Bitter Remains

by Diane Fanning

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Do you recall telling Ms. Haywood that you had taken Laura’s body out to the boat to dump in the creek in hopes that the alligators would eat it and that the alligators were at the other end?”

  “No, ma’am, I didn’t tell her that.”

  “Do you recall telling her that your sister called the police?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “You believed for a time that your sister called the police, didn’t you?”

  “I was upset at my sister . . . because I lost my baby and I felt my sister had something to do with me losing my baby.”

  “Did you believe your sister called the police?”

  “I believed my sister had spoke to the police, that’s correct.”

  “And you were upset with her for doing that, weren’t you?”

  “I was upset—yes, I was.”

  “You were also upset at Sha for turning over ‘Broomstick Rider,’ weren’t you?”

  “I wouldn’t say I was upset with her over that. I was upset because I wanted her to try to stay out of it. I was just trying to protect her.”

  Holt then brought up another inmate, Michelle Clark, and Amanda also denied speaking to her about the events, too. “So it’s your testimony today that you never told Michelle Clark that Grant Hayes stabbed Laura to death and cut her up and put her into coolers?”

  “No, ma’am, I did not.”

  “And it’s your testimony here today that they—meaning you and Grant—loaded up the coolers and went to Texas?”

  “I never told her that—ever.”

  “And finally, you don’t recall telling her that you were there when Grant did the dumping and it was stinking, it made your stomach roll and you were wearing gloves when you did it?”

  “Again, I never had a conversation with Michelle Clark about my case in any shape, form or fashion,” Amanda insisted.

  Holt went through questions about what the two other inmates said Amanda told them, and got denials on each detail. Then Holt asked, “Miss Hayes, you loved little Grant and Gentle, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I still do.”

  “And you wanted them as part of your life. You wanted them as a family so you could travel the world.”

  “I loved to travel. I traveled all my entire life since I was a little kid so, yes, I loved to travel. I married Grant Hayes and so I knew that Grant and Gentle would be part of my life,” she said, adding that, “Yes, so I would like them to be able to travel, too. That doesn’t mean I was trying to eliminate or take them away from their mother in any shape, form or fashion.”

  On re-direct, Amanda’s lawyer Johnny Gaskins asked about Grant’s variety show in New York and then jumped to asking about Grant telling Amanda that Laura did not want to go to the hospital, then delved into the origin of the bleach stain. Amanda said that the kids had knocked over the bucket that Grant used to clean the carpet and caused that discoloration by the door.

  Gaskins then covered much of the same territory that he had during direct, over the objections of the prosecution, and wrapped up with a few repetitive questions about the boat.

  Holt plunged into that topic herself. “Mr. Gaskins just asked you about the boat and what was happening on the boat. What you testified was, ‘I knew what Grant was doing’?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “But that’s not what you said yesterday. You said you were in your own little world, listening to the animals and looking towards the back of the boat, bailing out or having no idea what was in the boat and having no idea what Grant was doing?”

  A hard expression crept across Amanda’s face. “I knew what he was doing—that is correct.”

  “Tell the jury what he was doing right now.”

  Amanda’s voice turned harsh and sounded angry. “I’m sure that they just heard me. I knew what he was doing.”

  “I didn’t,” Holt pushed. “What was he doing?”

  “He was getting rid of Laura’s body,” Amanda said, her voice strained as she struggled to control her features.

  “Okay. How was he doing that?”

  “I am assuming he was putting it in the water.”

  “Okay. Could you hear the splash as her head went into the water?”

  “Again, I heard lots of things. I heard splashing noises. I heard animals. I heard lots of animals.”

  “What kind of animals did you hear?”

  “I don’t know what kind of animals they were. I have no idea.”

  “So, what you recall about the boat trip is that there were splashing noises and there were animals and you were bailing out the boat.”

  “Yes, that’s correct, and I was trying to keep the boat from going into the grassy areas.”

  “And why was that?”

  “Because I didn’t know what was in those grassy areas.”

  “So during the time you were out in the boat, knowing that Grant Hayes is taking Laura Ackerson—the pieces of her body—and throwing them into the water, what you’re concerned about is your personal safety and the animals that are in the water?”

  Amanda regained control of her demeanor and again spoke in the voice of a little, innocent girl. “I am concerned about my safety. I am afraid he’s going to tip the boat over, we’re going into the water—I’m afraid of a lot of things. I don’t think you can imagine the kind of fear I was under. I honestly don’t think you can imagine.”

  “The fear that you were under was that the boat would tip over and the animals would . . .”

  “I had lots and lots of fear.”

  “Thank you,” Holt said with disgust dripping off each word. “I don’t have any more questions.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  THE thirteenth and final day of testimony began on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2014, with the state wanting to introduce new evidence. They had received a fax that morning from Grant Hayes Jr. consisting of three letters that Amanda Hayes had written to Grant Hayes III and mailed to Patsy Hayes for her to read over the telephone to her imprisoned son. Mr. Hayes said that he’d sent them to the district attorney’s office to set the record straight after he heard that Amanda claimed to be frightened by his son and in fear for her life. The state wanted to introduce them as evidence using Detective Jerry Faulk on the stand.

