The jury was comprised of seven women and five men. Six jurors were African American, three were white, two were Hispanic, and one was Asian. Brandon McCarthy was African American and was the most educated member of the jury.
Kate pointed to his name on her spreadsheet. “Alex, I hope to hell you’re right about him, because God help you if you’re wrong.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Good afternoon,” Patrick Ortiz said to the jury, beginning his opening statement by eliciting another round of head nods and smiles. “This is my chance to talk to you about this case and tell you what happened and how we got here. When I’m done, the defendant’s lawyer will get the same chance. And then you’ll hear from the witnesses and you’ll get to see the exhibits, and then I’ll come back and talk to you again, as will defense counsel, and after all that we’ll turn the case over to you for your verdict. So here’s what happened and how we got here.
“The defendant is a lawyer, a public defender whose job is to represent people charged with crimes who can’t afford to hire an attorney. It’s a thankless job with long hours and lousy pay. In fact, it’s one of the worst jobs a lawyer can have unless that lawyer is so passionate about seeing justice done according to the law and so compassionate for those who are too poor to pay for a lawyer that the long hours and lousy pay are more blessing than curse. That kind of lawyer will never find a better job.
“Last year, the defendant was assigned to represent a man named Dwayne Reed. Mr. Reed was accused of murdering a man named Wilfred Donaire. The defendant accomplished something that a public defender almost never does in a case like that. She won, and Mr. Reed walked out of the courthouse a free man.
“A little more than six weeks later, the defendant shot Dwayne Reed to death in his mother’s living room. This case is about how the defendant went from being Dwayne’s savior to being his executioner. It’s about how guilt, revenge, and anger can change someone from being an officer of the court to being a murderer.
“The defendant’s transformation began the day Dwayne Reed was acquitted. He called the defendant late that night to tell her he’d been arrested and to ask her to come downtown to police headquarters.
“When she arrived, the arresting officer, a homicide detective named Hank Rossi, released Mr. Reed, and the two of them left together. Detective Rossi followed them to the street and watched them talking to each other from a distance too far away to hear what they were saying. As soon as Mr. Reed left, the defendant threw up in the street.
“The next day, for the first time in her life and without telling anyone, she bought a gun and applied for a permit to carry it as a concealed weapon. She joined a shooting range called the Bullet Hole, where she practiced several times a week, lying to Bonnie Long, her girlfriend, with whom she was living, telling her that she was working late.
“During the Wilfred Donaire trial, a man named Jameer Henderson testified against Mr. Reed. His testimony may have been enough to convict Mr. Reed, but when the defendant cross-examined Mr. Henderson, he took it all back and claimed that another man named Kyrie Chapman had forced him to lie on the witness stand.
“After the trial, the defendant became very concerned that Mr. Reed would seek revenge against Mr. Henderson and his family. She was so worried that she drove up and down the Hendersons’ street practically every day to make certain they were okay.
“Six weeks later, Jameer Henderson, his wife and two children, and Kyrie Chapman were murdered. When Detective Rossi sought to question Mr. Reed about the murders, Mr. Reed ran away and cut his leg open while trying to climb over a chain-link fence.
“Detective Rossi caught up to him and the police took Mr. Reed to Truman Medical Center for treatment of his leg wound. In one of those small-world coincidences, it turns out that the defendant’s girlfriend, Bonnie Long, is an emergency room doctor at Truman, and she ended up taking care of Mr. Reed. Dr. Long recognized him from what the defendant had told her about his trial and her concerns for the Hendersons’ safety.
“While Dr. Long was sewing up Mr. Reed, he threatened her. In the presence of two police officers, he said that he would find her at home and rape her. Needless to say, Dr. Long was very frightened and upset by Reed’s threats, as was the defendant after Dr. Long told her what had happened.
“Mr. Reed wasn’t arrested for the Henderson and Chapman murders, but he was arrested for drug possession when the police found crack cocaine in his jeans pocket. The defendant represented Mr. Reed on the drug charge even though she knew he had threatened her lover.
“Mr. Reed was too poor to afford a lawyer, so there’s a good chance he would’ve had to stay in jail if the judge required him to post a bond. But the defendant convinced the judge to release Mr. Reed without making him put up any bail. A few hours later, she gunned him down.
“There are three people who know what happened in the living room where Mr. Reed died. The first person is Dwayne Reed, and he can’t tell us what happened because he’s dead. The second person is the defendant, and the third person is Mr. Reed’s mother, Odyessy Shelburne.
“We know what she will say because she gave a statement to the police immediately after the shooting. She will tell you that she was there when the defendant came into her house. She was there when the defendant confronted her son and began screaming at him, and she was there when the defendant shot her son twice in the chest. She was there when her son pulled his gun in an effort to defend himself and fired a shot into the living room ceiling as he fell to the floor. And she was there when she knelt beside her son and cradled his head in her arms as he died.
“Why did the defendant murder her client? What happened? The evidence will be that after Mr. Reed was acquitted of murdering Wilfred Donaire, he admitted to the defendant that he was, in fact, guilty and that he threatened her if she told anyone. Guilt ridden and angry that she had helped her client get away with murder, and frightened for herself and for the Henderson family, she decided to kill Mr. Reed.
“She spent six weeks planning the murder. She bought a gun, learned how to use it, and lied to her lover to keep these acts a secret. When her worst fears for the Henderson family came true and when Mr. Reed threatened Dr. Long, the defendant couldn’t wait any longer.
“She made sure Mr. Reed got out of jail, then tracked him to his mother’s house and fired two shots into his chest from close range. She used a gun she was carrying in her jacket pocket. She fired the gun while it was still in her pocket, hiding it so Mr. Reed couldn’t see it or have a chance to defend himself. It was like she snuck up on him in plain sight.
“Alex Stone murdered Mr. Reed to avenge the deaths of Wilfred Donaire, Kyrie Chapman, and Jameer Henderson and his wife and two children and to silence Mr. Reed’s threats toward her girlfriend.
“Instead of upholding the law and protecting the rights of the accused, she broke the law and trampled on her client’s rights. Instead of trusting the criminal justice system she was sworn to uphold, she became a vigilante. And instead of letting the police protect her girlfriend, she murdered Dwayne Reed. That’s what happened, and that’s why we are here.”
Claire took a moment, studying the jury as Ortiz took his seat, their eyes following him before finding her, waiting for her to take center stage. She knew that people believed what they heard first and remembered what they heard last. Belief was better, because once the jury became anchored to a belief, it would be difficult to move them, even in the face of contradictory evidence. Memory was powerful but more subjective and malleable, but in that moment, she wanted to give them a lasting impression. She rose, taking her place in front of the lectern, closing the distance between her and the jury.