Presumption of Guilt

by Rachel Sinclair

  “No. However, I would like to ensure that my objection to this report been entered into evidence, based on the hearsay rule. And that is all.”

  “Very well. I will go ahead and allow this DNA test report to be entered into evidence. Now, it is almost 9 AM, we’ll take a short recess until 9 AM.” And, at that, he left the bench and went into his chambers.

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  I was going to nail that bastard yet.

  Chapter 44

  Once the jury came back in, I was instructed to call my next witness, and I went ahead and decided that I was going to call Jacob himself. Jacob was none too happy about having to testify on two different days. I could tell that. He looked at me, and he scowled. He gave me the stink eye so bad that I felt like I was going to melt right into the floor, as he looked at me. But I just stared at him right back. He was not going to intimidate me. He was not going to make me back down. I had what I needed to show what kind of person he was, and I was going to bury him.

  He took the stand, was informed that he was still under oath, and I got right to work.

  “Mr. Whitmore, do you understand the reason why you have been recalled to the stand by me?”

  “No. I can’t say that I do know why you would put me back on the stand. I gave my testimony to the prosecutor, and that should’ve been good enough.”

  “I wanted to call you to the stand again because I needed to ask you some questions that were not related to the questions that you answered on direct exam. Therefore, I’m calling you as my witness.”

  He glared at me, but said nothing. He couldn’t have known what I had to ask him. I wanted the element of surprise, so there was no way I was going to go over my questions with him beforehand. “Okay then, go ahead.”

  I nodded my head. I knew where I wanted to go with this, and I knew where I wanted to start out. ”Your daughter, Aria, she was not adopted, was she?”

  “ No.”

  I was going to lay a trap for him, and that was the first part of my trap.

  “Mr. Whitmore, let me ask you another question. Have you ever been known by another name?”

  I could almost see his face go very pale when I asked that question. He had a tan, a fake tan. I could tell that it was fake because he looked slightly orange. The only exception to the general orange tint of his face were around his eyes, which were white. It looked like he probably went into a tanning booth, with goggles on. But, when I asked that question, the color left his face.

  He recovered quickly enough. He sat up straighter in his chair, and looked me straight in the eye. “No. I had never been known by another name.”

  I nodded my head. “You’ve never been known by the name of William McNeil?”

  He swallowed hard. “No. I’ve never been known by that name.”

  I looked over at the judge. “Permission to treat as hostile,” I said to the judge.

  “Permission granted. Please proceed.”

  “ I would like you to look at a newspaper article dated November 21, 1969. You would’ve been 25 years old, wouldn’t you have?”

  “I would like to object to the newspaper being entered into evidence,” Brent said. “ It would be hearsay.”

  “It would not be hearsay, because it is not being offered to prove or disprove any element of the charged offense.”

  “I’ll allow it,” the judge said. “Please proceed.”

  “Yes. I would have been 25 years old in 1969. Why does that matter?”

  “This newspaper article, dated November 21, 1969, indicated that members of a radical right wing group, known as the White Freedom, were accused of bombing a black church in Southern Missouri. Five people died in that blast. This newspaper article indicated that the leader of this group was a man by the name of William McNeil. Age 25.”

  “Okay. And what does this have to do with me?” he demanded.

  “I’m getting to that. William McNeil was on a fishing trip in Mexico while he was out on bail, right before he would be facing trial for the charges of murder in the 1st°, and arson in the 1st°. Both of those charges carried a sentence of life in prison, and if William McNeil was convicted of first-degree murder, he could have possibly faced the death penalty.”

  I could see him breathing harder. “Okay. I still don’t know where you’re going with this, but, by all means, proceed.” He was trying to act cool, but I knew that he was nervous as hell.

  “William McNeil disappeared during that fishing trip. His body was never found, but he was declared deceased six months later.”

  “And?”

  “I would like to enter into evidence the newspaper article talking about William McNeil’s bombing of the black church, and another newspaper article that details William McNeil’s death in Mexico. I have marked the first magazine article as Exhibit A, and the second magazine article as Exhibit B.”

  “Any objection?”

  “I would like to preserve my objection for the record. I still believe that this could possibly constitute hearsay.”

  “Objection overruled. The articles are entered into evidence.”

  “And you, Jacob Whitmore, according to your biography, went to Yale undergraduate school, and then the Wharton school of business. However, you started your undergraduate career at the age of 25. Isn’t that right?” I did my homework. What I found out, or, rather, what Regina found out, was that Jacob paid a lot of money to have his former identity erased and a new identity created. He had the money, because his own father, William McNeil’s father, was a very wealthy man. William McNeil’s father could pay any amount of money to ensure that his son’s disappearance was never investigated, and that he could be declared dead, and that an entire new identity could be created for him. His father had enough money to bribe a local prep school to doctor up school records for his son that showed that “Jacob Whitmore” carried a 4.3 GPA. His father had enough money to create an entire background for “Jacob Whitmore,” which ensured that he would be admitted to Yale and Wharton. And, for good measure, his father donated millions of dollars to both schools. Just in case they didn’t want to let “Jacob Whitmore” in the door.

