Q: Mr. Howell, with your permission, I’d like to go over some of the things you told Detective Saphier. To make sure we’ve got them right.
A: Sure.
Q: You told Detective Saphier, did you not, that on the night of August thirteenth, you drove a rented automobile to so-called Little Asia and ambushed and murdered three Vietnamese men named… Pat, have you got those names, please?
A: (from Ms. Demming) Yes, Mr. Bannister, right here.
Q: Let’s see now. that would be… Ho Dao Bat… and Ngo Long Khai… I’m not sure I’m pronouncing these correctly… and Dang Van Con? Are those the men you say you murdered?
A: Not in that order.
Q: Pardon?
A: Ho was last.
Q: Mr. Howell, perhaps it would be helpful to go over the events of that night chronologically. I’m still talking about August thirteenth, the night these three men were murdered.
A: Where do you want me to start?
Q: You told Detective Saphier that you called the Riverview Marina…
A: Yes.
Q: And identified yourself as Stephen Leeds…
A: Yes.
Q: And spoke to a man named Charles Stubbs…
A: Yes.
Q: At approximately nine o’clock that night.
A: Yes. To tell him I’d be taking the boat out.
Q: Where’d you make this call from?
A: My apartment.
Q: What’d you do then?
A: I waited for Jessie’s call.
Q: By Jessie, do you mean Jessica Leeds?
A: Yes.
Q: What was the nature of her call?
A: She told me it was okay to come on over.
Q: Come on over where?
A: The farm.
Q: Do you mean the Leeds farm?
A: Yes.
Q: What did you do after you received her call?
A: I drove out there.
Q: Why did you go there?
A: To pick up some things.
Q: What things?
A: Jessie’s car, for one. The Maserati.
Q: What else did you pick up?
A: Her husband’s jacket and hat.
Q: Stephen Leeds?
A: Yes.
Q: Anything else?
A: The boat keys. And his wallet.
Q: Whose wallet?
A: Her husband’s.
Q: Did you go into the Leeds house to pick up all these items?
A: Not the car. The car was parked outside.
Q: Why are you smiling, Mr. Howell?
A: Well, the car couldn’t be in the house, could it?
Q: You find that amusing, do you?
A: Yes. That you asked if I had to go in the house for the car.
Q: How about the other items? The jacket and hat, the wallet, the…
A: Yes.
Q: You went into the house to gather those, did you?
A: Yes.
Q: Where were Mr. and Mrs. Leeds while you were doing all this?
A: Jessie was helping me. Her husband was asleep in the bedroom.
Q: Asleep all the while you were in the house?
A: Asleep till sometime the next morning.
Q: Mr. Howell, did you tell Detective Saphier that you knew Mr. Leeds would be asleep because his wife had administered sleeping pills to him?
A: Two pills. In his drink. They were having an after-dinner drink when the movie started. She called me the minute he went off.
Q: Would you know what kind of pills these were? The name of the drug?
A: They were prescription pills. That’s all I know about them.
Q: Which movie are you referring to?
A: A rented movie. They were watching it after dinner.
Q: So Mr. Leeds was asleep when you got there…
A: Yes.
Q: What time was that?
A: About ten o’clock.
Q: Was he asleep when you left the farm?
A: Yes.
Q: How did you leave the farm?
A: In Jessie’s car.
Q: The Maserati.
A: Yes.
Q: You left your car there?
A: In the garage.
Q: What time was it when you left the farm?
A: About ten after ten.
Q: Where did you go then?
A: To the Riverview Marina. On Willowbee Creek.
Q: Why did you go there?
A: To take out the boat. I was wearing his jacket and hat…
Q: Mr. Leeds’s jacket and hat?
A: Yes. I was hoping whoever saw me taking the boat out would think it was him. That was the plan. To have people see me and think it was him. Because I’d called ahead, you see. We’re about the same size, you see. He’s a bit heavier, but basically we’re the same size.
Q: When you say ‘That was the plan’… whose plan do you mean?
A: Jessie’s. And mine. Our plan.
Q: To be mistaken for Stephen Leeds?
A: Yes. That was the whole idea. That was why I went to all the trouble of calling the marina and telling them I’d be taking the boat out, and then wearing his clothes, you know, and dropping his wallet where it was sure to be found. That was all part of the plan.
Q: When did you concoct this plan?
A: Monday morning.
Q: Monday morning? The day of the murders?
A: Yeah. That’s my day off. Monday.
Q: Why are you grinning now, Mr. Howell?
A: I just think it was a good plan to have thought up on the spur of the moment like that.
Q: You’re saying that you sat down with Mrs. Leeds on Monday morning.
A: We were in bed, actually.
Q: I see.
A: Mondays were when we usually got together.
Q: I see. And you figured out…
A: Yeah, all of it. The whole plan. Two birds with one stone.
Q: What do you mean by that?
A: Get the gooks who raped her, and get rid of her husband at the same time.
Q: So you drove to the marina in Mrs. Leeds’s car…
A: Yeah, that was part of it, too. To make sure somebody saw the car.
Q: Wearing Mr. Leeds’s jacket and hat.