  Defense attorney Rosemary Godwin presented the objection to admission on two grounds: that it was hearsay evidence and that, since they had given advance notice of presenting a duress defense, the state had had two years to find and secure the correspondence.

  After some argument, the judge ruled that the letters were not admissible in the manner that the state wanted to present them, as rebuttal evidence. The only way they would be admissible would be if Patsy Hayes took the stand herself and explained to the jury how she’d received them and what she did after they arrived. At that point, the prosecution started to scramble. Assistant District Attorney Boz Zellinger stepped away from the table as the defense again objected—this time on the grounds of late discovery.

  “I am very aware of late discovery with no notice,” Judge Stephens said, adding, “I note your objection and understand it, but that would not preclude the evidence if it is offered in some lawful way, as the rules permit.”

  By this point, Zellinger had made a hurried return to the table. The judge asked, “Does the state intend to offer this evidence in any manner than the one you first described?”

  “Yes, the state intends to offer this evidence not through Detective Faulk but via Patsy Hayes.”

  Judge Stephens told the defense counsel that, after they presented their next witness, he would grant them time for any needed discussion to determine if they had any further relevant testimony to offer on this evidence or if they possessed any other newly discovered material before they rested their case.

  A
lthough the state now wasn’t going to use Detective Faulk, the defense had plans for him. They called him back to the stand so that he could present the last hour of the videotape of Grant Hayes in the interview room the night of his arrest.

  It was an odd thing to watch. Grant was alone but talking as if he were having a conversation with someone sitting across the table in the empty chair, occasionally chuckling as if his invisible friend had made an amusing comment. He rambled on about the music business, engaged in a philosophical discourse that had references to Cro-Magnon man, metaphysics, asteroids, and the government.

  At one point, he sang Johnny Cash’s song, “The Long Black Veil.” He also napped, stretched out on the length of the table. At other times, he closed his eyes and rested his head on his arm—still talking away as if answering questions from someone who wasn’t there.

  On cross-examination, Zellinger asked Faulk if anything in that last hour was relevant to the investigation, and Faulk replied no.

  “Have you ever had a defendant use an insanity defense in one of your cases?” Zellinger asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And can a video like that be used by someone attempting to use an insanity defense?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Zellinger elicited testimony that the camera was obvious and not hidden, that Patsy Hayes didn’t know the address of Grant and Amanda’s apartment, and that there were no cell phone tower pings in Kinston at the time the defense claimed Grant had been there dismembering Laura’s body, all to establish the lack of complicity on the part of the elder Hayes couple and to undermine the defense theory that Grant had taken the body to one of their properties. Since Amanda had told her daughter and her sister that she’d kept her phone off to preserve the power, he asked the detective if he’d heard Amanda testify that her phone had been on all the way to Texas.

  “Yes,” Faulk said and looked over the record of the cell report handed to him by the prosecutor to verify his answer.

  “Did you hear Amanda testify that she was hit on the leg with a machete?”

  “I did.”

  Zellinger produced several photos of Amanda Hayes taken on July 25 and asked, “Do you see any damage to Mrs. Hayes’s legs whatsoever?”

  “None.”

  —

  THE state called its first rebuttal witness, Patricia Barakat, who had been in the Wake County jail awaiting trial on embezzlement charges. Beginning in May 2012, she said that she saw Amanda nearly every day. She said she was a trustee, a position with benefits that nonviolent inmates can earn through good behavior, and Amanda seemed to be the only intelligent person in there. “We connected.”

  When Becky Holt asked her about what Amanda had said about Laura Ackerson, Patricia replied, “That they hated her, that she was a liar.”

  “And when you say ‘they hated her,’ who was she referring to?”

  “Her and her husband Grant.”

  When asked why, Patricia said, “She had told me that Laura didn’t care for the kids, that she was only trying to use the boys to extort the money from Grant. She didn’t really love the boys.”

  When asked if she knew of Amanda’s feelings for Laura’s children, Patricia said, “Oh, she loved them boys—she loved them like they were her own.”

  “During the course of the conversations you had with Amanda Hayes, did she talk to you about Grant Hayes, her husband?”

  “Yeah, she loved Grant very much . . . and she missed him.”

  “During the course of the time that you spoke with Amanda Hayes, did she provide you with information about Laura’s death?”

  “Yes,” Patricia said. “We were talking about it every now and then—little bits and pieces. . . . Amanda really didn’t come out with everything at once. She . . . had to feel me out, I guess. She had to know that she could trust me.” Patricia then talked about the environment in lockup and how some people will befriend an inmate for the sole purpose of using her or getting information from her to help themselves, and mentioned that she’d cautioned Amanda about some of those types.

  Holt asked about the circumstances under which Amanda had first spoken to Patricia about the night Laura was killed. Patricia said they were in the recreation area, a sunny room where inmates could get away from others.

  “What did she tell you?”

