Michael Benson's True Crime Bundle

by Michael Benson

“Sarah Ludemann tried to get back in her minivan—but she didn’t make it. She eventually ended up down on the ground,” Hanewicz said, rigidly gesturing toward the courtroom floor with outstretched arms.

  And Rachel thought she was just going to walk away. But Janet Camacho had something to say about that. Janet looked down and saw the knife in Rachel’s hand.

  “‘What are you doing?’” Hanewicz quoted Janet as saying. “‘What are you going to do with that?’” Janet had asked, referring to the knife.

  Janet Camacho was fearless. Knife or no knife, she confronted Rachel; and a second fight began. Jilica moved forward, in a small attempt to get Janet away from the girl with the knife, but they were so caught up in their own ruckus that none of the girls noticed that Sarah was on the ground.

  “Interestingly, Rachel never tried to use the knife on Janet,” Hanewicz noted.

  People do unexpected things sometimes when in the throes of hand-to-hand combat. Janet Camacho, for example, took off her flip-flops and smacked Rachel with them. While smacking Rachel in the head with the flip-flops, Janet used her other hand to try and get the knife away from her.

  The fight didn’t stay in one place, as Rachel retreated and Janet pursued. They moved out of the street and onto Javier’s front lawn. Jilica noticed for the first time that Sarah was lying in the street on the driver’s side of the minivan, just below the still-open driver’s door.

  Jilica began screaming.

  Hanewicz promised the jury that it would get to hear the 911 tape. At some point in the fight, still on the lawn, Rachel managed to get away from Janet Camacho. She ran toward the back of the house and, in the prosecutor’s words, she “ditched something.”

  When Rachel returned to the front of the house, no knife. There was a lot of commotion. Emergency vehicles screamed onto the block. Paramedics were approaching on foot, carrying equipment.

  “There was someone on the ground, stabbed, lying in the middle of the street,” Hanewicz said. “And while all of that commotion was going on, she,” the prosecutor said, gesturing toward the defendant, just so there could be no mistake as to whom she was referring, “she just sat there, in the back, showing no emotion whatsoever.”

  Like nothing had ever happened.

  Hanewicz told the jury that she was confident that after they heard all of the evidence in this case, they would find Rachel Wade guilty of second-degree murder, and that she did not act in self-defense.

  The prosecutor thanked the jury for their attention, and then she sat down. She had spoken for fourteen minutes.

  Judge Bulone asked if the defense was ready to deliver its opening. Jay Hebert said that the defense wished to reserve its opening statement until the beginning of their case-in-chief.

  “Very well. In that case, the state may call their first witness,” the judge said.

  Assistant State Attorney Wesley Dicus, a slender, bespectacled man, stood up and said, “Your Honor, the state calls Ashley Lovelady.”

  Prospective witnesses were kept in a witness room until it was their turn to testify. Keeping them out of the courtroom prevented testimony from being affected by the testimony that preceded it.

  The message—“Ashley Lovelady to the stand”—was relayed out into the hall, and from there into the witness room. After a short delay, a young woman entered the courtroom, rolling her shoulders with a tough-girl gait. That walk spoke eloquently. She did not play.

  Ashley had a massive calamity of hair over her shoulders and down her back. She wore a dark blue sweater over a gray dress over dark leggings. As she took the oath and sat in the witness chair, Rachel Wade was watching her closely, pausing now and again to scratch notes in her yellow legal pad.

  As ASA Dicus stood to begin his questioning, Ashley Lovelady suddenly did not seem so tough anymore. She was filled with anxiety, perhaps near tears, trying to control her breathing and closing her eyes tightly in an attempt to remain composed.

  There was a natural urge to think that since Ashley’s hair was big, her voice would be also. But this was not the case. When Dicus asked how she was doing, Ashley replied something, perhaps “fine,” in the tiniest of all possible voices.

  Judge Bulone immediately piped in that Ashley was going to have to speak up. Ashley shuddered as if she’d been admonished by the voice of God.

