Desperate Justice

by Dennis Carstens

  The therapist’s testimony had been as quick as Marc could make it. Even so, it was almost 10:30 by the time the doctor was excused. The judge called a break at that point and Marc went out to make sure Ava had not decided to flee.

  When court resumed Maddy was seated at and inside the railing behind him and Marc rose and said, “The defense recalls Ava Hammond, your Honor.”

  A minute later, having been reminded she was still under oath, Ava sat down in the witness box, looked at Madeline for a little support, weakly smiled at her then turned to Marc.

  “Mrs. Hammond,” he began. “Yesterday afternoon, you contacted my investigator, Madeline Rivers, did you not?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Why?”

  “Oh, um, Saturday, Madeline had stopped in my office…” and Ava went on to explain what had happened. After Maddy had left, Ava had carefully thought over everything that she knew about the Prentisses and this case. The rest of that day and the next, she had finally opened up to herself and came to the realization that she could no longer suppress her conscience. By Monday afternoon, her better judgment had convinced her that it was time to do the right thing and come forward. Ava explained that Maddy had left her business card so she called her.

  “Did Ms. Rivers coerce you or threaten you in any way to come forward today?”

  “No, no. Not at all,” Ava said emphatically shaking her head. “In fact, she couldn’t have been nicer. No, this was entirely my decision.”

  “What else did you do yesterday?”

  “I met with you. And of course, Maddy, I mean Ms. Rivers. We met at a bar downtown and then went to your office for most of the evening. All three of us.”

  “Did I threaten, coerce or do anything to get you to come in today?”

  “No. Again, not at all. It was entirely my idea,” Ava said becoming less nervous.

  “And what did we do in my office last night?”

  “Went over what I wanted to say today.”

  “Did I or Madeline Rivers or anyone else tell you what to say today?”

  “Again, no. Not a word.”

  “Okay, Mrs. Hammond. What is it you want to tell the jury today?”

  Ava took an audible, deep breath, turned her head to look directly at the jury and said, “Gordon Prentiss did not kill Catherine.”

  “And how do you know that?” Marc asked.

  Still looking squarely at the jury, she said, “Because I was the one hiding behind the door of Catherine’s bedroom. I was the one who hit him on the head with the vodka bottle and knocked him out.”

  Amazingly there was only a minor stirring of the people in the courtroom. A few audible gasps but nothing disruptive. Despite that, Rios rapped her gavel, glared at the crowd with a serious look and said, “Not a word. There will be order in this court. You may continue Mr. Kadella.”

  “Why did you do this?”

  “Catherine and I,” she began then put her left hand to her mouth and stifled a sob as tears began to form. “Catherine asked me to. Oh, my God. I can’t believe I did this,” she said as the tears came.

  Marc sat silently waiting for Ava to regain control. Judge Rios motioned for a deputy to get her a glass of water which he did. Ava drank most of it, took several deep breaths then continued.

  “Catherine had told me all along about what Gordon was like; the abuse, the way he treated her, how beaten down she had been. It wasn’t just physical. It was also mental and emotional. And then… and then,” she said as she again stifled a sob to get a hold of herself. “A month or so before she died, she told me she had cancer. Pancreatic cancer and she said the doctors told her she had less than two months to live. And then Gordon was appointed to the senate by the governor and I think she finally couldn’t take it anymore. She told me he beat her up and threatened to kill her. She said he didn’t know about the cancer.

  “That’s when she came up with the plan. Catherine didn’t want to die a painful death from cancer and she wanted to stop him from going to Washington. She wanted to stop him and she wanted revenge for what he had done to her.”

  At this point, Ava was quietly crying and sobbing, looking down away from everyone in the room. Marc gave her a minute to regain some control then asked, “How did she die?”

  Ava looked up at Marc and in a whisper said, “She killed herself. She waited until he came home then shoved the knife into her own heart. She was desperate. She had no way out from under his boot. He had made it clear that he was not ever going to let her go and she made me believe she was dying.”

