by Dan Decker
It was also like he thought I had no experience.
“As I said, I’ll pass it on but I don’t know that he’s gonna take it. He’s innocent, so unless your gonna give him a slap on the wrist, I don’t think he’ll bite.”
“He’s not looking so innocent any longer is he? We’ve got lots of evidence.”
“All circumstantial. And you still don’t have a motive. As near as I can tell there is no reason why he would kill Gordon.” I almost added unless you want to argue to a jury that it was because Gordon didn’t do his dishes, but Frank did not have a sense of humor. If somebody had said that to me, I would have found it uproarious.
“Just because I haven’t told you the motive, it doesn’t mean we haven’t figured it out. Your client did this and he’s going away for a long time and then he will be executed at the end as the cherry on top. I suggest he considers this offer. It’s very generous.”
“It’s not. You could do far better, but it doesn’t matter, because he’s not gonna take it. Again, I’ll let him be the one to tell us that, but this kid smacks of innocence to me.”
“Then he’s fooled you and you need to find a new profession,” Frank was getting agitated and I couldn’t help but think it was because I was not responding how he wanted. “Maybe it’s time to consider a career change.”
Who found the weapon your guys missed?
“Thanks for the career advice,” I said dryly. “I’ll take it under advisement.”
“I am just trying to be helpful.” He sounded as if he did not pick up on my sarcasm.
“Thank you,” I said so politely that I hoped the message would finally get through.
“You have until five today. If I don’t hear from you, I will file the paperwork. The deal is off the table after that.”
“Got it, thanks.”
I pressed the button on the screen of my car to end the call. I was glad I had read the situation correctly. My prediction of twenty-five to life had been dead on. I still did not have any new disclosures from the prosecutor’s office, so it could be that the summer camp thing was all just puffery and there was not really anything there. Perhaps Frank was betting on the fact that my client would get afraid of the death penalty and take the deal.
My instincts still told me this was a bluff.
Bluffing was something I might have tried as a prosecutor, although I never had done anything as rash as this. I had not lasted long in the District Attorney’s office.
I called Timothy, got his voicemail, left him a message telling him about the offer, and then rolled into the parking lot of a Jimmy John’s.
A few minutes later I sat in the corner and ate lunch, trying to keep my mind off the case. It was a difficult thing to do because I kept thinking of various scenarios in which Barbara or Ron could have killed Gordon.
Had they done it together or had one of them hired a hitman?
If my client had been set up, it had been done so well that even I doubted his innocence.
I muttered a silent prayer, hoping Winston would turn up a significant connection.
What would happen if I did not get back to Frank Ward with an acceptance by 5:00 PM?
I would be willing to bet that the amended charges would never be filed and that we would be talking about different numbers this time tomorrow after his little bluff had fallen apart.
It was all speculation at this point, but it was insightful that Frank had not yet shared with me any information about this case from summer camp. Frank Ward was usually a straight shooter and I had never caught him in a lie, at least not a significant one.
It was a tough call.
There was a fair chance that if Timothy did not accept Frank’s offer, there would be amended charges tomorrow and Timothy’s name would be drug through the muck one more time for another murder. Something like that would be hard to come back from, even if he were acquitted of both. People tended to hear the bad news and form impressions around it. When the good news came out later, it hardly got the same attention.
My sandwich was excellent and helped distract me from the case, but all too soon I found myself cleaning off the table and heading back to the office.
Timothy was waiting when I arrived.
“Do you think I should take this? If it is really looking that bad, wouldn’t it be better to take this so I don’t get the chair?” He had a wild look in his eyes. I had not expected this type of reaction or else I would have made sure to deliver it in person to manage how he responded.
I looked over at Ellie who shrugged. I could tell by her exasperated look that he had been here for some time. Luckily, there was nobody else in the reception area to witness this little outburst.
I jerked my thumb towards my office and waited for Timothy to enter before shutting the door, making sure to be as gentle as possible so my anger was not apparent.
“You’ve got to calm down. If you want to negotiate a deal, I’m happy to do that. It’s your case. It’s your call. I’ll be surprised if you do, but the choice is yours.”
“I don’t want to die!”
“Nobody is saying that’s gonna happen, I think you have a good shot at getting through this.”
“A good shot is not a sure thing. If I have to choose between the electric chair and sitting in jail for the rest of my life, it’s not a hard choice.”
I gave him a hard look, before going to sit behind my desk. In times like this it was of the utmost importance to weigh each and every word and action. Sitting behind my desk while taking time to formulate a response could hopefully reset the meeting tone.
If I was not careful, he was going to spiral out of control.
An innocent man would not give up so easily.
I dismissed the thought, chiding myself for not being fair. It also was not relevant. I needed to be less concerned with his guilt and innocence and more concerned about how I could help him.