  Dicus gently suggested she move her chair forward a little bit so that she was closer to the microphone. Ashley liked that idea and complied immediately.

  The prosecutor asked her if she had ever testified in court in front of a jury before, and Ashley admitted that she had not.

  Was she nervous?

  “Yes,” she said, showing a small smile.

  No, she wasn’t employed. She was a student, although she did not actually attend a school. She took a couple of courses online.

  In between questions, she was still closing her eyes tightly as if holding back tears. She said she was trying to finish up some credits for school, trying to get her diploma. She lived with her parents in Pinellas Park.

  “Did you know a girl named Ashley Ludemann?” Dicus inquired.

  Ashley Lovelady looked at the prosecutor as if he had two heads.

  Dicus repeated his question, word for word, and had to be informed of his problem by a voice that sounded like a prompter during a play feeding an actor his forgotten lines.

  Before he could correct himself, the witness said, “You mean Sarah?”

  He did. Yes, Ashley knew Sarah. Very well. They had been best friends, in fact. They’d known each other since preschool. Since forever.

  Ashley told the court that Sarah had gone to two high schools. She started out at Tarpon High, and then transferred to Pinellas Park. She had been attending Pinellas Park High School during the spring of 2009. Sarah lived with her parents and had no job. She didn’t have her own car. When she needed to get around, she borrowed her mother’s vehicle, a minivan.

  Dicus asked Ashley if she knew Joshua Camacho. She did, but she was uncertain as to how long she had known him. After some haggling, they settled on the phrase “for a substantial period.”

  Ashley knew Joshua because he was Sarah’s boyfriend, Sarah’s only boyfriend.

  “Did Joshua consider Sarah his exclusive girlfriend?” Dicus asked.

  “No, he did not,” Ashley said firmly.

  Ashley testified that she knew the defendant as well because Rachel Wade was Joshua’s ex-girlfriend. The witness was aware that during his relationship with Sarah, Joshua had continued to see Rachel.

  What did the witness mean by the verb “see”?

  That meant he continued to have intimate relations with Rachel, Ashley patiently explained.

  The prosecutor asked how Joshua’s continued intimacy with Rachel “affected everyone.”

  Ashley said it caused a lot of drama and arguing.

  “Between who?”

  “All of them.”

  Dicus wanted to know how long the drama had been going on. Ashley, well rehearsed, instantly replied that it had been eight months in duration. For eight straight months, the drama and arguing brewed and grew.

  Did she know a boy named Jay Camacho?

  He was Joshua’s older brother, and the witness’s ex-boyfriend.

  Dicus asked what Ashley’s relationship with Jay was during April 2009.

  Ashley again closed her eyes tightly, battling her emotions. She built up her courage, took a deep breath, and blurted out, “We were friends with benefits.” Again her eyes were closed tightly.

  Spectators got the impression that though the phrase was common enough, she herself had never used it before; and now that she had, she couldn’t believe she’d done so in front of a courtroom full of people, many of whom she knew.

  Dicus cocked his head as if he were unfamiliar with the phrase. “Friends with benefits? What’s that mean?”

  Ashley explained that it meant friends who have sexual relations—and she began to cry.

  Dicus forged on, and Ashley quic
kly regained her composure.

  Yes, she knew Janet Camacho. That was Jay’s sister. Janet was older than both Jay and Joshua. She had her own place and her own car.

  And yes, she knew Javier Laboy. He had dated Rachel also, although Ashley wasn’t sure if they were still dating at the time of the incident.

  Dicus called the witness’s attention to the early hours of April 15, 2009. She was in her car, bringing Jay a spare cell phone because his was broken. She first tried to deliver the phone to him at his parents’ house on 102nd Avenue. At Jay’s parents’ house, she learned that Jay wasn’t there. She got back in her car, called him, and learned he was at his sister’s. (Some jurors may have wondered on what phone Ashley called Jay, as his was supposed to be broken, but the question went unasked.)