  “Where were you when she did this?”

  “I was hiding in the bathroom. When I heard her fall I hid behind the door. I put a ski mask over my head and when Gordon came in and saw her, I stepped out and hit him. The bottle shattered and he went down. At first I was afraid I killed him so I checked his pulse and then placed his hand around the knife handle just as we had planned. I put what was left of the bottle in Catherine’s left hand and got out of there. I walked about a block, my car was parked three blocks away, and I called 911.”

  “Are you aware the autopsy made no mention of Catherine having any type of cancer or any other disease?”

  “Yes,” Ava meekly answered. “I found out during the trial. I can’t believe she would do this. I just, I mean, I just can’t believe…” she said as the tears came again.

  During the entire time, since she first said Gordon didn’t do it, the courtroom was as quiet as an empty church. The only sounds were Marc’s questions and Ava’s responses.

  When she gathered herself again, she looked at Maddy who also had tears in her eyes, and said, “I loved Catherine. She was the best friend I ever had. I would do anything for her. If I had known she wasn’t sick, I would never have gone along with this.”

  “Why did you help her frame her husband for her death?”

  The tears stopped, Ava took a deep breath, looked directly at Gordon and said, “Because I know Gordon Prentiss very well. He is everything and more that he has been portrayed as during this trial. But he is not a murderer. He did not kill Catherine.”

  At that moment, Jennifer Moore leaned over and whispered in Steve Gondeck’s ear. “Stall,” she said. “I just thought of something, but I need time to check it out. Put off your cross until after lunch.”

  “Okay,” he whispered back as Jennifer stood up and quietly left.

  “Mrs. Hammond,” Marc began his final question, “this is directly contradictory to what your previous testimony was. You didn’t mention any of this. Why should the jury believe you now?”

  Ava again looked squarely at the jury, moving her eyes to look at each of the jurors individually, and said, “Because of this,” and she pulled a plastic sandwich bag from her purse. In it was what looked to be a bloody, white cloth. “This is the handkerchief Catherine used to grip the knife when she stabbed herself. She wrapped it around the handle so she would not leave any fingerprints. So when I put Gordon’s hand around it, only his prints would be on it. I made sure I took it with me.”

  “May I approach, your Honor?”

  “You may.”

  Marc walked up to the witness stand and took the plastic bag from Ava. “Your Honor,” he began as he started toward the judge. “At this time the defense would like to introduce the contents of this bag as defense exhibit…”

  “Objection,” Gondeck practically yelled. “We have had no opportunity to examine the contents of this bag to determine if that is blood at all let alone whose it is.”

  “Approach,” Rios said to both lawyers.

  “Your Honor, first of all, she is his witness. He is the one that blew her testimony…” Marc began at the bench conference.

  “Don’t even go there,” Rios said.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Marc said trying to rally. “Let’s suspend the trial and he can test the blood for DNA or, he can stipulate to it being Catherine’s blood and we move on. Would we really take a chance and try to slip someone else’s blood in
?”

  “I’m not inclined to stipulate, your Honor,” Gondeck answered.

  Judge Rios thought it over then turned to Ava and asked, “Mrs. Hammond, knowing you are under oath and facing possible perjury charges, are you willing to swear that the blood on that piece of cloth in the bag is the blood of Catherine Prentiss? That if we were to stop the trial here and allow the prosecution to run DNA tests on it, the test results would come back as her blood and only her blood?”

  “Absolutely, your Honor,” Ava answered emphatically.

  Thinking quickly, Judge Rios realized that if she did not allow Marc to enter the bag and its contents into evidence and Prentiss was found guilty, that ruling could very well be grounds for an appeal and possibly an overturned verdict. However, if she let the bag and its contents come in and Prentiss was acquitted, the prosecution could not appeal it and they would just have to live with it. Like every judge everywhere, Rios hated the thought of being overturned on appeal. Before she ruled for the record, she leaned down and quietly said to Marc, “If it turns out that the blood is not that of Catherine Prentiss, I’ll make it my life’s work to get you disbarred. Still want to go for it?”

