“The defense calls Gina Degrazio.”
I looked over at Gina. Showtime. I nodded at her, and she nodded back. She was about to commit perjury, and I was suborning it. I still wished that there was some other way around it, but there just wasn’t. At least, there wasn’t any way around it that didn’t involve implicating innocent people.
She was sworn in.
“Please state your name for the record,” I said.
“Gina Marie Degrazio.”
“Now, Ms. Degrazio, you are the wife of the deceased, Vittorio Degrazio, correct?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“And what kind of a relationship did you have with Mr. Degrazio?”
“It was a bad relationship. Very bad.”
“Why was it bad?”
“Vittorio, he wasn’t a good husband. He drank too much and played the ponies too much and played too much cards. He was always losin’ money, and then hitting the bottle, and then beating on me.”
At least this much was true. “So, he was an avid gambler and a heavy drinker and a violent man.”
“Yeah. But, you know, his job involved him being violent, too.”
“What was his job?”
“He was a mob enforcer for the Colombo crime family.”
“What does that mean? What did he do for the Colombo family?”
“He shook people down. If somebody owed the family something, and they didn’t pay, he beat them up to make them pay. He also went around and got more territory for the family by shaking down store owners to make them pay up too. If there was somebody spying from another family, he beat them up, too. He didn’t kill nobody for the mob, though. That was left to other guys.”
“So, he beat people up for a living.”
“Yeah, he did. Is it any wonder that he would beat on his wife, since he beat on perfect strangers all the time?”
“Did you call the police when there was a domestic disturbance?”
“Yeah. Three times I called, and three times a police officer would come out and talk to us.”
“But they never arrested Vittorio, though, right?”
“Right. They never arrested him.”
“Why didn’t they arrest him?”
“Because they know Vitty. They were afraid of him. They knew that if they arrested Vitty for beating on me, then Vinny Colombo would be paying them a visit. He didn’t like his men getting arrested for nothin’. That was why they never took Vitty downtown.”
“Now, let me take you back to February 18 of this year. Do you remember that day?”
“Yeah, I remember that day.”
“What happened that day?”
“Well, Vitty had been out all day at the boats.”
“By boats, you mean casinos, right?”
“Right. The boats. Anyhow, he had been at the boats all that day, and he got home about 6 o’clock. He was hungry like a bear, and he had been drinking all day at the boats, too. Well, I didn’t have supper ready, I was sleeping on the couch and I didn’t feel like cooking.”
“And then what happened?”
“Well, Vitty got real mad at me. Started screaming about how he expected dinner when he got home and I better start acting like a real wife or he was gonna do something to make me act like a real wife.”
“By real wife, what did he mean by that?”
“He meant that he wanted me to cook and clean. He wanted me to have dinner ready for him whenever he got home. I told him that he was being an ass, ‘cause I had no idea when he was coming home. It ain’t like he called me from the boats to tell me he was on his way or nothin’ like that.”
“And what happened when you said that to him?”
“He slapped me.”
“And what did you do after he slapped you?”
“I slapped him back. And so he hit me with a closed fist. He hit me in the chest.”
That was important that she said that he hit her in the chest, and not the face. If he hit her in the face, she probably would have had a bruise in the mug shot.
“He hit you in the chest?”
“Yeah. And then he pulled me by the hair and, when I was down on the ground, he took off his belt and wrapped it around my neck and pulled.”
“Were you able to get on your feet?”
“Yeah, I was.”
“And what did you do when you got to your feet?”
“Well, I struggled against him for several minutes. I almost passed out. But I remembered that I had a gun hidden in the drawer of the lamp stand. I was close to the lamp stand, so I opened up the drawer, got my gun and shot him.”
I got out a picture of her living room. “Here is the lamp stand, right?”
“Right.”
“And you took this picture of your living room, right?”
“Right.”
“And this picture is a fair and accurate representation of your living room?”
“Yeah.”
