deal with several things because of that tape. We’ve got to understand that that tape is admitted only for a very limited purpose. You can’t listen to what occurred on that tape and think, well, you know, if Pernell is a bad person and he did this and caused this kind of grief, then that means it’s likely that he did what he’s accused of. You’re not allowed to use the tape for that reason.
“You are not a mob. You are not just a crowd of people who’ve been assembled. You are here as a legal entity with a specific purpose and so it is important, very important, that you not give in to the rage, the anger, and the sorrow and the passion that that tape arouses in all of us. There isn’t a one of us listening to that tape who doesn’t want to somehow make it all right or somehow answer her plea. That’s the human part of each one of us and there isn’t a one of us, I don’t think, who doesn’t want to when we hear that tape join up with everybody and rise up and seek some vengeance. That’s a natural feeling…We’ll never know who killed Miss Butkowski…
“You understand that the only issue before you today is—it sounds a little odd, maybe, it’s not guilt or innocence. You’re not required to decide, yes, he’s innocent, and when you come back and say not guilty, you’re not saying he’s innocent…The question is has the Commonwealth proven guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and if it has, you vote guilty. If it hasn’t proven guilt, the only verdict you can return is not guilty. And all that’s saying is we heard the evidence, it hasn’t been proven, we have at least one reason to doubt your proof.”
Benjamin then began to hammer at what he perceived to be weaknesses in the prosecution’s case.
“Please understand that the case against Pernell Jefferson is only the testimony of Joey, Chuck, Mike and Wayne. That’s it. They accuse him. There is no corroboration to what they say. Phone records—you’ve heard me talk about phone records. Now, phone records are not a case-breaker but they could provide corroboration. If Joey received a collect call early Saturday morning, that would be on his phone record. Denise Edwards said she called Pernell and she thought it might have been around eight-thirty Saturday night. Well, if it had been much later when she talked with Pernell, then that would have provided a very airtight alibi. We would have known where Pernell was Saturday night for sure through Denise.
“That could be determined by phone records. But the phone records may have been thrown out. Well, if you’re the Chesapeake Police, you need only go, don’t you, to the C. & P. and say, ‘We’re with the police, we’re investigating a murder, and we want the phone records of Denise Edwards, and we want the phone records of Joseph St. Augustine. A simple matter. Not provided to you.
“Triton Towers—for the same reason, Chuckie and Mike decided they needed an alibi for the rest of Friday night and, well, better do it for Saturday night, too. And so they rush off to Triton Towers. They say they signed in. Right? Chesapeake Police—Did you go down there? Surely, you did? Surely, you did? What did you find when you got down there? You asked, ‘Let me see your books or your register sheet, your ledger.’ Do we see those signatures? Do we see those names? Where is it? No corroboration for their alibi.
“The guy who delivered the pizza. Anything? Anything? Nothing for Triton Towers.
“The Perrys,” he said, referring to the friends with whom Scott said he spent part of the night of Friday, May 5, after Pernell and Jeannie had left in her Nissan. “—Well, Wayne doesn’t even—Wayne had to think a little bit to remember the Perrys’ name. He didn’t know where they lived. And, so, obviously, we don’t have the Terrys here today.
“Now, the Chesapeake Police—Chesapeake indicted Wayne for the abduction, you understand that, and for the burglary. Now if we had—remember, Mrs. Perry said that she thought he got there at nine o’clock. Well, that would be a complete alibi for Wayne Scott, wouldn’t it? Now, the Perrys aren’t here but we went ahead and asked the Chesapeake fellow, ‘Well, what did they say?’ I could have objected and kept that out, but I wanted to hear. What did the Perrys have to say? Obviously, you have decided not to bring them here to say, ‘Yes, Wayne Scott did show up at eleven-thirty or eleven-fifteen. He did come here.’
“If what Joey tells us is true, then why was Pernell not even questioned that week? Why did no one even go to his house and say, ‘We have some questions to ask you’? He was at work each day. He was at home. Why not question him? Why not call him on the phone? Why wasn’t he arrested? You know, Joey is saying, ‘I told them that Pernell admitted murdering this girl.’ Why not arrest him for abduction, for breaking and entering? For any of those? For murder? You don’t need a body, not in this state.
“Then there’s other little things. It’d be nice to see photographs of the door. Big deal, I know, but isn’t that a reflection of what was not done in Chesapeake? No photographs of the door kicked in.
“How about a diagram of the house so when you talk about, ‘He went into these rooms,’ we could sketch it through the diagram so we could see on the diagram the driveway leading up to the garage, the driveway to the house, the corner where some of the witnesses say they stopped. Why not? Not much of a big deal except it kind of tells you something about what was and was not done by the Chesapeake folks and that means that you’re deprived of infor
mation that you need to make your choice and your decision.
“There is nothing either associated with the scene where the remains were found or in the car or in any of the evidence or in the house where the abduction took place that points to Pernell. There is no physical evidence that says, ‘Pernell did this.’
“There is no blood in that car. Now, according to the Commonwealth, she was shot in that car and she bled at least from the mouth. It doesn’t take too much imagination to know that there would have been blood all over that seat, all over that car. You can’t get blood out of upholstery. Try it.
“It all comes down to Wayne, Joey, Chuckie and Mike. Now, they’re lying…
“Do they have a motive to lie? They have the best motive in the world, because what I told you from day one is that there was this trip to Chesapeake and that it ended with this young girl’s death. Was it planned? Was it intended? Did it just happen? We’ll never know. We’ll never know where it happened—inside the house, on the ground. We’ll never know what else happened but it did happen and they were there.
“Murder is a motive for anyone to lie, so don’t be fooled that there was no motive to lie.”
Benjamin moved on to Stark’s contention that the memories of the people involved in the abduction and the attempts to dispose of Jeannie’s body had faded over the two years that had passed.
“Put yourself in the place of the two witnesses,” Benjamin challenged the jurors. “Put yourself kicking into a house, abducting a young woman, finding out they say she’s been murdered, burning her purse, picking up her body, which has lain on the ground for days, and taking her out to Amelia. Picture yourself pouring gasoline on her, setting her on fire.
“Oh, well, that’s two years ago so you’d forget some details.”
He paused for effect.
“You wouldn’t forget that,” he said, his voice rising. “Put yourself in their place, if you possibly can. Uh-uh. What happened that week is far, far different from anything else that happens to the rest of us two years ago.”
Deadly Goals Page 26
