Michael Benson's True Crime Bundle

by Michael Benson

  “That’s because Rachel was scared of you,” Hebert said. “You had threatened Rachel before, hadn’t you, ma’am?”

  Janet didn’t recall. What she did recall was she had a problem with Rachel because she didn’t want her with her brother. She was a bad influence. Up until this point, Janet had been making solid eye contact with the attorney as she answered questions. However, she gave this response with eyes lowered, almost as if she were reading the response from an invisible card. “That was it. I didn’t know her like that. I just didn’t want her with my brother.”

  “You told her to ‘stay the ‘eff’ away from my brother,’ didn’t you, ma’am?”

  “I don’t recall that, either.”

  Hebert returned to the scene at Javier’s house. Janet agreed that the minivan pulled up quickly, but not that Sarah got out quickly. Sarah slowly turned off her car and opened her door. Rachel was already around the corner. From the moment they pulled up, Janet could clearly see Rachel.

  “You made eye contact with her?”

  Janet wasn’t ready to go that far. She saw Rachel, and she was sure Rachel saw her. Janet definitely saw the knife in Rachel’s hand. Sarah had barely gotten her feet on the ground when Rachel was on her and the tussle began.

  Hebert found a copy of the diagram she’d drawn for Detective Lynch. Janet had placed an X marking the spot where the tussle had occurred. He showed the diagram to the witness and asked if she remembered it. She said no.

  He pointed out that she had signed it. She said okay. As it turned out, the X was not on the driver’s side of the van at all, but near the passenger-side front of the van.

  “Are you telling me that I said the fight took place in front of Sarah’s van?” Janet asked.

  “This is your drawing. I’m just asking you if you remember drawing this.”

  “No,” Janet said, answering with a small smile. “That’s not what happened. The fight never occurred in front of Sarah’s van.”

  “So what you are saying is that when you drew this, and you were under oath, you were not being truthful.”

  “No, I’m saying that that drawing is messed up.”

  Judge Bulone interrupted and asked the witness if she recalled making the drawing at her deposition. She nodded pleasantly. “Oh yeah, I drew—but the fight never happened in front of Sarah’s van.”

  Hebert tried to get Janet to commit to who started the fight, to who threw the first punch, but Janet said it was impossible to tell. Was it because she had an obstructed view? No, because everything had happened so suddenly. It was a flurry of motion all at once.

  How tall was Sarah?

  Janet looked off into the distance, trying to remember. “She’s tall” was the best she could come up with. Hebert asked if she was about five-nine, and Janet said sure.

  “So the fight was over in five seconds, and Rachel started to walk back toward Javier’s house. You then attacked Rachel. Am I correct?”

  Janet didn’t like the word “attacked.”

  “I confronted her, yes.”

  “You confronted her and then you hit her. Isn’t that right?”

  “Yes.”

  Hebert wanted to account for Jilica. Where was she during all of this?

  Janet said Jilica was with Sarah “the whole time.” Hebert wanted to know how Jilica got from the backseat of the van to Sarah, but Janet didn’t know. She’d been focused on Rachel and hadn’t been watching. Jilica had been nowhere near Janet or Rachel, the witness concluded.

  “So, at that point, Jilica wasn’t grabbing you? Trying to hold you back?”

  “No, not at that point.”

  “If somebody said that, they wouldn’t be telling the truth.”

  “She did hold me back. Afterward.”

  “Oh, that’s right. You had two fights with Rachel Wade that night, didn’t you?”

  “I wouldn’t call the first one a fight.”

  “Oh. All right. An encounter. A-a-a—she had a knife.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So you go back, grab Rachel by the hair, and drag her across the grass. You beat her, didn’t you, ma’am?”

  Janet didn’t like the word “beat.” She was hitting her, sure. Hitting her with her hands. But that was after she noticed Sarah was stabbed. Janet admitted she was more violent after learning that her friend had been stabbed.

  Hebert asked her, flat out, if she didn’t go there to “beat Rachel down.”