“I would like to mark this picture of Ms. Degrazio’s living room as Exhibit A.”
“Any objections?” Judge Reiner asked.
“None,” Ally said.
“It is so entered. Proceed, counselor,” Judge Reiner said to me.
“Okay, so you reached into the lamp stand’s drawer and got out your gun and shot him, right?”
“Right.”
“And he died instantly, right?”
“Yeah, right.”
“And you were arrested several days later, right?”
“Yeah. The cops traced the gun that was used in Vitty’s murder to me, and they arrested me.”
“Did you tell the cops that you shot him in self-defense?”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because you know, you always see on the movies that people get in trouble when they talk to the cops without a lawyer being around. I knew to ask for a lawyer right away.”
“And did you get a lawyer that night to accompany you in the interrogation room?”
“Yeah.”
“Was it a Public Defender?”
“Yeah. His name is Vern Reynolds.”
“And what did Vern tell you?”
“He told me not to talk to the cops.”
“I have nothing further.”
I sat down and Ally got to her feet and approached Gina. “Ms. Degrazio,” she began. “That was a likely story that you just told the jury. But it was all a lie, wasn’t it?”
“Nope. It happened just how I said it did.”
“Really? How big was Vittorio Degrazio?”
“He wasn’t very big. Only about 5’6” and weighed about a buck fifty.”
“So, he was strangling you and you were about to pass out, and you still managed to get into that drawer and get that gun?”
“Yeah.”
“And he allowed you to get that gun?”
“What do you mean, he allowed me?”
“I mean, he saw you reaching into that drawer, and he didn’t try to stop you?”
“No. He was drunk and out of his mind. Have you ever been around somebody who is so pissed that he doesn’t know who he is or where he is?”
“I’ll ask the questions, if you don’t mind.”
“Well, he had this look in his eye that told me that he wasn’t in reality no more. He didn’t even notice that I was reaching into that drawer until it was too late.”
“Did he know what you had in that drawer?”
“No.”
“Why is it that he didn’t know what you had in that drawer?”
“I never showed him.”
“And you didn’t keep the gun locked up?”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you keep the gun locked up?”
“There was no reason to. We never had any kids around the house or nothin’. Why would I lock it up? And I kept that gun for protection, if somebody broke into the house. I wouldn’t be able to get to the gun to use it on an intruder if it was locked up, now would I?”
> I smiled at Gina. She was holding up so well. Reciting just what I told her to say.
“Isn’t it true that you found out that the mobster, Francesco Veraldi, had placed a price on Vittorio’s head?”
“No, I didn’t know about that.”
“But you called Gianni Ricci and said that you were interested in that bounty.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Mr. Ricci testified that you did.”
“Mr. Ricci was lying, plain and simple.”
“He had no motive to lie.”
“Yes he did. You offered him immunity from prosecution if he lied about me. That was his motivation right there.”
I had to admit, Gina had Ally there.
“Isn’t it true that you owe another mobster, Joey Caruso, $1 million?”
“Yeah. Joey gave me a million dollars to open up a bunch of massage parlors, and they all went bust.”
“And isn’t it true that Joey was pressuring you to pay up because he needed that money to get his son out of trouble?”
“Yeah, that’s true. Joey went to prison for offing his old lady, so he don’t have no access to his money. Yeah, he needs me to pay him.”
“And how do you propose to pay him?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know yet.”
“You don’t know yet? Listen, I know what happens when a mobster tries to collect and he can’t. You’re going to be a dead woman walking if you don’t pay him.”
“I guess that’s right, yeah.”
“So, you had motive to kill your husband. You needed a million dollars, Francesco Veraldi was conveniently offering a million dollars, and you saw your way to pay your debt to Joey Caruso. So, you shot him and killed him and collected that million dollars. Admit it.”
“I won’t admit it, because that’s not how it happened.”
“Again, how do you plan on paying Joey?”
“I guess I’ll have to take a mortgage out on our home.”