  So Ashley drove toward Janet’s house along a route that took her past Javier’s house. Dicus probed this point until it was clear to the jury that Ashley believed she drove more or less a direct route to Janet’s house and did not go out of her way to pass Javier’s home.

  It was impossible to tell if this was true, however, as Ashley knew none of the street names and used her hands to explain in which directions she turned.

  Dicus asked Ashley if she knew Javier’s address. She did not.

  Did she know what time it was? A little after midnight.

  What did she see when she drove by? She saw Rachel, Javier, and “another guy” standing in the driveway. Seeing Rachel stood out in her mind because of “everything that had been going on” between Rachel and Sarah.

  The prosecutor asked the witness if she saw Rachel Wade in the courtroom; and if so, could she point her out? Ashley pointed at the defendant, and she identified her as the “girl in the black shirt.”

  When she drove past Javier’s house and saw the defendant in the driveway, did she say anything? She did not.

  Did she swerve? No.

  How fast was she going? About the speed limit.

  What was the speed limit on that street? No clue.

  Dicus said he thought it was probably twenty-five miles per hour. How fast did she think she was going?

  “About that,” Ashley said.

  Dicus asked her if she, like a lot of teenagers, spent a lot of time on the phone. She said she did.

  Was she talking on the phone when she drove past Javier’s house? She said she didn’t remember, but it was possible.

  As long as they were dealing with possibilities, Dicus asked if it was possible that Ashley turned a little wide onto Javier’s street in such a manner that it might have appeared that she swerved toward Rachel as she passed.

  Yeah, it was possible.

  After that, Ashley drove to Janet’s house. Jay came outside and she gave him the phone. She and Jay talked for about a minute. Just as she was about to leave, Janet, Jilica, and Sarah came out of Janet’s house. Then she left. She saw them get into Sarah’s mom’s minivan.

  Dicus questioned Ashley about Jilica. The witness said she knew who Jilica was now, but she did not at that time.

  Sarah and Ashley pulled away from Janet’s house at approximately the same time. Ashley was first, but it was nearly simultaneous.

  At the four-way stop sign at the end of the block, Sarah pulled up alongside Ashley’s car. Sarah rolled down her window. Ashley thought she looked “upset, angry, and frustrated.” She looked “shaky.”

  Had she ever described Sarah’s demeanor in a different way?

  She had, in her deposition for the defense. At that time, she’d said Sarah was “in a rage.” She explained that she changed that part of her story to make it more correct; saying Sarah was in a rage made it seem like she was ready to “go out and kill somebody,” but that was not the case at all. That was an exaggeration. Ashley explained that Sarah looked more frustrated, like she was just “done with the drama.”

  Sarah complained that Rachel had been texting her, driving past Janet’s house and leaving threatening messages like, “You have to go home sometime tonight,” and that she was outside Sarah’s house waiting for her to come home.

  Had anyone in the car asked Ashley if she knew where Rachel was?

  Yes, Janet had. Ashley said she’d just seen her at Javier’s house.

  Ashley admitted that she hadn’t always been up front about the fact that she was the one who told the girls where they could find Rachel. When she initially spoke with the police, she did not mention telling Sarah where Rachel was. Later, however, she called the detective back, and admitted that she had told Sarah where Rachel was that night.

  Why had she held back at first?

  “Because I didn’t want people to think differently of me,” Ashley testified, sobbing, “that it was all my fault and I’m the reason she’s not here today.” She bowed her head and put her hand over her face.

  “Did anyone tell you to call the detective back and tell the truth?”

  “I did it on my own.”

  She hadn’t thought there was really going to be a fight. After all, this had been going on for eight months, and no one had yet struck a blow—and the only weapon that had been used was Silly String.

  Dicus established that Ashley could not only recognize the defendant but, because she had spoken to Rachel Wade on a number of occasions, she could also recognize her voice. Ashley said that she had heard Rachel on Sarah’s voice mail phone messages where Rachel had threatened Sarah.

  The prosecutor handed the witness a disc marked state’s exhibit number two. This was a disc that the witness had earlier listened to, initialed, and dated.