  “No, sir,” Janet said firmly. She didn’t. Sarah didn’t. No one did. “It takes a lot for Sarah to fight,” Janet added.

  There was an opening: “You’ve seen Sarah fight before?”

  Dicus objected to the question on grounds of relevance, but Judge Bulone ruled that, now that the witness had opened the door, Hebert was allowed to walk through it.

  Janet said that she had not seen Sarah fight before, which was “just the point” she was trying to make. She had seen Sarah in situations where other girls might have fought, but Sarah didn’t—therefore the witness knew it took a lot for Sarah to fight.

  In fact, that was why Janet didn’t think there was going to be a fight that night. Because Sarah didn’t fight.

  “You’d seen Sarah get in a fight before, haven’t you, ma’am? But not with Rachel. You saw Sarah get in a fight with Erin, didn’t you?” Hebert said.

  Dicus objected on the grounds of relevance, and Judge Bulone sustained. Hebert felt frustrated. He’d been trying to show that his client was in fear for her life because Sarah was out to get her. How could Sarah’s history of violence not be relevant? But the ruling had been made, and the question went unanswered.

  “Are you aware that your brother wanted these two girls to fight one another?”

  Dicus objected both on the grounds of relevance and that the question was based upon hearsay.

  Judge Bulone thought for a moment and said, “I’ll sustain the objection.”

  “Without revealing the contents of your conversation with your brother, are you aware if your brother wanted girls to fight over him?”

  “Objection, Your Honor. It is the same question,” Dicus said impatiently.

  “Sustained,” the judge said.

  Hebert was through.

  On redirect ASA Dicus made it clear that even though Janet had told Hebert during her deposition that Sarah and Joshua weren’t dating, she had also, during that same interview, described the pair as “inseparable.”

  Dicus returned to the drawing Hebert had used to imply Janet was changing the location of the tussle. The prosecutor showed the drawing to Janet and asked her, once again, if she had drawn it.

  Janet figured maybe she had. Dicus asked if she was an artist.

  She laughed. “No, not at all.”

  Dicus asked if the illustration was “drawn to scale.”

  Janet didn’t understand. Dicus explained and she gave an emphatic no.

  “They just told me to draw the way the cars were,” she said.

  Dicus said the drawing wasn’t very good, that a kindergarten student with some talent could have done better, and Janet agreed.

  “My son probably could have done better,” she said, smiling.

  “I see scribble and some initials. Is that what you see?”

  “Yes.”

  Dicus asked her what the X was supposed to signify.

  Janet said, “That’s the thing. I don’t understand what …”

  Dicus asked, wasn’t it true that during that same deposition, during which she’d made the drawing, Hebert also had asked Janet to describe verbally the altercation between Sarah and Rachel?

  Janet gave an enthusiastic yes. He had asked many questions on the subject, questions that involved distances and where things were situated in relationship to one another.

  Dicus read some of Janet’s statement during the deposition, during which she had said that the fight took place almost as soon as Sarah got out of the minivan. In fact, Janet had said that Rachel was on Sarah so quickly, Sarah ha
d not even had an opportunity to close the car door.

  The prosecutor asked Janet if she recalled making those statements, and Janet said she did. Dicus asked if, indeed, those statements were consistent with the testimony she’d given today, and Janet said they were.

  Wasn’t it true that Janet had already described the way the fight came down when he asked her to make the scribbled illustration?

  Janet said it was true.

  Janet absolutely believed there would be no fight that night. Janet knew Rachel was afraid of her. As long as she was there, Janet believed there wouldn’t be a fight.

  Of Rachel’s threats, Janet said, “I thought it was just words.”

  After all, earlier, when Janet got out of Jeremy’s car and started to walk toward Rachel’s vehicle, Rachel fled.

  “Because you were sitting in the front seat of the van, plainly visible, did you believe that Sarah Ludemann was going to be safe?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Dicus pointed out that Hebert had earlier asked Janet about statements Janet had made to Rachel regarding the defendant staying away from Joshua, but—and this was the point—Hebert had not asked when Janet had made those statements.

