“Were you at work on June 14th of last year?”
“I was,” she said, doing her best to be helpful.
“Did you see anyone in this courtroom enter the bank on June 14th of last year?”
Smith looked around briefly before nodding her head.
“Can you please provide a verbal answer. The court reporter can’t record you nodding your head,” Pierce said, responding to her nod.
“I’m sorry. Yes, I saw the defendant,” Smith said, pointing at Beaumont.
Pierce looked at the judge. “Your Honor, may the record reflect that Ms. Smith has identified the defendant, Mr. Beaumont.”
“It may,” Sutherlin responded.
“Now, Ms. Smith, what did Mr. Beaumont do, if anything.” By adding the “if anything,” Pierce avoided any possibility Beckett could object to the question as leading. Leading questions are not allowed on direct examination, though they are allowed on cross examination.
“He asked to open an account.”
“Did he identify himself as Mr. Beaumont?”
“No, he did not.”
“Did he identify himself at all?”
“Yes, or I couldn’t have opened the account,” she replied politely.
“How did he identify himself?”
“He said his name was Scott Stevens and he showed me identification.”
Pierce walked over to Morales, who handed him some papers. “Ms. Smith, I’m going to show you a set of documents.”
Beckett immediately objected. “May we approach, Your Honor?”
“Approach,” Sutherlin ordered, placing his file down and leaning forward so he could speak to the attorneys without the jury overhearing.
“The prosecution is about to question Ms. Smith about documents allegedly recovered from Mr. Beaumont’s apartment, but they have not yet provided any evidence placing those documents in Mr. Beaumont’s possession,” Beckett said.
“Officer Webb will testify that he personally removed these documents from Mr. Beaumont’s apartment,” Pierce responded.
“Why haven’t we heard from Officer Webb yet, Mr. Pierce?” Sutherlin asked. He seemed annoyed by this.
“He was called away, Your Honor. We expect him to testify tomorrow evening or Wednesday morning.”
Beckett began to speak, but Sutherlin raised his hand. “Mr. Beckett, I’m going to overrule your objection for the moment. Mr. Pierce, I’m going to allow you to proceed, though I will not let you use this witness to explain where those documents were found. I also caution you.
Pierce was visibly shaken by Sutherlin’s warning. “Yes, Your Honor.” He returned to the podium. “I’m going to show you some documents, Ms. Smith.” Pierce looked to Sutherlin again. “May I approach the witness?”
“You may.”
“Take a moment to look at these.” Pierce handed the documents to Smith. He then placed a copy of the first document on the document projector, which displayed it on a large screen directly across from the jury. “Do these look familiar?”
“Yes.”
“Can you identify these documents?”
“These are the documents he signed.”
“You mean that Mr. Beaumont signed?”
“Yes.” Every member of the jury turned to watch Beaumont’s reaction. He had none. He just sat in his chair, leaning back slightly with his arms folded over his stomach and a blank expression on his face.
“He signed those in your presence on June 14th, correct?”
“Yes, there’s the date,” she said, pointing at the date on the document on the screen.
“These are your standard account documents?”
“Yes. This is the entire packet we keep when we open a new account. The top couple are signed by the account holder and the rest are legalese.” She smiled when she said that, as did most of the jury. They liked her.
“There are about fifteen pages, aren’t there?”
Smith counted them and agreed.
Pierced turned to Judge Sutherlin. “Your Honor, I’d like to mark these as People’s Exhibit 12. Can you read the signature, Ms. Smith?”
She squinted slightly at the document. “It says, ‘Scott Stevens.’”
Pierce paused again to let the jury examine the signature, which now appeared on the screen. “What happened next, Ms. Smith?”
“I opened the account for him.”
“How did you do that?”
Smith paused, seemingly confused. “I don’t understand?”
“Did he give you anything?” Pierce prodded her.
“Oh yes, I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure what you meant. Yes, he handed me $100 in cash to place into the account. I put that in my drawer and then gave him the usual paperwork, which includes starter checks. Those are the ones you said they-”
“Objection,” Beckett said calmly, not bothering to leave his chair.
“Sustained.”
Smith looked panicked, but Pierce jumped in to calm her down. “That’s ok, Ms. Smith. You gave him starter checks and he took them from you, is that right?”
She agreed, though she still appeared shaken by the objection.
“What did Mr. Beaumont do then?”
“He left the bank.”
“He opened an account in a false name and then he left,” Pierce repeated. “Your witness,” he said to Beckett. As he returned to his seat, Pierce was all smiles.
Beckett leaned against the podium. “Good afternoon, Ms. Smith. My name is Evan Beckett. I represent Mr. Beaumont. I’m going to follow up on some of what you just talked about with Mr. Pierce,” he said kindly.
“Ok.” Smith smiled, though she was nervous about what Beckett would say or do.
“You say you were at work on June 14th, correct?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
She looked confused.
“Let me back up a second. When did you first hear about this case?”
“When a police officer came to the bank.”
“When was that?” Beckett asked. His polite manner put Smith at ease.
“I don’t know, two months ago, maybe?”
“What did the officer want?”
“He said they were investigating identity theft and they wanted details on one of our accounts,” Smith said in the same helpful tone she’d used with Pierce.
“That was the account of Scott Stevens?”
She nodded.
“I take it you gave them the information?”