“Your home is worth about $200,000, and it’s already mortgaged to the hilt.” Ally did her homework, unfortunately for me.
“Listen,” Gina said. “I’ve been out on the streets this whole time. I didn’t spend more than a day in jail. Joey still don’t have that million dollars I owe him. If I offed Vittorio for the money, then don’t you think that I would have already paid Joey?”
“How do I know that you didn’t pay Joey?”
“Because you know. I talked to Joey, and he said that you saw him and talked to him. You found out that I never paid him.”
“Move to strike as non-responsive,” Ally said.
“Actually, counselor, I think that her answer was very responsive to your question. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Motion to strike overruled.” Judge Reiner seemed amused that Ally boxed herself in her own corner.
At that point, Ally had Gina’s mug-shot photo in her hands. “Ms. Degrazio, please take a look at this picture. I would like to enter Gina Degrazio’s mug shot as Exhibit A,” Ally said to the judge.
“Any objections?”
“No, your honor.” I figured it wouldn’t do much good to object to entering the mug shot into evidence, so I didn’t even try.
“It is so entered.”
“Now,” Ally said, “please take a look at this picture of you that was taken at the police station when you were arrested. This is commonly known as a mug shot. Is this the picture that was taken of you on the day that you were arrested for Vittorio’s murder?”
“Yes, that is my mug shot,” Gina said, examining the picture. “That’s me.”
“Take a close look at the picture, please.”
Gina studied the picture and then handed it back to Ally. “Alright, I looked at it. So what about it?”
“I see that you were wearing a shirt that exposed your neck.”
“Yeah I was.”
“Do you see any marks on your neck?”
“No.”
“But you testified in court that Mr. Degrazio was strangling you with a belt at the time that you shot and killed him, right?”
“Yeah, that’s what I said.”
“Yet you didn’t have any marks on your neck in this picture.”
“Right. This picture was taken three days after I killed Vittorio. Three days.”
“I have nothing further.”
Ally sat down, glaring at me. I smiled back. I didn’t know how it was going to go – it did look bad, very bad, that Gina owed Joey so much money and apparently she didn’t have a way to pay it back. I knew that she did have a way to pay it back, but that could never come in, because that would give the whole game away. I knew that Ally might have drawn blood with that exchange.
I hoped that she didn’t.
One more witness came on the stand, and that was the expert I hired who testified that the belt ligature wouldn’t have made marks that would have lasted on Gina’s skin for two days. That was a formality at this point, and, in the big scheme of things, anti-climactic.
After that witness, I rested. I felt like I had put it all out on the table, and I hoped that I did enough.
I prayed that I did.
Nick’s life and future depended upon it.
Judge Reiner, after I rested and Ally informed the judge that she didn’t have any other evidence to present, informed the jury that it was time for closing arguments. It was time to pull everything together for the jury. I had to make it good, because these words were going to be the last thing that the jury would remember when they went into the deliberating room.
Ally started with her closing arguments. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you were just sold a bill of goods. A bill of goods. The defendant claimed that she was fearing for her life when she shot the victim, Vittorio Degrazio. She tried to show that was the case by bringing in officers who responded to calls regarding domestic disturbances at the home that she shared with Mr. Degrazio. Yet, none of those officers made an arrest. None of them. You heard that the defendant desperately needed money, because she owes a powerful mobster, Joey Caruso, one million dollars. You heard that another mobster, Francesco Veraldi, placed a bounty on Vittorio Degrazio’s head, a bounty of, you guessed it, one million dollars. Therefore, the defendant, Ms. Degrazio, had a powerful motive to kill Mr. Degrazio. She needed to kill him so that she could collect the bounty for killing Mr. Degrazio, so that she could, in turn, pay the money that she owed to Joey Caruso.”
“And that’s exactly what happened. She killed her husband for the money. Granted, she needed that money, because if she didn’t get it, she wasn’t going to live another month. That doesn’t excuse what she did, however. That doesn’t excuse it at all.”