  Janet said it was true that she thought Rachel was a “bad influence” on her brother, but she did not recall having a phone conversation with Rachel during which she expressed that opinion.

  Defense attorney Jay Hebert had a few questions for Janet on recross.

  “Isn’t it true that you knew Rachel wouldn’t come to your house because she was scared of you, and you knew you could control that situation?”

  “No, she … I mean, yeah, she didn’t want to deal with me.”

  “She … didn’t … want … to … deal … with … you,” Hebert repeated slowly. “That’s all I have, Judge.”

  Janet Camacho was excused.

  Judge Bulone explained to the jury that the next witness, Dustin Grimes, was in the U.S. Army and was stationed in South Korea, so his testimony had been pre-recorded onto a DVD, and would be shown to the jury on a television monitor. The tape was made in the same courtroom, and all of the same parties—judge, lawyers, and defendant—had been present.

  During his testimony, Dustin had identified and testified regarding several prosecution exhibits, so the jury needed to be shown those exhibits in a fashion synchronized with the recording. If the witness pointed out something on a map, for example, the jury would not only need to be shown the map, but also where on the map the witness had pointed. Everyone was in agreement that this was the best way to handle the situation. Since it had been anticipated that Dustin would be out of the country at the time of the trial, appropriate preparations were made.

  Dustin Grimes was an athletic-looking white man. He wore a light-colored button-up collar shirt, and had a military haircut. On the TV screen, he took the stand, spelled his last name, and gave his date of birth, which was during the autumn of 1987. He was married and a resident of Pinellas Park. He was in the army and had been since September 9,2009. He was scheduled to be based in Korea and would begin the trip there the following weekend, which was the beginning of April 2010. He would be in Korea between one and three years.

  Lisset Hanewicz asked what was Dustin Grimes’s relationship with Javier Laboy. They were friends since seventh grade. That night Dustin was on his way home and saw Javier outside. He stopped, and parked his car on the front lawn, just to the side of the driveway. They hadn’t seen each other in a while and he wanted to see how things were going. They were just hanging out, talking in Javier’s front yard.

  At some point, Dustin learned that a girl named Rachel was on her way over so she and Javier could get something to eat, and to help her get over the argument she was having. He didn’t know the specifics of the argument, just that this was a friend of Javier’s who needed calming down. He didn’t know Rachel, just of her.

  He wasn’t sure of the exact time. It was “late at night.” Guessing, he’d say around eleven o’clock. Rachel arrived alone in a red Saturn, parked at the curb out front. She and Javier talked a little bit and she was on and off the phone. The boys leaned on Dustin’s car as Rachel yelled about who-knew-what into the phone. She was upset.

  She was pacing back and forth as she yelled, across the yard and around her car. Dustin didn’t know how long that went on. At some point, Rachel showed them a kitchen knife she’d brought from home. The boys told her to “put it away,” that there was “no need” for her to have it.

  Dustin was under the impression that she had put the knife away. He wasn’t sure how she ended up with it again. At some point, a car sped down the street past Javier’s house. The car barreled around the corner and swerved toward Rachel, as if it were “trying to run her over.”

  Five minutes later, Javier gave Rachel directions, either to Joshua or Sarah’s house. Then she did leave, but she was back in five minutes.

  She told Javier what she’d done while she was gone. All Dustin remembered overhearing was that she sat in her car near whichever house she went to.

  Upon her return to Javier’s house, Rachel’s demeanor remained the same. She was still upset, still arguing on the phone.

  Javier’s attempts to calm this girl down were a complete failure. Rachel, in fact, was increasingly agitated. Rachel griped aloud about Sarah, saying, “I’m going to kill that fucking bitch.” She said it to Javier. Dustin overheard it, but he didn’t take her seriously. He thought it was just a “figure of speech,” he said.

  About ten minutes later, a van pulled up in front of the house. The driver put the van in park and three girls emerged simultaneously from the vehicle. Rachel was already making her way toward the driver’s side of the van and was crossing the front of the vehicle.