“You’re right, I can’t predict the future. One of the first things they teach in law school is to never guarantee any type of result to a client. I can’t tell you what you’re looking at if we go to trial. I cannot promise you a satisfactory result. All I can tell you are the facts on the ground as I understand them and how things could play out so you are in the best position possible to make an educated decision. You’ve been adamant you did not do this.”
“I didn’t, how many times do I have to tell you?”
I motioned for him to take a seat across from me, hoping that might calm him down.
“Frank Ward appears to be using a fear tactic, but it might be one that has teeth. I have not had a chance to fully investigate what happened at that summer camp.”
“My bunkmate died, that’s true enough. We all thought it was suicide, that’s what the cops told us at the time.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No, of course not, but they’re never going to believe that, are they?”
“Frank Ward is trying to smoke you out, he’s trying to get a deal here. Yes, they have some circumstantial evidence that points to nobody but you but they are not looking at any other suspects.”
I took a breath and made sure he was paying attention.
“That’s why we have to do what we’re doing. That’s why you and I had our little yelling match this morning, I was trying to explain how important it is we look at everybody around you to see if we can pin this on anybody else. We have to find more suspects. We have to obtain enough evidence that the police cannot ignore.” Now was definitely not a time to tell him about my past case where I had to go all the way to the judge to get them to pay attention, hopefully he had not heard about that incident while he had been working here.
Timothy ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know what to do. If we have to go to trial I may go crazy and end up in a loony bin anyways.”
I gave him an empathetic look, it was a sentiment I had heard from many clients during the course of my career.
“That is part of the reason why you
are afforded the right of a speedy trial, but—”
“Let’s get the show on the road then, shall we?”
“Hold your horses and let me finish. Oftentimes, it is far better to waive the right so we have more time to prepare. As your attorney, I recommend that’s what we do in this matter because we have a lot of ground to cover before we are likely to find somebody else to blame. Yes, it is really going to suck in the meantime, your future is at stake here and I get that, but it is only within the last few days, really only the last couple hours, that I’ve been able to come up with any suitable suspects.”
“Last few days? I told you about my father’s indiscretion this morning.”
I grimaced. “Timothy, I have a serious duty to you. I instructed the investigator to begin digging into your father last Friday. Over the weekend he found evidence of your father’s affair with Barbara.”
“You knew? You mean during our argument this morning you knew but you still drug it out of me? That is cold, man.”
“Of course, I knew and I would do it again. You’re too frazzled to understand what’s going on but I think this little display of emotion from you is Exhibit A for why you can’t help on the case.
“In my professional judgment it was absolutely necessary we find other suspects. After your outburst last Friday I knew that looking into your father was the right thing to do.”
“But you went against my wishes—”
“In your best interest, get over it. I’ll do it again if necessary. If you want an attorney who’s gonna do everything you say, there’s the door. You’ll easily find him. If you want an attorney who’s gonna give you the best representation he can, then let me do my job.”
Timothy looked across my desk and shook his head while muttering something I could not make out.
“I don’t like to waste my time,” I said. “Would you have volunteered the information about your father this morning if I had not been pushing for it?” I shook my head. “You and I both know that answer. It is lucky Winston turned this up, because we suddenly have a viable legal strategy, whereas before we had almost nothing. I was trying to get you to open up because there are other things you know that will be useful in your defense.
“When I called you in this morning I was bringing you in to talk about accepting a plea deal. If you’ll notice, I’m not pushing you to do that. I’m telling you that we still have road left to travel. There is much we still must do. If I had not gone against your wishes, it would have been a very different conversation.”
I held his gaze until he looked away.
“We can have that conversation, by all means let’s do, if you have decided you want to go to jail. If you know deep down that’s the decision for you, I will negotiate the best deal I can.”
I waited.
Timothy got up and started pacing. This made me a little antsy, as I had a statue at the back of the room that was quite hefty. If he were to throw it at me, it would hurt. I also didn’t want to lose the statue either.
Timothy looked ready to strangle somebody, huffing and puffing as he stamped. His nostrils flared and it looked like he wouldn’t be able to string together a coherent sentence if his life depended on it.
I studied his behavior, wondering if this is what happened to the bunkmate and Gordon.
It was several minutes before Timothy even looked at me. During the intervening time, he had clenched and unclenched his fists, all the while muttering under his breath. His actions made me reassess him as a person and a client.
It turns out he does have some of his father in him after all.
He finally looked at me. “We’ll take this a little further. Tell them no deal.”
Without waiting for a reply, he opened my door and was gone.
29
Jun 10 – 2:07 PM
I let Timothy go without trying to call after him. The anger I had seen was at odds with my initial impressions of the boy. There was a real chance he had done what he had been accused of doing. Somebody who was able to lose his temper like that could kill in a moment of passion.
Ellie stuck her head in the door. “Everything okay in here?”