  Had she recognized the voice on the disc? Yes, it was Rachel’s.

  Ashley testified that she had heard Rachel making threats to Sarah in the past, threats previous to and different from those contained on state’s exhibit number two.

  After a short shuffling of papers at the prosecution desk, Dicus said he had no further questions at this time.

  Judge Bulone looked to the defense table.

  Jay Hebert stood to cross-examine.

  Under defense attorney Hebert’s questioning, Ashley reiterated that she was Sarah’s best friend and that Joshua Camacho was the love of Sarah’s life. Sarah and Joshua met while he was working at the Chick-fil-A at the Park Place Mall in Pinellas Park.

  When Sarah met Joshua, they didn’t start dating right away, but sometime after that. When Sarah and Joshua began dating, Joshua was still dating a young woman named Erin Slothower. Yes, he was cheating on Erin with Sarah.

  “At some point in time, you know Sarah had a baby by Josh, correct?”

  “You mean Erin,” the witness said patiently.

  Grown-ups couldn’t keep anybody’s name straight.

  “Erin,” Hebert corrected.

  “Yes,” Ashley replied.

  More than anything else, Jay Hebert wanted to make the jury see the defendant as normal, a regular teenager who was dramatic, loud, abrasive, obscene, and impulsive, just like every teenager in the world.

  So he asked about the relationship between Erin and Sarah; there was drama there, too, right?

  Ashley said there was.

  Another lengthy sidebar interrupted the flow of Hebert’s cross-examination, and Rachel—who was not wearing makeup—began to look heavy-lidded at the defense table, ready to put her head on her folded arms and take a nap. But she battled to stay alert.

  If Hebert had wanted to ask the witness if it was true that Sarah and Erin had had a fistfight not long before the incident, in order to establish that the victim had a history of violence, he didn’t get that opportunity.

  So, instead, the defense attorney reminded the witness that they were discussing the relationship between Joshua, Rachel, Erin, and Sarah. Wasn’t it true that Joshua did not like to give titles to the women he had relationships with, that he didn’t like the term “girlfriend”? If he called one of them his “girlfriend,” that would mean he was cheating on her with the others. He thought of them as “friends with benefits,” a term Ashley herself had used
on the witness stand during direct examination. Wasn’t it true that he liked to think of himself as a guy who could sleep with any number of women, and yet not be committed to any of them?

  Ashley said all of that was true.

  In fact, according to her testimony, she was in a relationship much like that with Joshua’s brother. Did she know that Joshua wanted those girls to fight for him?

  Wesley Dicus was on his feet with an objection before Hebert had an opportunity to complete the question. His grounds were relevance, hearsay, and that it was improper character evidence. He called for another sidebar, and again Hebert’s momentum was squelched.

  Hebert was suspicious of Ashley’s testimony that she had passed Javier’s house by accident that night, because it was on the easiest route between the houses of Jay’s mother and sister. He asked her to confirm the addresses of those two houses. Ashley said she couldn’t do that. She didn’t know the addresses. She didn’t even know the names of the streets. She only knew how to get there.

  “You took the most direct route to Janet’s house?”

  “No, I took the most easiest route in the direction my car was pointing. Instead of turning around, I just went in the direction I was.”

  Hebert pointed out that Ashley had to go quite a ways out of her way to pass Javier’s house, that she had to go north and then south and then north again.

  Ashley said she was just “working her way through the neighborhood.”

  “Snaking your way through the neighborhood?”

  “Yes.”

  “Taking the most direct route?”

  “Yes.”

  “Not talking with Sarah that night?”

  “No.”

  She hadn’t spoken to Sarah or texted Sarah. She did not know that Sarah was looking for Rachel.

  Hebert did get Ashley to admit that although she may not have specifically known about problems between Rachel and Sarah that night, she knew that there was a “pattern of drama” between the two.

  She knew, for example, about the Myspace and Facebook exchanges between Sarah and Rachel. She knew about Sarah posting pictures of herself and Joshua at the beach. She knew that there had been comments about Sarah posted online.