Chapter Three #2
“They said it ain’t gonna happen. It’s permanent.”
Vanderlasky turned his head toward Karen so the jurors wouldn’t be able to see his face, and smirked.
“No further questions, Your Honor.”
“Miss Wyatt?” Judge Cohen said.
“Thank you, Judge. Will you please stand up, Mr. Mowry?”
Mowry stood up.
“How tall are you?”
“Six-five.”
Karen motioned Laurie to stand. “How tall is Miss Post?”
“I don’t know. Five-two, five-three.”
“So, you’re a lot taller than Miss Post.”
“That’s obvious.”
“If I told you that she weighs one hundred and six pounds, would that seem right?”
“I guess.”
“How much do you weigh?”
“Around two fifty.”
“Do you have a drinking problem?”
“No.”
“You told the jury that you’re not driving a bus because you lost the sight in your left eye.”
“That’s right.”
“Isn’t it true that you were fired for being drunk while driving your bus the day before the incident with Miss Post?”
“I wasn’t drunk.”
“So, you disagree with the riders who called 911 to report you to the police and the officer who stopped your bus and took you into custody for driving your bus while under the influence of alcohol?”
“I pled not guilty. I wasn’t drunk.”
“Who is Peter Chang, Mr. Mowry?”
“My supervisor.”
“Is he the person who fired you for being drunk on the job?”
“He had no right to do that. I didn’t get a hearing to give my side.”
“Let’s discuss how you lost the sight in your eye and suffered the blow to your head. You said that you and Miss Post were arguing.”
“Yeah.”
“Were you drinking because you felt sorry for yourself as a result of being fired?”
“I’d had a few, but I wasn’t drunk.”
“Did you blame Miss Post for getting you fired?”
“She didn’t support me. She wasn’t sympathetic.”
“She bailed you out of jail, didn’t she?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s talk about what happened in Miss Post’s apartment. It is her apartment, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you pay rent there?”
“No.”
“But you’re living there?”
“Yeah. She asked me to move in.”
“Did she ask, or did you tell her you needed to move in because you’d been kicked out of the apartment you were renting?”
“I wasn’t kicked out. Me and the landlord had a disagreement, and I asked Laurie … the defendant if I could move in while I looked for another place.”
“Let’s move on to the night of the incident. Didn’t the argument between you and Miss Post start when Miss Post asked you to leave her apartment because you were drinking and getting abusive?”
“No.”
“Mr. Mowry, you claim that Miss Post hit you with the lamp, then poked you in the eye.”
“Stabbed me in the eye with her fingernail.”
“I stand corrected. So, as I understand it, first, she stunned you by hitting you with the lamp, then, second, she stabbed you in the eye when you were on the floor.”
“That’s right.”
“Didn’t the action occur the other way around? Didn’t she stab you in the eye first, because you were strangling her? Then hit you with the lamp when you threatened to kill her?”
“That’s bull—” Mowry caught himself. “That’s not how it happened.”
Karen gave the bailiff several photographs and asked that they be marked as exhibits.
“I’m handing Mr. Mowry the photographs of Mr. Mowry’s and Miss Post’s injuries that were taken by the officers who arrived at the scene.”
Karen held up a picture. “In this photograph, you’re sitting on the floor across the room from the end table on which the lamp was originally standing.”
“Yeah. She knocked me down with the lamp.”
“Why didn’t you stop her?”
“She surprised me.”
“Can you see the base of the lamp in this picture?”
“Yes.”
“There’s a long cord with prongs at one end that you use to plug the lamp into the wall, isn’t there?”
“Yeah.”
“Is the lamp plugged into the wall socket?”
“No.”
“Could she have hit you with the lamp while you were on the ground if the lamp was plugged in?”
Mowry hesitated. “No,” he said after a moment.
“That’s because it wouldn’t reach, right?”
“Yeah.”
“The lamp was plugged into the wall before Miss Post grabbed it to hit you, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“You look very well built. Do you work out a lot?”
“Right after I get off work.”
“You played football and basketball in high school, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you have pretty good reflexes?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m confused, Mr. Mowry. You’re an athlete who outweighs Miss Post by about one hundred and fifty pounds, and you’re a foot taller. Why didn’t you knock the lamp away to keep from being hit?”
“I told you. She surprised me.”
“That’s what’s confusing me. To get the lamp to hit you, Miss Post would have to go around the end table and unplug it. That would have given you a lot of time to prevent her from using it, wouldn’t it?”
“I … I know what happened.”
“Take a look at the photos of Miss Post’s injuries. Aren’t there bruises on her neck that are the type that would be there if someone was choking her? And isn’t her lip split and her eye swollen shut?”
“So?”
“Miss Post told the officers that she jabbed you in the eye to keep you from strangling her. Wouldn’t it make more sense that she stabbed you in the eye when you were close and face-to-face than if you were sitting on the floor?”
“I know what happened,” Mowry insisted.
“Dr. Pitofsky testified that the blow to your head was consistent with a downward strike. Doesn’t it make more sense that you were seated on the floor when Miss Post hit you with the lamp because you’re so much taller than she is?”
“She hit me with the lamp before she poked out my eye.”
“Miss Post told the officers that you dropped to the floor and started screaming that you were going to kill her because she stabbed you in the eye. When you started to struggle to your feet, she said that she unplugged the lamp and hit you to protect herself. Isn’t that what happened?”
“No.”
Karen turned to the judge. “I’m through with this witness.”
The State rested, Karen made a series of legal motions, and the judge recessed for lunch.
When the trial resumed at one thirty, Karen’s first witness was the rider who called 911 to complain that Mowry was driving his bus while he was drunk.
Then she called Peter Chang, Mowry’s supervisor, and the officer who arrested Mowry for driving under the influence.
Laurie Post was great during her direct examination, and Oscar Vanderlasky’s cross was inept and ineffectual.
It was closing in on three o’clock when Karen and Vanderlasky gave their closing arguments and the judge gave the jury instructions.
Judge Cohen sent the jury out and told the lawyers to make sure that his bailiff had their phone numbers. Mowry had been sitting in court and he glared at Karen and her client when they walked past him and went into the hall.
“How long do you think it will take the jury to decide?” Laurie asked.
Karen had a very good feeling for the way the case had gone, but she knew better than to get her client’s hopes up.
“I never try to predict anything a jury will do,” Karen said. “But I think we should hang around for a bit.”
Karen’s gut instinct proved accurate. Twenty minutes after the jurors retired to the jury room, the bailiff let the parties know that they had a verdict.
Karen’s gut tightened. The worst part of any trial was the time between knowing that the jury had reached a verdict and finding out what that verdict was.
The jury filed in when the parties were seated. None of the jurors looked at Laurie Post, and suddenly, Karen wasn’t so sure of the result.
“Has the jury reached a verdict?” Judge Cohen asked.
A middle-aged woman who taught middle school stood up.
“Are you the foreperson, Mrs. Mackey?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Will you read the verdict?”
The woman nodded. Karen held her breath while Mrs. Mackey read the boilerplate and let it out when she said the words not guilty. Laurie Post sagged in her seat, and Karen wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
Karen took a quick look across the aisle.
Oscar Vanderlasky looked furious. The judge asked the parties if they wanted the jurors polled.
Karen said she didn’t. Oscar Vanderlasky insisted that each juror reveal their vote.
It was unanimous. The judge dismissed the jury and called the court into recess.
Karen had been worried that Ian Mowry might go after her client, so she’d alerted the court guards. She didn’t have to worry. As soon as the judge ended the court session, Mowry started berating Oscar Vanderlasky, and Karen and her client were able to slip out of the courtroom unmolested.