  On the TV screen, Dustin was shown a photo of the scene that was taken on the night of the incident. He marked upon it where everyone was standing. Using an arrow, he showed where Rachel was standing when the van arrived, and where she walked as soon as the vehicle stopped. Rachel crossed in front of her own and Sarah’s vehicles to the site of the fight, which took place near the left front of the van.

  Synchronization went smoothly. As the video played, the jury was shown these exhibits.

  Dustin said the girls “locked up” and the fight was over very quickly, lasting only three or four seconds. He couldn’t tell who threw the first blow. Sarah got in three or four punches, and Rachel was punching with a downward motion, or so he thought at the time.

  When it was over, Sarah got back in the van and Rachel walked away. As Sarah sat down in the driver’s seat, one of the girls she was with went after Rachel, swearing at her. Dustin couldn’t tell exactly what she was saying. He didn’t remember if it was the girl who had been riding in the front passenger seat or the girl who rode in the back. A second fight broke out.

  The girl from the van took off her sandal and hit Rachel with it. Dustin said that he and Javier were “just standing there, not wanting to get involved.” The girl who wasn’t fighting screamed that Sarah had been stabbed, so the boys were hesitant to approach because Rachel, they then noticed, had the knife they had seen earlier in her hand.

  Knife or no knife, the girl was “beating up” Rachel. The fight began before the girl screamed that Sarah had been stabbed, and continued after it. The girl dragged Rachel across the yard by her hair. The fight broke up after about a minute, and Rachel walked toward the back of Javier’s house. Dustin didn’t know what she did back there.

  It was only then that Javier and Dustin first went over to Sarah to see how she was. Javier removed his shirt and used it to apply pressure to the wound.

  Sarah was unresponsive on the ground, not far from the still-open driver’s door to the van.

  “Did you know Sarah?” ASA Hanewicz asked the witness.

  “I didn’t know her. I knew of her,” Dustin replied.

  “No further questions,” the prosecutor said.

  Jay Hebert wanted to get the order of events straigh
t. Dustin Grimes arrived at Javier Laboy’s before Rachel? And he was talking to Javier by the driveway when Rachel Wade first arrived?

  Correct.

  “You were a single guy?”

  “I was already dating my wife.”

  Dustin knew all about the drama: girls atwitter over a boy. Javier disliked the guy, so Dustin had heard the stories. The witness didn’t know, however, with whom Rachel was on the phone. But yes, it had to do with Joshua Camacho and his harem.

  Rachel made a comment about “killing Sarah”—and that was before the car came down the street and swerved at her. Javier was in a position to hear the threat—in fact, Dustin believed Javier did hear Rachel’s statement.

  Dustin thought Rachel was “talking smack.” He agreed that he had heard other people make similar statements without ensuing violence, and he agreed that these types of statements were “common with people” of his generation. And the witness concurred that such statements were routinely made through a variety of media, phone, social networking, and so forth.

  Hebert asked about the swerving car. Dustin knew little about it. He hadn’t noticed the color or make of the car—or the gender of the driver. He noticed the car immediately, though. It turned onto Javier’s block in a speedy and erratic fashion. Even before the swerving car, Rachel was anxious, in anticipation of violence. He didn’t think that much about it as it occurred: “I just thought it was someone being stupid,” he testified. There was no doubt that the car swerved toward Rachel, or that it came within one or two feet of striking her.

  Dustin heard Javier give the defendant directions to a house before she left and was gone for five minutes; then she returned. He wasn’t sure, but he thought that perhaps she was going either to Sarah’s or Joshua’s house. When Rachel returned after being gone for roughly five minutes, she parked in exactly the same spot. Ten minutes after she returned, the van arrived. Hebert did the math: about seventeen minutes passed between swerving car and van arrival.

  Even though Dustin Grimes was a prosecution witness, and had changed the order of events—putting the swerving car before Rachel’s brief trip to someone’s house—there were segments of his testimony that thrilled Jay Hebert, and the defense attorney made a show of having Dustin repeat them.