  Marc thought about it and then said, “Yes, you Honor. I believe her.”

  The judge nodded at them and sent them back to their respective tables. “I am satisfied,” Rios said for the record. “The bag and its contents will be allowed into evidence.”

  Marc finished the formality of entering the plastic bag and the bloody handkerchief, sat down and said, “I have no other questions, your Honor.”

  “Your, Honor,” Gondeck said as he stood to address the court. “I request a recess, some time to prepare my cross-examination of this astonishing and obviously contrived testimony.”

  “Watch yourself, Mr. Gondeck,” Rios admonished him about the “contrived testimony” comment.

  “Your Honor,” Marc said. “This is his witness. How much more time should he get? If he didn’t prepare her…”

  “Enough, Mr. Kadella, I get the point,” Rios said. “You have until 1:30.”

  “Your Honor,” Gondeck protested. “That’s only two hours.”

  “He has a point, Mr. Gondeck,” Rios replied. “She’s your witness. 1:30. Get ready.”

  With that, court adjourned.

  EIGHTY-THREE

  Steve Gondeck rode the elevator up to the county attorney’s offices trying to get his anxiety level lower and his mind to slow down. He was continuously replaying the same two thoughts. How could they have missed this and what the hell can they do about it?

  The first thing he did when he got back to the office was to stop at his secretary’s desk. He was about to tell her something when she cut him off by saying, “We heard. Slocum was out here looking for you. He told me to tell you to see him right away. He was almost foaming at the mouth.”

  “Great,” Gondeck said. “I don’t have time to play ‘mollify the idiot’ today. I need you to call over to MPD and get a hold of detective Larry Grimes and call me back, immediately. I don’t care where he is, I need him now. Where’s Jennifer?”

  “She’s in the conference room where the Prentiss evidence boxes are kept.”

  “Order some lunch for us, will you please?” he asked as he walked away.

  Gondeck found Jennifer seated at the table in the room with the evidence going through one of the boxes. He closed the door behind him and said, “What are you looking for?”

  “A photo. I’m sure I saw it or I think, ah, here it is,” she said as she removed a print from the box. She looked at the picture and said, “Check this out.”

  Gondeck took it from her, stared at it for several seconds then quietly said, “I’ll be damned. Why didn’t we notice this before?”

  “Because it wasn’t evidence. It wasn’t even noticeable compared to some of the stuff we found. It was one of the stacks of photos that were found in his desk at his house and in his chambers.”

  “Well,” Gondeck continued as he flicked the photo between his fingers. “Nice catch, Jennifer.”

  The two of them walked back toward Gondeck’s office to prepare for the cross exam of Ava. They had just settled into their chairs when their boss, Craig Slocum, barged in.

  “I left word for you to see me immediately! What happened with your witness today?” he demanded.

  “Relax, Craig. These things happen. I’ll fix it. Now close the door on your way out.”

  “I’m your boss and…”

  “I’m up to my ass in alligators here, Craig. If you don’t leave I’m going to throw something at you. I said I’ll fix it and I will.”

  With that, an obviously agitated Craig Slocum stormed out and slammed the door as he left.

  “That was pretty ballsy,” Jennifer said.

  “Not really, I get job offers all the time and he knows it. Plus, there’s an election in a few months and he could be out of a job. God willing. Now, the cross exam of Ava.”

  The two of them went over it very thoroughly to decide the best way to go at her. Their lunches arrived and by the time they finished eating Gondeck was feeling much better about the day’s events.

  While they gathered up their notes and prepared to leave, a thought occurred to Jennifer. She told Gondeck she was going to go check something and would get back as soon as she could.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I just have a hunch about something. It’s probably nothing but I’m going to check it out anyway,” she answered as she left and hurried out ahead of him.