“Never better,” I said with a forced smile.
“Let me know if you need anything.”
Once Ellie was gone, I pulled out my notepad and stared at it. I needed to call Frank and tell him there wasn’t going to be a deal but I had until 5:00 PM.
It was probably better to do it sooner, especially if he was gonna make another offer. If the capital punishment was all a ruse, he would do that hoping to convince my client to take something before he had to reveal his empty hand. At 5:00 PM when nothing was filed it would be obvious that this had all been a smokescreen.
I looked up again at the place where Timothy had been raging back and forth while he paced, wondering if Gordon had seen the same behavior shortly before Timothy had pulled out a pistol and blown out his brains.
I could see it.
I had Frank on the phone a few minutes later.
“Has your boy decided to take the offer?” Frank asked without so much as a salutation. He sounded a little nervous, so I took my time to respond.
“Timothy and I talked it over at length. He really feels that we’ll prove he’s innocent. All the evidence you guys have so far is circumstantial and you have no motive.”
Unless he lost his temper.
“I was afraid you were going to say that,” Frank said. Was it just my imagination or was there a note of panic in his voice now? Perhaps the guy had gotten in over his head. Maybe it would do me some favors down the road to lob him a bone. I thought about what I could say to put him at ease, but nothing came to mind.
I decided the best thing to do would be to show mercy on him when it became apparent that he had just been blowing smoke.
“Twenty to life,” Frank said. “Eligible for parole in fifteen.”
My instincts before Timothy’s outburst this afternoon would have been to say no, but now I wasn’t so sure Timothy shouldn’t consider this.
“I don’t think that would fly.”
I let my words hang so Frank could process them.
“I obviously can’t make promises for my client,” I continued a moment later, “but he is worried about the possibility of execution.” I said this last part primarily for Frank so he could save a little face, but he and I both knew exactly where things lay right now. “If you want to make an offer of Murder Two, five to ten, I’m happy to present that and see what he says.”
Frank paused and I could tell he was seriously considering it.
“How about fifteen to twenty, eligible for parole in seven? That’s my best and final offer.”
I was not surprised it came down so quick, it told me he had been blowing smoke about this death penalty charge. They had no intention of charging Timothy for the murder of his bunkmate.
If we did not get back to them, 5:00 PM would come and go and there would be no amended charges.
“I will take it to him.”
After I hung up I tapped my pen on my desk. He had come down too quick, but that had not been the only thing. He had not even mentioned the 5:00 PM deadline. I suspected that if I called up tomorrow morning and said we were ready to take the offer that it would still be on the table.
Timothy had been close to accepting an offer of twenty-five to life, even while he had still protested his innocence during the same conversation.
There was something more I needed to know.
I had represented innocent clients in the past and while some might have been tempted by an offer if capital punishment was on the table, I had a hard time seeing any of them turning down anything less than full exoneration.
“Does that mean Timothy did it?” I asked aloud to my empty office. “Or is there something else that he knows?”
That question puzzled me for the next half hour before I finally picked up the phone to tell Timothy about the new offer. This time, my call did not go to voicem
ail.
“Do you have a moment?” I asked
“What do you need?”
“They came back with twenty to life. You would be eligible for parole in fifteen.”
I held back the next offer because I wanted him to think about it. He had been on the verge of taking twenty-five to life before, so it seemed like a good idea to let him consider it. I might have a resolution to this case by the end of the afternoon, which would be surprising, but not unprecedented.
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
Timothy is giving this consideration. Frank Ward’s bluff might just work.
I shook my head, imagining Timothy losing his temper and killing Gordon in a moment of rage.
“Is that the best we can do?”
The question hit me like a bolt of lightning. What I had thought was going to be a protracted case was turning into a negotiation.
“Actually, it’s not. I talked to him down to fifteen to twenty, you’d be eligible for parole in seven years.”
“You mean I could be out in as soon as seven years?”
“Maybe, but I wouldn’t count on it.”
I don’t know, I just want to have this done and over with.”
“You think about it, but give me a call before 4:00 PM if you can. I don’t need an answer, I just want to know kind of where you’re at on things.”
“Because of the 5:00 o’clock deadline?”
“Frank didn’t mention it this time, but we should assume it is still in play. If you’re serious about doing a deal, now is the time to talk.”
“Okay.”
I paced back and forth after hanging up with him, trying to figure out if I had the right approach. Winston had come in with vital information and I still did not see a motive for Timothy to kill Gordon, his angry outburst notwithstanding.
Everything about this case bothered me.
I didn’t like the fact that I had read Timothy so wrong, but I chalked it up to my own emotions because of how much I liked the kid. I hated how Timothy had withheld vital information that could have helped us find leads much sooner. It bothered me that Frank Ward was playing games when he wasn’t holding the hand he claimed to have. There was just too much weird stuff going on in this case right now.