  “Yes. That is correct. I did not enter school until I was 25 years old.”

  “And what were you doing before the age of 25?”

  “I was traveling. Seeing Europe. Seeing the world. I think I didn’t I focus on my future until I was in my mid-20s.”

  “Isn’t it true that you are actually William McNeil?”

  He started to laugh. “ What, is this a joke?”

  “I’m not laughing. Isn’t it true that you are William McNeil, the leader of a white supremacist group that killed five people in a black church bombing, and then you faked your death with the help of your wealthy father, and again, with your father’s help, you had a new identity created for you?”

  “That’s absurd!”

  I nodded my head. “ I would like you to read aloud this report I’m going to give you. This is a report from 23 and Me, and it was prepared at the request of your daughter, Aria Whitmore. She requested this report when she was 14 years old, for a project that she was working on in school. Can you please tell the court the name of Aria’s father, according to this DNA report?”

  I could tell that he was unnerved. When he picked up the DNA report, his hands were shaking. His face was getting whiter by the second. He was a cornered animal, and he knew it.

  “This report is mistaken. I don’t know where you got this report, and I don’t know how it was prepared, but obviously something happened in the lab.”

  I smiled. I wondered why he didn’t just feign outrage and throw a fit, claiming that Colleen must have been sleeping with somebody else. The bitch! I guessed that I threw him off-balance, so he didn’t think of that angle.

  “This report was prepared by 23 and Me. This is a reputable DNA and ancestry site that millions of people have depended upon over the years. I can assure you that there’s never been a report of a mixup at the lab
. Now can you please read to the court who was the father of Aria Whitmore?”

  He cleared his throat. “William McNeil.”

  “I would like this DNA report to be marked as Exhibit C, and entered into evidence.”

  “Any objection?” Judge Warner asked Brent.

  “I would like to object for the record, to the hearsay,” Brent said.

  “So noted. Objection overruled. Please proceed.”

  I entered the report into evidence. I then walked the report over to the jury, and they passed it around. I could see on their faces that they were stunned. To say the very least.

  “Now, isn’t it true that Aria Whitmore was going to find out the truth of her parentage, because she ordered this test to be done, and you killed her to make sure that she kept quiet?”

  “I did not. I did not do something like that.”His face was starting to get red.

  “ Yes you did. You killed her at the age of 14, and then you got an imposter to take her place. The imposter’s name was Sophia Delgado, an immigrant from Mexico, who had the same blonde hair and blue eyes as your daughter. You killed your daughter at the age of 14, and then you told all your neighbors and her teachers and her friends that she was in a car accident in Mexico, so she had to have plastic surgery, and then you passed off Sophia Delgado as your daughter, Aria. Isn’t that true?”

  He stood up, and shook his fist. “That is not true. That is a lie.”

  “Is it? Is it a lie? Is it a lie that you literally drove your wife over a cliff, mentally, by giving her LSD in large doses, while telling her that it would cure her incipient schizophrenia? Instead of curing her, it made her go into full-blown schizophrenia, which is what you wanted, because you wanted to make sure that nobody would believe her when she told people that her daughter was dead and there was another girl in her place. Isn’t that right?”

  “I don’t know what kind of lies Lauren has been telling you, but I would never do something like that.”

  “Oh, you wouldn’t? Then why is it that that’s exactly what she told the court? She told the court, under the penalty of perjury, that you gave her large doses of LSD. You don’t believe that LSD can be used to cure schizophrenia, do you? You’re an educated man, surely you know better than that?”

  “Of course I know better than that. Everybody knows that LSD causes hallucinations, and that it is bad for somebody who is having problems with reality.”

  “Do you realize that your wife has spent the last 7 years homeless?”

  “Yes. I do realize that.”

  “And you didn’t do anything to help her, isn’t that right?”

  “I had a restraining order against her, and that’s all I know.”

  “Now, isn’t it true that you have forced both my client, Esme Gutierrez, and Calista Kassis, to bear your children for you?”

  He started to laugh. “That’s absurd. You have gone completely outer limits with your questioning.”

  “And isn’t it true that Sophia Delgado found out what you were doing with Esme and Calista, found out that you were forcing them to have abortion after abortion, because you are desperate to have only sons, and she confronted you, and told you that she had had enough of the charade, and she was going to go to the police and tell them exactly who she was, and she would give them a fingerprint to prove it, and you knew that she was dangerous for that reason. Isn’t that true?”

  By this time, he was shaking. Shaking with rage. He stood up, and I could see that a vein was popping out of his forehead. “That isn’t what happened, Sophia never found out about the abortions.”

  And then he sat down, apparently realizing what exactly it was that he admitted to the court. “Okay, so you admit that Aria was not Aria, but, rather, was Sophia Delgado.”

  “I admitted no such thing.”

  “But you referred to your daughter as Sophia. Didn’t you?”

  “ No. I did not call my daughter Sophia.”

  “Then who is Sophia?”

  “I don’t know a Sophia.”

  “But you stated, and I quote, ‘that isn’t what happened, Sophia never found out about the abortions.’ Isn’t that what you just now said?”

