“Yes,” Adam quietly agreed.
“Isn’t it true that your last legitimate employment was six years ago with Sutherland’s grocery stores?”
Adam squirmed in his chair before reluctantly agreeing.
“At that time, your father gave you your eighth chance at gainful employment, you lasted a total of two months then your father personally fired you, didn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“For selling drugs at work.”
“Objection, your Honor…” Heather started to say.
“Overruled,” Carr said. “Answer the question.”
“No, I mean, I don’t remember why. I think it was for being late too many times.”
Nice try, Marc thought.
“So, for the last six years, you have had no visible means of employment, no way to support yourself legitimately, isn’t that true?”
“I got by,” Adam muttered.
“Your father helped you with that didn’t he?”
“Yeah, sometimes,” Adam admitted.
“The Christmas before your father died, the last Christmas you’ve spent as a family, your father and your sister Hailey had an argument, didn’t they?”
“Yes.”
“And in front of everyone, including you, he threatened to cut her off from his money. To stop supporting her didn’t he?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Mr. Sutherland, you purchased a new Chevrolet Corvette approximately three months before this, isn’t that true?”
“I guess, about then, yeah. So what? Don’t I get to drive a nice car?”
Ignoring him Marc asked, “A car that cost almost sixty thousand dollars?”
“About, I guess. I don’t remember.”
“Isn’t it true, the first time your father saw this car was at the same Christmas gathering?”
“I don’t remember,” Adam answered, the light in his brain finally coming on as he realized where Marc was going.
“And isn’t it true he was very angry when he saw it? You’re under oath, Mr. Sutherland.”
“Yes, he was.”
“And isn’t it also true that after he told your sister to straighten up or he would cut off his support, he looked at you and said the same thing?”
Adam fidgeted around for several seconds, rubbed his hands and nervously looked around before quietly answering, “Yes.”
“I’m, sorry,” Marc said, “I didn’t hear your answer?”
“Yes,” he said more loudly.
“Your Honor, I object to this entire line of questioning as irrelevant,” Heather stood and said to break up the questioning. She immediately regretted it.
“We’re allowed to explore other people who had the same motive the prosecution is trying to attribute to my client, your Honor,” Marc responded.
“Yes you are. Overruled,” Carr said clearly sending the message to the jury that Marc might be onto something.
Marc asked for permission to approach the witness stand and did so when Carr agreed to allow it.
“Mr. Sutherland, I’m showing you a document marked for identification as Defense Exhibit D. Tell the jury what it is, please.”
“It looks like a resumé but the name is missing.”
Marc handed Adam another document and said, “Mr. Sutherland, I’m now showing you a document marked Defense Exhibit E. Do you recognize it? Take your time.”
In less than thirty seconds, Adam looked at Marc and said, “It’s my resumé. One I did many years ago.”
Maddy knew this was coming. When Adam admitted it was his, she pushed a couple of keys on Marc’s laptop and both resumés appeared on the TV side-by-side.
“Compare both documents, please.”
Adam held up both, looked them over and quickly realized the one with the name redacted was the same.
“They’re the same. They’re both mine. I don’t understand.”
“Read the highlighted part on Defense Exhibit E, please.”
Adam read it to the jury. It was the part that let the reader know he had received a degree in computer science.
“Mr. Sutherland, were you in the courtroom when the prosecution’s computer expert, Bernadette Olson, was shown Defense Exhibit D and testified that the person with this degree in computer science would be able to hide internet searches on a computer?”
Marc was using a somewhat sneaky tactic to get Adam to remind the jury that Adam could have done the searches. Heather was trying to think of a way to object, but since Marc already told the jury what he wanted, an objection would be pointless.
“No, I wasn’t,” a somewhat puzzled Adam said.
Marc submitted the documents into evidence and walked back to his table. Before he sat down, he looked at Adam and asked, “Where did you go to college?”
“Macalester,” Adam said.
“Here in St. Paul?”
“That’s right.”
Marc picked up the yearbook went back to the witness stand and handed it to Adam.
Marc and Adam quickly went through the formality of identifying the yearbook as Defense Exhibit G.
“Is this your yearbook, one you left at your father’s house in Crocus Hill?”
“Yes, it is,” Adam agreed.
“Open the cover and read the handwritten note in the upper left-hand corner please,” Marc said.
“To my best bud, partners forever,” Adam read.
“Read the signature.”
“Phillip Cartwright.”
A loud enough buzz went through the room to cause Carr to gavel for quiet.
“This is the same Phillip Cartwright, the son of Mackenzie Sutherland’s ex-husband in Chicago, Wendell Cartwright, isn’t that true?”
Adam sat quietly for several seconds. He licked his lips and shifted his eyes until Marc reminded him he was under oath.
“Yeah, so what?”
“Mr. Sutherland, bearing in mind we can subpoena your phone records and check your email, did you maintain this friendship over the years?”
“Yes,” he admitted.
“Isn’t it true you’ve been in rehab at least twice for drug use, paid by your father?” Marc asked changing directions for a moment.
