Chapter Forty-Three
The night before she was going to give her opening statement in Jack Blackburn’s case, Karen tossed and turned and woke up with a fuzzy head and no appetite. After using a cold shower to get her juices going, she scarfed down a bagel and a cup of strong black coffee. Then she headed for court.
Any case Karen tried generated a lot of press because of her celebrity status.
Morris Johnson met her outside the courthouse and acted as a blocker as she plowed through the reporters, repeating, “No comment,” as she went.
When they made it through the gauntlet and entered the courtroom, Morris took a seat behind his boss so she could talk to him if she needed his help.
The stir in the courtroom alerted Oscar Vanderlasky to Karen’s presence.
Vanderlasky kept his eyes on his notes for his opening statement in the belief that ignoring opposing counsel psyched out his opponent and gave him a psychological edge.
Karen thought the behavior was childish, and she stopped next to the prosecutor.
“Good morning, Oscar. Are you ready to rumble?”
Vanderlasky turned his head slowly and stared for a moment before answering, “I’m always ready. Especially when my case is bulletproof.”
Karen smiled. “I guess we have different views of how this case will end.”
The guards brought Jack to the defense table as soon as they saw Karen. She knew most of the jail personnel.
“Thanks, Charlie,” she said to the guard as Jack took his seat next to Karen. Her client was still painfully thin, but he was wearing an expensive suit, shirt, and tie Karen had purchased for him, and he looked like an overworked junior associate instead of a jail inmate.
“How are you feeling?” Karen asked.
“Okay. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“That’s normal. I didn’t either. But I think you’re going to feel much better pretty soon.”
The bailiff rapped his gavel, and the Honorable Nathan Stark took his place on the dais and smiled at the jurors.
“Good morning. I hope you’re rested and ready to hear the opening statements of counsel and the witnesses.”
Then he shifted his eyes toward the prosecutor. “Are you ready to give your opening statement, Mr. Vanderlasky?”
“I am, Your Honor.”
“Very well. You may proceed.”
Vanderlasky stood slowly. Then he walked to the jury box with a confident stride and smiled at the jurors.
“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for taking time from your busy lives to serve on the jury in this very serious case. My name is Oscar Vanderlasky, and I am representing the people of Oregon in this very tragic trial.
“State v. Jack Blackburn is a murder case, and all murder cases involve a death, but the death in this case was unusually violent.
“You will hear that the victim, Terrance Cogen, was rendered unconscious by barbiturates that were in a milkshake he drank. Then, when he was completely defenseless, the defendant beat him to death with a heavy marble statue.
“When I was selecting you for this jury, I explained that some of the photographs you were going to see were very gruesome. I apologize in advance, but there is no way you will be able to understand how vicious and brutal this murder was unless you see the horrible way the defendant ended Mr. Cogen’s life.
And why was Mr. Cogen killed in such a horrible manner? ”
Vanderlasky paused and shifted his gaze until he’d made eye contact with each juror.
“He was murdered for a car.”
Vanderlasky paused again to emphasize the point.
“Terrance Cogen was wealthy, and he owned expensive automobiles. One of these cars was a 2019 Jaguar XJR575, which sells for roughly one hundred and twenty thousand dollars and is the type of car that is used to drive British royalty. Cynthia Woodruff was Terrance Cogen’s housekeeper, and Billy Kramer was Mr. Cogen’s chauffeur.
Miss Woodruff will tell you that she and Mr. Kramer met the defendant for drinks at the Clinton Street Tavern.
After a while, Miss Woodruff decided to go home.
Mr. Kramer had driven the Jaguar to the tavern, but he told the defendant that he was too intoxicated to drive and asked the defendant to take Miss Woodruff home.
The defendant agreed. And that’s when the trouble started.
“Miss Woodruff will tell you that the defendant was stunned when he saw the car he was going to drive. During the drive to Miss Woodruff’s apartment, he raved about the car and couldn’t stop talking about it.
“The Jaguar was reported stolen. A few days after Mr. Cogen was beaten to death, the defendant was still driving the Jaguar when the police officers McDowell and Wheeler stopped him. When the officers asked him how the Jaguar came into his possession, he claimed that Billy Kramer lent him the car and he was trying to find Mr. Kramer to return it. The problem with this story is that the car’s registration was in the glove compartment and it had Mr. Cogen’s name and address on it.
When the arresting officer pointed this out to the defendant, he made a lame excuse about not having thought to look at the registration to ascertain Mr. Cogen’s address.
“Also in the glove compartment was Mr. Cogen’s wallet. The crime lab examined bloodstains on the wallet, and a witness will tell you that the blood is Mr. Cogen’s.
“Now, the defendant claims that he never went to Mr. Cogen’s house, but we know that is a lie.