  “She said that Laura was supposed to bring the boys to the apartment and they were supposed to meet. And Laura was all late on her behalf of them meetings and so that—oh, this is too much for me.” Patricia took a deep breath. “They had both decided they were no longer going to bring the kids to Laura that Laura would have to bring the kids to them,” because Laura was always late.

  “What did Amanda indicate to you happened when Laura got to the apartment?” Holt prompted. “What did she tell you?”

  “She said that she was in the room with Lily in her arms and that Laura had come in and asked her if she could hold Lily. Amanda said no. Amanda—now she told me two different things,” Patricia said. “She said that she said no and she yelled for Grant, and Grant and Amanda struggled. They knocked into the wall, the chair fell over, Laura was on the floor.”

  “And that initial time, did she tell you that Amanda had yelled out that Laura was going to kidnap the baby?”

  “Yes. . . . She said Grant knocked her to the floor and Grant was over Laura, and Grant looked at her and said—and Laura was not moving—and Grant looked at her and said, ‘She’s dead.’”

  “And did she indicate she was standing there the entire time?”

  “Yes.”

  “And did she indicate that she knew Laura was dead?”

  “Yes. . . . She went to the back bedroom where the boys were. And she was supposed to call Sha to come pick up the boys and she was going to leave with Lily. . . . She got more detailed the second time she told me.” Patricia told the story again, this time relating the newly revised “Laura tripped and fell into me” version.

  “Did she tell you the second time what happened after that?” Holt asked.

  “She said—well, this was when Grant was over the body and looked up and told her that Laura was dead—and I asked her, ‘How did that make you feel?’ And she said, it didn’t make her feel anything—she felt nothing. Then she went back to the boys—that was her concern, to go back to the boys.”

  Holt asked if Laura gave a reason for the dismemberment, and Patricia said, “They couldn’t very well carry Laura’s body out—so the only way to get it out would be to cut it up. . . . She said Grant had gone to premed and knew how to cut up a body.”

  The prosecutor asked, “During this conversation and subsequent conversations, did you have an occasion where she basically told you it was an accident?”

  “Yes,” Patricia said. “Before she really went into detail with it, she had looked me straight in the face and said, ‘It was an accident. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.’ And then, a few minutes after that, she’d be like this to me,” Patricia said as she pantomimed the movement of Amanda grabbing both of her forearms. “‘Do you understand me? It was an accident. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.’”

  “And did you question her about that statement?”

  “I did. I said, ‘If it was an accident, why not call the police, 911?’ She didn’t have nothing to say with that. . . . She was very—I mean, she loved Grant. She felt she was doing the right thing, I think, standing by him. But then she would get very agitated about it and didn’t want to talk about it anymore.”

  “You remember an occasion when she said that if it was an accident, then they can’t convict her of murder?”

  Nodding her head, Patricia said, “If it was an accident they can’t convict her of murder, yes.”

  “And what was her demeanor or expression when she said that?”

  “She was sort of sarcastic with it—sort of.�
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  “Did she smile?”

  “She smiled.”

  The prosecutor switched over to Amanda’s comments about Sha. Patricia said, “She was glad that Sha was sent away because she would probably think this was all premeditated, but she wanted Sha away from it all. . . . She said that Sha had given the police ‘Broomstick Rider’ and she had directed the police back to the house to find some sort of letter.”

  Patricia then told the jurors that Amanda said the U-Haul was rented to carry Laura’s remains and that her sister Karen didn’t want to have anything to do with what Amanda and Grant were doing.

  “Did she indicate to you that she was angry because her sister called the police?”

  “Yes, she said she was very angry with that.”

  “Do you recall any conversation about if things would have been different if Lily had been a boy rather than a girl?”

  “Grant liked the boys so she had said that if Lily had been a boy, things wouldn’t have happened like they happened.” Apparently, Amanda believed that if she’d had a son instead of a daughter, Grant would have been willing to relinquish custody of his first two boys to Laura.

  Holt had Patricia remind the jurors again of the many times that Amanda proclaimed her love for Grant, and then asked, “Did she ever mention, when this happened, ever being threatened?”

  “No.”

  “Did she ever mention being afraid of Grant Hayes?”

  “No. She had mentioned that she was scared in the minutes after Laura was dead and she did say it was scary but never once did she say she was afraid of Grant. No.”

  “Did she ever mention him hitting her with a machete?”

  “Nope.” Patricia went on to say that she’d observed Amanda’s testimony in the courtroom.

  Holt asked, “And in terms of her demeanor and how she came across, how does that compare to the Amanda Hayes you knew for those two and a half months in 2012?”

  “It’s not the same.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “Amanda, if she was like that—she was very nice, I don’t know how to describe it, with the COs [Commanding Officers]. With the people, she was not like, ‘Hey, how are you?’” Patricia said in a breathy imitation of Amanda’s tiny voice, “She was not like that. It’s almost like, if she needed something from you, she was very nice and very pleasant. But if she didn’t, she was just normal—as you could be in jail.”