'Then, I believe you testified that Mr. Harmon wept because mentally handicapped people have the same emotions as normal people but they have a harder time controlling their feelings.'
'Yes.'
ON th' M i 'Anger is an emotion, isn't it?'
Brock saw the trap into which he had fallen, but he had no choice but to respond affirmatively.
'Mr. Brock, if someone with an IQ of 65 to 70 was drinking and very frightened because he had just butchered a young girl with a hatchet while in an uncontrollable rage, might he not block out the memory of what he had done?'
'That's ... that's possible.'
'Mentally handicapped people are capable of persevering at tasks, are they not?'
'Yes, they can be very single-minded.'
'So, if Mr. Harmon committed a particularly bloody and violent murder, fear might spur him to lie and he would be capable of sticking to that be?'
..Yes.'
'What effect would being drunk have on this scenario?'
'Alcohol might make it more likely that Gary would not remember killing someone, if he did kill anyone,' Brock answered reluctantly.
'I didn't kill that girl,' Gary said.
'Your Honor,' O'Shay said, staring at the defendant.
'Mr. Harmon, you may not speak out in court,' judge Kuffel admonished Gary. 'Do you widerstand me?'
Gary nodded. He looked upset. Peter whispered i something in his ear and Gary looked down at the tabletop.
'You said that planning is more difficult for someone with Mr. Harmon's IQ, did you not?' O'Shay continued.
'Yes.
'But he could plan a killing, couldn't he?'
'What type of killing are you talking about?'
'Let's say he was told that a woman at a bar wanted to go out with him by someone who was playing a practical joke. When Mr. Harmon asks the woman if she wants a beer, she not only rejects him, but insults his he intelligence, a subject about which he is very sensitive.
Let's say further that Mr. Harmon physically assaults this woman. My question, Doctor ... Pardon me. Mr. was tchalait he Brock, is whether Mr. Harmon is intelligent enough to make a plan that involves going to his house to obtain a weapon, returning to the area of the bar, following a woman from the bar, killing'her and getting rid of the murder weapon?'
'He ... he could carry out that plan.'
!rse- O'Shay smiled. 'Thank you. I have no further questions.'
'Mr. Brock, you aren't a Phd but you are a speciality I heist in dealing with the mentally handicapped, are you not?' Peter asked the witness.
'Yes. That's where my training lies.'
'What does Gary Harmon's 3.20 grade point average see- mean?'
'Not much. His grades are only relative to his ability auld the,11 to perform the tasks he's given. Gary does not have an A in advanced physics.
He has an A in life skills, which means he knows how to make his bed, tie his shoes and things of that sort. The grades are given to make the iant.
Urt', students feel good about themselves, not to reflect real academic merit.'
tand 'Ms. O'Shay pointed out that Gary was on the varsity football team at Eisenhower. Tell the jury about that.'
iered & to- Gary looked up at the mention of his favorite sport.
'Gary loves football. He went. out for the team in ninth grade. The coach let him work out with the other leone con- boys, but he did not have the ability to really play.
Learning all but the simplest plays would be beyond him. So, the coach let him suit up. Every once in a while, if the team was really behind or really ahead, Gary would go in for a play or two. He would be told to block a specific person.
anted 'His senior year, the coach put Gary on varsity, but pracf she he was only in five or so plays all year. They gave him a varsity letter because he tried so hard, not because he his 's did the things the other kids did to earn the letter.'
'I have one final series of questions, Mr. Brock. How easy would it be to foot Gary into believing that he had supernatural powers that would enable him to project himself into the mind of a dead woman and see how she was killed?'
'It would be very easy. Gary wants very much to please people. He would do or say anything for approval.'
'Would he invent a story to make a person in authority happy?'
'Most definitely. Gary has a very limited imagination, but he would pick up cues if the person talking to him suggested what he wanted to hear.'
'What effect would there be on Gary if the person questioning him was a policeman?'
'That would have a big effect. Someone with Gary's IQ will follow people in authority without question. If a' policeman made suggestions to someone like Gary, there would be no way of telling if the mentally handicapped person Was remembering something or making it up to please the policeman.'
After lunch, Peter called Don Bosco, who voiced his opinion that Dennis Downes had unwittingly placed Gary Harmon in a trance state during the interrogation, thus making any statement he made unreliable for evidentiary purposes. Bosco told the jury that Sergeant Downes's 'projection transfer' technique would invi ite someone of Gary's limited intelligence to fantasize in order to please his interrogator. He pointed out many sections of the transcript where leading and suggestive questions had elicited answers from Gary that echoed suggestions made by Downes.
'Mr. Bosco,' Becky O'Shay said, when it was her turn to cross-examine, 'if I understand you correctly, you are concerned that the defendant's statements may be unreliable because he may have parroted back suggestions made by Sergeant Downes instead of relating incidents in which he was actually involved.'
'That's right.'
'You weren't at Wishing Well Park when the murder was committed, were you?' O'Shay asked with a kind smile.
'No.'
'So you don't know whether Gary Harmon committed this murder and was telling Sergeant Downes about an incident he remembers or whether he was not present during the murder and is making up a story?'
'That's true.'
'Would one way of telling whether the defendant was making up what he told the officer be to see if he knew things about Sandra Whiley's murder that were not common knowledge and were not suggested to him by Sergeant Downes?'
'Yes.'
'Thank you. No further questions.'
Peter had saved his final witness for late in the day, so his testimony would be the last thing the urors heard.
He wanted the jurors to think about that testimony all night.
'Mr. Harmon calls Zachary Howell,' Peter said.
A slender young man with curly brown hair entered the courtroom and walked to the witness stand.
'Mr. Howell,' Peter asked, 'are you a freshman at Whitaker State College?'
'Yes, sir.'
What are you studying?'
Uh, I haven't settled on a major, yet. I'm thinking, maybe, biology.'
'DO you have a girlfriend, Mr. Howell?'