  He opened his mouth, and closed it again. “I must’ve been confused. You kept saying the name Sophia, so it came out of my mouth as well.”

  “Sophia, she did threaten you, didn’t she? She was getting tired of your shenanigans, was getting tired of the way that you were treating your immigrant help, because, after all, she was an immigrant as well, and she threatened you. She could have ruined you, because she knew the truth about Aria. Isn’t that true?”

  “No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You knew that it was only a matter time before everybody found out that Sophia replaced Aria. You knew that if she ever got arrested, and had to give her fingerprint, the jig would be up right then. You knew that if she ever went into the hospital, and she needed a blood transfusion, the jig would be up – because Sophia had a different blood type then Aria did, didn’t she? There were any number of things that could’ve happened that would expose you for what you did to your own daughter. And you knew it. You knew that it was only a matter of time before everybody found out the ruse.”

  “Objection, badgering.”

  “Overruled. Please proceed.”

  “Well, then I’ll object to the editorializing. Where is the question?”

  Judge Warner looked at me. “Sustained. Counselor, please ask your question without editorializing.”

  I nodded my head. “Okay, thank you, your honor.” Then I turned to Jacob. “Isn’t it true that you knew that Sophia could ruin you?”

  “No.”

  “And isn’t true that you wanted to get rid of Esme because you didn’t have any use for her anymore?”

  “No. That’s not true.”

  “Oh, it’s not? You had Calista. She was doing all your dirty work, and she was the one who was agreeing to have your kids. Admit it, you hate Esme, because she is from Central America, she’s an immigrant, and you feel that she doesn’t belong here. You wanted to be rid of her, so you killed Sophia Delgado, you planted that diamond necklace in Esme’s drawer, and you framed her for the murder of Sophia. Admit it.”

  “I will not admit that, because that is not true.”

  I was undeterred. “Admit that the life of my client means less than nothing to you, and you would’ve liked nothing more than to see her rot in prison for something that she didn’t do. Rot in prison for something that you did. After all, you are a white supremacist, you were responsible for the murder of five African-Americans, and you despise people who are not just like you. Admit that.”

  “I will admit nothing of the sort.”

  “Would you be willing to be fingerprinted?” I asked him. “After all, William McNeil was arrested for the bombing of that black church. He was fingerprinted. Would you be willing to give your fingerprints?”

  He looked at the judge. “That’s an invasion of my privacy. I won’t stand for that.”

  “I take that as a no? Because you know that if you gave your fingerprints, they would match the fingerprints of William McNeil perfectly. Isn’t that true?”

  “No, that’s not the reason why. I simply refuse to give my fingerprints, because I don’t want my privacy invaded.”

  I started to pace the floor. “And why, exactly, would giving your fingerprint be an invasion of your privacy?”

  “It just would. You would be using it to try to incriminate me, and I know my rights.”

  “But if you had nothing to hide, it wouldn’t incriminate you, now would it?”

  “I have nothing to hide.”

  “I would imagine that the FBI’s going to be talking to you after this court appearance, because this DNA test gives them probable cause to do a little background search, a little investigation. And, at some point, they’re going to have enough evidence to get a court order to make you give a fingerprint. Now, it’s going to come out,
one way or another. So you might as well just tell the court right now the truth. Just tell the court the truth, and you won’t have a perjury charge on top of everything else that you’re going to be facing once the FBI gets through with investigating you.”

  He looked like he was about to explode. “The truth? I’ll tell you the truth. That little bitch, Sophia, she told me that she didn’t like what I was doing with Esme and Calista. She told me that abortion is wrong, it’s a sin, and that I was going to hell. She told me that because of me, Calista and Esme both were going to go to hell, because they were the ones having the abortions. She told me that she was going to tell the police who she really was, and she was going to tell the police that I killed my own daughter. She told me that she had had it with the lie, and she wasn’t going to go through with it anymore. So yeah. I killed her. I had to kill that bitch. She was going to ruin me, just like you’re ruining me right now. And yeah, I am William McNeil. And I’m proud to be William McNeil. I’m proud of what he stood for. Yeah, I’ll give my fingerprint, gladly.”

  I nodded my head. “I have nothing further for this witness.”

  And I sat down.

  And then all at once, the court room absolutely erupted. All the newspaper reporters who were crammed into this courtroom were suddenly all at once leaving the courtroom, I guess because they all wanted to beat each other as far as filing the story about what happened here. I almost chuckled. While all this pandemonium was breaking out, with everybody shouting at once, everybody running over each other to get out the door, the judge was banging his gavel, over and over again. He was threatening to hold everybody in contempt, but they didn’t care. They had a story to write, and they were going to make sure that they beat all their competitors in writing it.

  Before I knew it, the gallery had cleared out. It was just me, Jacob, Christian, Esme, the prosecutors, the jury, and the judge. The judge looked like he was going to blow a gasket himself.

  “Mr. Atwood, do you have any questions for this witness?” he asked.

  Brent shook his head. “No. And, in light of the testimony of Mr. Whitmore, or should I say Mr. McNeil, the state would like to dismiss all charges against Esmerelda Gutierrez. With prejudice.”