“Now, let’s say for the sake of argument that Mr. and Mrs. Degrazio actually did have a tumultuous and abusive relationship. Let’s just say that Mr. Degrazio actually did beat on the defendant. If that were true, then the defendant had another motive to kill her husband. So, if you choose to believe that Gina Degrazio was being beaten by Vittorio Degrazio, that doesn’t mean that Ms. Degrazio’s self-defense story becomes more plausible. On the contrary, it becomes even less plausible. It just gives her one more motive to kill Mr. Degrazio.”
“I remind you of the testimony of Gianni Ricci. He testified on the stand that he told Ms. Degrazio about the bounty on her husband’s head, and that she could collect it if she killed her husband, and she told him ‘consider it done.’ I remind you of the testimony of Enzo Degrazio, Vittorio’s identical twin brother. He said that Gina told him that she was going to kill Vittorio Degrazio, because she had found out that a mobster had put a bounty on Vittorio’s head and she quote ‘wanted in on that action’ unquote.”
“There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Two different witnesses, both with the same story. Gina Degrazio killed her husband for the money. That’s what happened, ladies and gentlemen. Don’t believe the story about self-defense. That’s all smoke and mirrors. Focus on what these witnesses are saying. Focus on what they are saying. Than
k you very much.”
I stood up when Ally sat down, and I approached the jury. I went over to the jury box and leaned down on the railing that separated me from them. I looked each person in the eye and then exaggeratedly sighed and shook my head. “I can’t even,” I said, motioning to Ally. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I don’t know about you, but I can see that everything Ms. Hughes just told you is a bald-faced lie. I mean, look at the witnesses she brought on the stand to testify against my client. You have Enzo Degrazio, Vittorio’s brother, who testified that Gina wanted in on the action, as he put it, the action being a mobster putting a price on Vittorio Degrazio’s head. And you heard him, ladies and gentlemen, he did nothing about that. Nothing!” I slapped my hand on the rail. “This is the same guy who was kissing his crucifix and talking about how much he misses his brother. How much he carries his brother around in his heart. Yet, I asked him what he did when he found out that his brother had a price on his head and that Gina Degrazio was ready to collect that price, and that Gina Degrazio told him that she was going to collect, and he’s all like ‘oh, well.’” I shook my head. “If somebody put a price on your loved one’s head and somebody else is saying that she wants to collect that price and kill your loved one, would you just shrug your shoulders and go on with your lives? Would you?”
“No, you wouldn’t. Any normal person wouldn’t. Yet, Enzo, if his testimony is to be believed, did just that. He said that he thought that Gina wasn’t serious, but he certainly didn’t try to find out if she was serious, did he?”
“So, that was one of Ms. Hughes’ star witnesses. The other one was Gianni Ricci, and he was a real piece of work, too. You heard him. He was involved in carrying out the bounty on Vittorio’s head, and he received immunity in exchange for his testimony against Gina. He just got his get out of jail free card, and all he had to do was come in here and throw my client under the bus. That’s all he had to do, ladies and gentlemen. That’s a sweet, sweet deal, so of course he’s going to come in here and lie about Ms. Degrazio. Of course he is. I’m quite sure that Ms. Hughes offered him that deal and he jumped all over it, and I don’t blame him. I don’t blame him.”
“What other evidence did the state provide to show that my client killed her husband for the money? None. She only provided those two witnesses, Gianni and Enzo, and they both came off looking like the lying weasels they both are. Now, she tried to break down my client, asking her how it was she was going to pay back Joey Caruso, a mobster that she admittedly owes a lot of money to, and my client truthfully admitted that she didn’t know. I fear for my client’s life, because she really doesn’t know how she is going to pay back Joey Caruso. I fear for her, because, as she said on the stand, Joey hasn’t received that money that she owes him. He hasn’t received that money, and, as my client established, Ms. Hughes knows that Joey hasn’t received that money yet.”
[Damien Harrington 01.0] The Alibi Page 20
