wasn't going to print Kendra's name. He agreed, reminding me that the
Oregonian was one of the few papers that had not abandoned its policy
of withholding information about the victims of sexual offenses after
the William
Kennedy Smith rape allegation triggered sensationalist paper-selling
headlines.
I gave Dan a few canned quotes about the trial and also plugged DVD as
an aggressive, proactive unit working to prevent girls from entering
the world of prostitution and to arrest and prosecute the adults who
lure them into it.
When it was time for opening statements, I delivered mine from memory,
without notes.
"Good morning. In case you don't remember, my name is Samantha
Kincaid, and I'm a deputy district attorney for Multnomah County. I
represent the State of Oregon.
"I want to start this morning by thanking you for your candor when we
spoke yesterday during the jury selection process. It is because of
your honesty during that process that the twelve of you have been
chosen to hear this case. And I am thanking you ahead of time, because
I think you will find the next week or so to be a difficult one. It
will be difficult because the process changes now. We don't get to
talk to each other like normal people, the way we did yesterday. You
are now jurors, and the rules of our trial system require a formality
unlike any other setting in our society. You are entrusted with a
profoundly important decision, but the rules require you to sit here
passively, listening, without asking questions or even talking to one
another about the case until all the evidence is closed and you begin
your deliberations. I do not envy your task, but I promise to do my
best to anticipate the issues you might find most important and to
focus on them.
"But I think you will find this week to be difficult for reasons other
than those faced by any person fulfilling a citizen's responsibilities
as a juror. You face an especially daunting task because this
particular trial will force you to focus on the sadistic acts of the
man sitting over here, Frank Derringer."
I had their attention now. A few of them shifted in their chairs to
move forward.
"You are going to hear facts about what Frank Derringer did to a
thirteen-year-old girl named Kendra Martin the kind of facts that most
people go a lifetime without ever having to contemplate. This man" I
pointed to Derringer "pulled Kendra Martin from the street, dragged her
into a car driven by an accomplice, and drove her to an isolated
parking lot with every intention of beating and raping her. And as he
brutalized her face and body with his fists and forced her legs apart
to take him, something happened that made Frank Derringer's already
horrific violence escalate and turned this crime into something I wish
I didn't have to tell you about.
"At the pivotal moment when Kendra Martin thought the defendant was
going to force himself inside of her, the defendant found himself
flaccid, unable to fulfill his intentions. So Frank Derringer found a
different way to take out his rage against the scared thirteen-year-old
girl who was pinned beneath him in the backseat of his car. He took a
stick and rammed it repeatedly between Kendra Martin's buttocks. From
the degree of tearing, doctors estimate that the stick was at least an
inch and a half in diameter. They know it was made out of wood,
because they found splinters inside Kendra Martin's anus. And when
Kendra lay bleeding from the defendant's torture, Frank Derringer still
didn't stop.
"The defendant told his accomplice to do what he couldn't do himself
and then watched while this second man raped and then sodomized Kendra
Martin, now barely conscious. And when the whole thing was over, these
two men drove
Kendra to the Columbia Gorge and dumped her like a bag of garbage to
die.
"You're going to learn that Kendra Martin hasn't lived the kind of life
that most thirteen-year-old girls get to live. She's going to get on
the witness stand and tell you very personal facts about her home life
and her background. And she'll tell you that she's not proud to admit
that when the defendant kidnaped, raped, and sodomized her and then
left her to die, she was a runaway girl engaging in prostitution to
support a growing heroin addiction. She'll also tell you that she
initially tried to tell the police what Frank Derringer did to her
without admitting her own troubles.
"But I believe that when she explains to you why she initially withheld
some information from police, you will understand. You will also
understand, and you'll determine from the rest of the evidence and from
your own common sense, that Kendra Martin did not deserve what Frank
Derringer did to her. She never consented to be tortured and left to
die near Multnomah Falls.
"You will hear evidence that Frank Derringer plotted this crime in
advance and then took extraordinary steps to avoid detection." I gave
them a detailed preview of the evidence that Derringer had shaved his
pubic hair during the days before the attack and then painted his car
and replaced its interior the next day.
"You'll also hear from Detective Mike Calabrese. He'll tell you that
he found Kendra Martin's purse in a trash can about a mile away from
where the defendant and his accomplice dumped Kendra to die. An expert
in fingerprint technology with years of training in this type of
evidence will testify that a fingerprint left on the strap of the purse
belongs to Frank Derringer."
I paused and looked across at the face of each juror to make sure that
the jury realized the impact of the fingerprint evidence.
"After you've heard from all these witnesses and experts, I'll have a
chance to talk to you once again. At that time, I think you'll find
that the State's evidence is going to measure up to the strong case
I've outlined for you here. And based on that evidence, I'm going to
ask you to return verdicts of guilty on all counts. I'm confident that
once you hear the horrendous facts of this case, and the overwhelming
evidence establishing Frank Derringer's culpability, returning that
verdict will be the easiest part of this entire trial for you."
Legal strategists say that jurors make up their minds about a case by
the end of opening statements. At the end of mine, I felt like I had
them. I took my seat at the state's counsel table, closest to the jury
box.
When Lesh nodded to Lopez to indicate she should proceed, she rose from
her chair, put her hands on Derringer's shoulders, and said, "Members
of the jury, Frank Derringer would like nothing more than for you to
hear the truth about what happened in this case right now, because he
is an innocent man who wants to go home. But, your honor, as his
attorney, I have decided to withhold my opening statement until the