“And how long after that did Dwayne Reed come into your shop?”
“He come in the next day.”
“And how long after that was it before you told the police what you claim Dwayne said?”
“A week.”
Alex held up his statement. “According to the statement you gave the police, it was ten days later. Is your sworn statement wrong?”
“No, it ain’t wrong.”
“Then your testimony today is wrong.”
Henderson folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t know.”
Alex turned to the jury, her eyebrows raised. “You don’t know?”
“Well, I guess I’m off a little bit.”
“We can agree on that much, Mr. Henderson. Now, the police didn’t come to you to find out if you knew anything about this crime, did they?”
“No.”
“In fact, you just walked into the East Patrol station and said you had information about Mr. Donaire’s murder. True?”
“Yes, ma’am. That’s right.”
“You weren’t subpoenaed?”
“No, ma’am.”
“You knew that Wilfred Donaire was a drug dealer, didn’t you?”
“I knew he could fix you up, if that’s what you mean.”
“I mean you knew he was a drug dealer. You knew that. True?”
Henderson pulled out his handkerchief and dabbed at his forehead. “Yeah. I guess so.”
“You guess so? Did it bother you that one of your regulars was a drug dealer?”
“Wilfred never bothered me none. If I only cut hair for the people in my neighborhood what never did nuthin’ wrong, I wouldn’t have nobody’s hair to cut.”
That brought another chuckle, two black men on the jury nodding and mouthing an
“That man followed your wife and children into the courtroom. Who is he?”
Bradshaw interrupted. “Objection! Relevance.”
Before the judge could respond, the man bolted from his seat, crashed through the courtroom door, and disappeared amid a chorus of gasps from the jury. Mary Henderson cradled her children and began to cry as Jameer Henderson buried his face in his hands. Judge West banged his gavel, his face beet red.
“Counsel will approach!” Alex and Bradshaw did as they were told. “Ms. Stone. You better have a good explanation for what just happened because if I find that you deliberately tried to force a mistrial, I’ll throw you in jail for contempt.”
Alex was unfazed. “The last thing I want in this case is a mistrial. All I did was ask the witness if he knew the man in the back of the courtroom.”
“Which,” Bradshaw said, “is totally irrelevant since we agreed he’s not going to be a witness. Now I’m the one who has to ask for a mistrial. There’s no way to predict how the jury will interpret what just happened. We’ve got no choice but to start over with a new jury.”
“That’s a load of crap, Your Honor.”
Judge West pointed his gavel at Alex. “I won’t have that language in my courtroom, Counsel.”
“My apologies, but Mr. Bradshaw couldn’t be more wrong. If you’ll let me proceed, I’ll demonstrate the relevance.”
Judge West peered at her over the top of his glasses. “You better do just that, and if you don’t, I’ll reconsider Mr. Bradshaw’s request for a mistrial.” He turned to the jury. “Ladies and gentlemen. A trial is a lot like live television. You never know what’s going to happen. As I instructed you at the beginning of this trial, you are to keep an open mind until you have heard all of the evidence and I have instructed you regarding the law in this case. The only evidence you may consider is from the testimony of the witnesses and the exhibits that are admitted into evidence. You shall not consider anything else, including that man’s sudden departure from the courtroom. The witness will answer Ms. Stone’s question.”
Jameer Henderson was slumped in the witness chair, wringing his hands. He looked up when the judge told him to answer.
“Mr. Henderson,” Alex said, “who was that man?”
Henderson answered, his voice soft and shaky. “I can’t say.”
“You’ll have to speak up so the jury can hear you.”
“I can’t say.”
“Because you don’t know or you’re afraid to say?” Henderson hesitated, shifting his attention from Alex to his wife, who was struggling to compose herself. “I can see that you’re concerned about your wife. Is that because of this man?”
Henderson shook his head again. “I can’t say.”
The courtroom, though built during the Depression, had been renovated and equipped with the latest technology, including television monitors the lawyers could use to display exhibits. There was a small monitor at each counsel table and at the judge’s bench and a larger one for the jury and the witness.
Grace Canfield connected her laptop so that its screen would appear on all the monitors, gave Alex a thumbs-up, and pushed a button on her laptop, filling the monitors with a photograph of the man who’d just run from the courtroom. Judge West came out of his seat and slammed his gavel onto his bench.
“This court is in recess. The jury is excused and I will see counsel in my chambers. Now!”
Chapter Four
Judge West’s chambers were a judicial man cave, all dark leather and brass-button upholstered furniture, a burnished oak desk, and matching bookcases jammed with volumes of case reporters and statutes, one wall reserved for pictures with politicians and hunting buddies, his personal hall of fame.
He planted himself in his desk chair, not realizing he’d brought his gavel with him. He tossed it onto his desk next to a wood carving of a judge grasping a pair of holstered six-guns strapped around his robe,
“Alex, what in the hell is going on? The minute that man walked into my courtroom, I called you and Tommy to the bench and asked if either one of you knew who he was. You obviously knew but you didn’t tell me. I don’t like it when lawyers lie to me.”
“I didn’t lie, Your Honor. You wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to be a witness. I wasn’t going to call him, and Tommy said he wasn’t going to either. I thought that covered it.”
“You know better than that!” Judge West said, thumping his hand on his desk. “When I ask you a question, I goddamn well expect a direct and truthful answer! If this was the first time you’d pulled a stunt like this, I’d let it slide, but I’m getting damn tired of it!”
Bradshaw saw his chance. “The problem, Judge, is that by flashing this man’s picture all over the courtroom, she’s made a bad situation worse. You’ve already told the jury to disregard him, and now she’s made that impossible.”
Alex held up her hand. “Hang on, hang on. First, Your Honor, I apologize for not answering your question more directly. I didn’t mean to mislead the court. Second, Tommy is the last person who should be complaining about the jury being shown pictures. Third, if you’d let me finish my cross-examination of the witness, you’ll see the relevance. If the witness refuses to answer, I’ll call my investigator, Grace Canfield, to testify. She’s on my witness list and she took that photograph and a number of others of the same man.”
“You had him under surveillance? Why?”
“We had Mr. Henderson under surveillance. His statement was the strongest evidence the prosecution had.