“Objection, your Honor. Mr. Sutherland is not on trial.”
Thank you, Heather, Marc thought. “I’m trying to show the jury that perhaps he should be,” Marc interrupted Heather.
“Recess. I’ll see the lawyers in chambers.”
When they came back into court and started testimony again, Marc had successfully convinced Carr to allow him to pursue his theory that others had the same means, motive and opportunity as Mackenzie.
The court reporter read the last question back to Adam and he admitted he had been in rehab twice.
“Isn’t it true that Phillip Cartwright died recently from a drug overdose?”
“Your Honor!” Heather jumped up and said.
“Sustained.”
“How many times have you been arrested and charged with possession with intent to sell narcotics?”
“Objection…”
“Overruled.”
“I don’t recall,” Adam answered.
“How about six? Does six sound about right?”
“Yeah, okay. But I was never…”
“Nonresponsive, your Honor.”
“Answer only the question.”
“You were arrested six times over the years for suspicion of selling methamphetamines and each time your father hired a defense lawyer who was able to get a plea down to a misdemeanor or a simple possession charge, isn’t that true?”
“Yes,” Adam conceded.
“Isn’t it true you were the supplier of methamphetamines to your good friend, Phillip Cartwright? You’re under oath.”
“Your honor…” Heather started to say but Carr held up a hand to stop her.
“Let me advise you, Mr. Sutherland, you can invoke your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refuse to answer,” Judge Carr told Adam.
�
��I refuse to answer on the fifth, what the judge said,” Adam answered.
“Would you say Phillip Cartwright had the same level of computer expertise that you do?”
“No, he didn’t,” a puzzled Adam said.
“Did you help him do the searches for heart attack inducing drugs on his father’s computer?”
“Your Honor,” a frustrated Heather Anderson stood again to object. “Assumes facts not in evidence.”
“There’s just as much evidence that Phillip had access to Wendell’s computer as my client, your Honor. Just as much evidence that he did those searches as Mrs. Sutherland. Calista Sutherland, a prosecution witness testified Phillip, as well as several others, had access to the Cartwright home and that computer.”
“May we approach?” Heather asked.
When the lawyers assembled at the bench, Heather said, “It’s a ‘Do you still beat your wife’ question, your Honor. It doesn’t matter how he answers it.”
“You’re right and cleverly done but I see no legal reason that he can’t answer it. But if he says no, you will not use it in your closing to say he did. Is that clear?”
“Yes, your Honor,” Marc said.
“No, I did not,” Adam indignantly answered after the bench conference was finished.
Marc sat silently for a moment looking over his trial notes. He decided he had received about all he could get from Adam toward reasonable doubt. He was about to pass the witness when a final thought occurred to him.
“I almost forgot,” he said. “How’s the Corvette doing?”
Heather considered objecting but decided to let it go.
“Um, ah, fine,” Adam muttered.
“Really? I heard you took a loan out against it and because you couldn’t keep up on the payments, it was repossessed. Isn’t that true?”
“Temporarily,” Adam reluctantly agreed.
“Oh, I see,” Marc said. “So, your money problems are temporary. The drug business about to pick up or are you planning on inheriting?”
“Your honor!” Heather jumped up again.
“Withdrawn. I have nothing further.”
The afternoon session, up to the break was taken up by Heather trying to rehabilitate Adam’s testimony. It was a losing battle. Having barely an hour to work with him, there was no way she was going to turn Adam into a Boy Scout. The best she could do was to paint the picture that Adam’s motive for William’s death was thin. Even though his father had threatened to cut him off, this had happened before and Adam did not take it seriously.
FIFTY
Marc looked up from the document he was working on and saw Maddy and Mackenzie returning from the women’s restroom. During the break, Marc had checked with his next witness then decided another subpoena needed to be served.
The two women took their normal seats at the table, Mackenzie in-between Marc and Maddy. Marc folded the document into thirds and handed it to Maddy.
“This is for Detective Coolidge. It’s probably not necessary but I want to be sure,” Marc said.
“Tomorrow morning at nine o’clock?” Maddy quietly asked while reading the subpoena.
“Yeah, first thing Wednesday,” Marc said.
“Why?” Maddy asked.
“It’s Wednesday. I only have two more witnesses; Coolidge and Dr. Olson. Coolidge first, then Olson. Carr will want to wrap up so he can get at his favorite county attorney. He might push Heather on Olson’s cross-exam to get out of here.”
“Should I call him first?”
“You can. I’m sure he’ll cooperate. He’ll probably agree to meet you so you can serve him.”
“All rise,” the judge’s clerk, Tyrone, announced.
Carr took his seat while Maddy gathered her things to slip out and serve Coolidge. Carr told Marc to call his next witness.
“The defense calls Derek Miller, your Honor.”
The deputy by the door opened it and a tall, almost six-foot-ten-inch, African-American came into the courtroom. As he passed through the gate he nodded slightly at Marc and went up to the stand. He was sworn in, took his seat and said his name, age and occupation for the record.