  “You may proceed, Mr. Gondeck,” Judge Rios said after court had reconvened and Ava was back on the stand.

  “Permission to treat the witness as hostile, your Honor,” Gondeck asked Rios. Technically, Ava was still a witness for the prosecution and Gondeck wanted to treat her as if she was not. This would allow him to ask narrow, closed, leading questions which he otherwise would not be allowed to do.

  “Granted,” Rios replied.

  “Your testimony this morning was quite different than what it was the other day, isn’t that true, Mrs. Hammond?”

  “Yes, because…” she tried to explain.

  “We’ll get to why you changed your story. Please, just answer the question,” Gondeck cordially interrupted her.

  “Yes,” she repeated.

  “You did not tell any of this to me, Ms. Moore, or the police, did you?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Because, according to this morning’s testimony, you were fulfilling your friend’s wishes and trying to help convict the defendant, isn’t that true?”

  “Yes.”

  “In fact, you have told two very different stories on that witness stand haven’t you?”

  "Yes,” she meekly replied.

  “Were you lying the other day or were you lying this morning?”

  “Objection, argumentative,” Marc said.

  “Sustained,” Rios ruled.

  “Permission to approach, your Honor?”

  “Granted.”

  Gondeck took the photo Jennifer had come across, walked up to the witness stand and handed it to Ava. He stood silently for several seconds while she held it in her hands, a look of horror on her face.

  “I am showing you a photograph marked for identification as state’s exhibit thirty-seven. Do you recognize it?”

  “Yes,” she croaked.

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Hammond, I didn’t hear you.”

  “Yes,” she repeated more clearly.

  “On the face of it, in the upper right-hand corner, there is a date on it. Will you read that date for the jury, please?”

  Ava read the digitally stamped date and Gondeck asked, “This picture was taken last October, is that correct?”

  “Yes,” she agreed.

  “Your Honor,” Marc said as he stood up to address the court. “I don’t believe I have seen this mystery photo. I want to…”

  “Approach,” Rios said to both lawyers, “and bring it with you,” she t
old Gondeck.

  The three of them huddled at the bench and Gondeck handed the photo to Marc. He took one look at it and said, “You Honor, we were not provided with a copy of this in discovery.”

  “It’s not probative of the defendant’s guilt or innocence, your Honor. We’re not obligated to give him everything that was removed from the house or his office.”

  “Where was this?” Rios asked.

  “In a box in our office. To be honest, we didn’t even notice it ourselves. Your Honor, we’re only offering it to impugn her credibility.”

  “Your Honor, this is entirely prejudicial and has no probative value at all,” Marc said.

  “I’ll allow it for credibility purposes only. Your client should have told you about this. Let’s go,” Rios concluded.

  Marc took his seat and did his best to ignore Prentiss, whom Marc would have liked to strangle. Gondeck went back to the witness stand and handed the photo to Ava again.

  “Mrs. Hammond explain to the jury what this is a photo of,” he said as the courtroom door opened and Jennifer Moore came in carrying several sheets of paper.

  “It’s a, um, it’s a photo of Gordon Prentiss and me.”

  “Where was it taken?”

  “In a hotel room,” she answered as she set the picture on the rail of the witness stand.

  “And the two of you are lying on the bed, looking at the camera and you are both naked are you not?”

  “Yes,” she quietly admitted.

  At that point Gondeck picked up the photo, walked over to the jury box and slowly walked in front of the jurors holding up the photo for all of them to get a good look. It was probably a good thing the jurors were watching Gondeck and not Ava. She was glaring at Gordon and if looks could kill, Gordon Prentiss would have dropped dead on the spot. When Gondeck finished, he sat back down at the prosecution table and huddled with Jennifer.

  “Do you have any more questions for this witness?” Rios asked.

  “Yes, I certainly do, your Honor. Mrs. Hammond, how long were you involved in a sexual relationship with the defendant?” This was clearly on open ended question that broke the cardinal rule of not asking a question you did not know the answer to. It didn’t really matter.