Derek had been recommended to Marc by his criminalist friend, Jason Briggs. He was a one-time basketball player at Purdue, played briefly in the NBA and now at age thirty-eight, was a computer science professor at Northwestern University in Chicago. There was not very much Marc wanted to get out of him. The first thing they did was to spend fifteen to twenty minutes giving the jury a detailed accounting of the professor’s qualifications.
Derek was not a typical computer geek. Marc gave him one open ended question and in ten minutes he easily explained how someone with sophisticated computer skills could fake the searches on the computers. Marc showed him Adam’s resumé and Derek admitted it would be possible for Adam to have done it.
On cross-exam, Heather did a good job of casting doubt on his testimony. First he had to admit that Adam’s degree from college was almost twenty-years-old, an enormous amount of time in the tech world.
“If someone with Adam Sutherland’s twenty-year-old degree had not kept up on the latest technology that would make your testimony quite different, would it not?” Heather asked.
“Objection,” Marc said as he stood. “Assumes facts not in evidence. Specifically, that Adam Sutherland has not kept up on the technology for twenty years. He testified that he worked as a computer tech consultant…”
“And made absolutely no money doing it,” Heather reminded the jury.
“Overruled,” Carr said. “The witness will answer.”
“Yes,” Miller honestly answered.
“Adam Sutherland might not be able to doctor the searches and fake them the way you testified, isn’t that true, Professor?”
“Yes, it is,” he admitted.
She tried to keep going along this line of questioning but Marc was able to stop it as repetitious. Heather then moved on to Derek’s compensation. His fee for the work he had done examining the computers, the searches and testifying was over fifty thousand dollars, including travel, lodging and expenses. By the time Heather finished making the man look like a paid performer, Marc wondered if he had made a mistake having him testify. It was not Miller’s fault. He did a very good job handling himself on the stand. Heather was simply very experienced at shredding the testimony of defense experts.
Marc tried to rehabilitate him on redirect exam but it was a little weak. His problem was that he had not pursued Adam’s current computer skills. A mistake for which he had only himself to blame. Despite TV and movies every lawyer in every trial will mess up something they later wish they had done a better job pursuing.
When Heather finished making Miller figuratively bleed and Marc completed his weak redirect, Carr called a halt for the day.
“I’m sorry, Marc,” Miller said when he left the stand and met with Marc. “We should’ve been better prepared for that.”
“And it’s entirely my fault,” Marc said. “Don’t worry about it. We got enough to argue reasonable doubt. That’s all we needed. Send me your final bill and I’ll take care of it.”
Wednesday morning, Judge Carr took his seat and told Marc to call his next witness. Maddy was in the hall keeping Max Coolidge company when the deputy opened the door and signaled for them to come in.
Maddy took her seat at Marc’s table while Coolidge went up to the witness stand.
“Good morning, Detective Coolidge,” Marc began. “Some things have come up that I need to ask you about.
“During the course of your investigation, you did not spend any time investigating Robert Sutherland as a possible suspect, did you?”
“We didn’t believe…”
“Yes or no, detective,” Marc cut him off.
“No, I did not.”
“Did you investigate Paige Sutherland?”
“No.”
“How about Adam Sutherland?”
“No,” Max answered again.
“Hailey Suther
land?”
“No.”
“Isn’t it true that each of these people had the same means, motive and opportunity as you allege Mackenzie Sutherland had?”
“We didn’t think so,” Coolidge said.
“Because you didn’t bother to look at them at all and if you had you would have found they all did, isn’t that true, detective?”
“No, I wouldn’t say so,” Max answered.
“Really?” Marc asked.
For the next twenty minutes, Marc went over the testimony made during the trial about each of the Sutherlands, their money issues, their lifestyle, and dependence on their father. He drew special attention to the threats made to cut off the money, especially to Hailey and Adam.
One-by-one Marc also brought out the reality that each had access to the Crocus Hill house and William’s personal computer.
“Objection,” Heather said to try to end it. “The detective had no knowledge of these things and counsel is conducting his closing argument.”
“He opened the door, your Honor, by denying these people had the same means, motive and opportunity as my client. I’m just showing the jury he would have found this if he had done a more thorough investigation.”
“I’ll overrule the objection but you’ve made your point, Mr. Kadella. Time to move on.”
“Detective Coolidge, isn’t it true that this drug that allegedly caused William’s heart attack, Interleukin 2, no one ever found out where it came from? How it was obtained?”
“That’s true.”
“Isn’t it true that every one of the Sutherland’s grocery stores has a pharmacy in it?”
“Yes, I believe so.”
“Isn’t it true that Hailey, Adam and Robert all worked for Sutherland’s grocery stores at one time or another?”
“Yes, I believe so.”
“Did Mackenzie Sutherland?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Did you investigate or do a search of any of these pharmacies to see if that was where the drug came from?”
Squirming in his seat, Max reluctantly admitted they did not.
“Were you involved in putting a listening device on Cooper Thomas in an attempt to get him to induce Mackenzie Sutherland to make an incriminating statement?”
Marc Kadella Legal Mysteries Vol 1-6 (Marc Kadella Series) Page 216