How do we know? Mr. Cogen was beaten to death in his living room.
The crime lab technicians found a beer glass on an end table in the living room near the victim.
They discovered fingerprints on that glass.
A witness will tell you that the prints belong to the defendant, who claims that he was never at Mr. Cogen’s house.
Unfortunately for him, the beer glass with his fingerprints on it place him, beyond a reasonable doubt, in the room where he callously beat a defenseless man to death. Thank you.”
Vanderlasky turned his back to the jury so they couldn’t see the self-satisfied smirk on his face, which he directed at Karen.
“Miss Wyatt,” the judge said when Vanderlasky was seated.
Karen walked to the jury box. She shook her head and looked disappointed.
“Good morning. My name is Karen Wyatt, and I have the honor of representing Jack Blackburn, a man who is completely innocent of the charges that have been brought against him.
“When Mr. Vanderlasky told you what the evidence in this case would show, I kept waiting for the rest of the story, but he must have lost his notes, because he left out so many important facts.
“The prosecutor didn’t tell you why Billy Kramer asked Jack Blackburn to meet him and Miss Woodruff at the Clinton Street Tavern. He asked my client to meet him at the tavern so he could frame him for Terrance Cogen’s murder. Miss Woodruff will tell you that Mr. Kramer told her that—”
Vanderlasky sprang to his feet. “Objection, Your Honor. May we have a sidebar?”
Judge Stark looked annoyed, but he nodded.
“Let’s have the jurors step out so we can put this on the record,” the judge said.
“What is your objection, Mr. Vanderlasky?” the judge asked as soon as the door to the jury room closed.
“Billy Kramer is dead, so he can’t testify or be cross-examined. Anything Miss Woodruff testifies to that she claims Mr. Kramer told her that is introduced to prove the truth of the statement would be hearsay and inadmissible.”
“Miss Wyatt?” the judge said.
In other trials with Vanderlasky, Karen had noticed that he did not have a comprehensive knowledge of the rules of evidence.
She’d hoped that he would be too lazy to research some of the key legal issues in Jack’s case, and he was proving that her confidence in his incompetence was well placed.
She handed Vanderlasky and the bailiff a memorandum she had prepared.
“I guess Mr. Vanderlasky hasn’t read the exceptions to the rule that excludes hearsay, which I detail in my memo,” Karen said.
“Statements against a person’s interest are admissible.
Miss Woodruff will testify that Mr. Kramer told her that he gave the car to my client to frame him for Mr. Cogen’s murder.
Giving the car to Mr. Blackburn under those circumstances is arguably theft, and framing him for a crime he didn’t commit would, at least, be obstruction of justice.
Those statements could subject Mr. Kramer to criminal liability, and Mr. Blackburn could sue him, which would open Mr. Kramer up to a suit for tort liability.
So, the statements are against Mr. Kramer’s interest.”
Vanderlasky started to speak, but the judge cut him off and read the memo.
“Miss Wyatt is correct,” the judge said when he finished reading. “If Miss Woodruff testifies about these statements, I will admit them over a hearsay objection. Let’s bring the jury back.”
Vanderlasky looked furious. Karen kept a smile off her face.
“As I was saying,” Karen continued when the jurors were seated, “Mr. Kramer knew that Jack Blackburn loved cars, and he guessed that Mr. Blackburn would go nuts if he had a chance to drive the 2019 Jaguar XJR575, so he told Miss Woodruff to wait for an agreed-upon amount of time before saying that she wanted to go home.
Mr. Kramer faked being intoxicated so he could have my client drive the Jag.
“When Miss Woodruff left with Mr. Blackburn, she told him to drive to what she told him was her apartment, but it was far away from where she lived.
Sometime after Mr. Blackburn drove away, Mr. Kramer picked up Miss Woodruff in her car.
Then he drove to Red Rim, Arizona, where he was hiding when the authorities arrested him.
“The first step in Mr. Kramer’s plan to frame Mr. Blackburn for the murder of Terrance Cogen was getting him to drive the Jag, then disappearing from the bar so he couldn’t give it back.
But Mr. Kramer wasn’t through with his plan to cause my client irreparable harm.
He admitted to Miss Woodruff that he called the police in Portland pretending to be Terrance Cogen and reported that the Jaguar had been stolen.
“Now, the prosecutor did tell you that Mr. Cogen was rendered unconscious by barbiturates that were in a milkshake he drank. Mr. Cogen was a recovering alcoholic who drank milkshakes whenever he had the urge to drink alcohol. Mr. Kramer knew that because he used to be Mr. Cogen’s houseman and made the milkshakes for him on occasion.
“Mr. Vanderlasky also neglected to tell you that Mr. Cogen was being investigated by state and federal authorities for conducting various fraudulent schemes in which he stole money from many people, costing some of them their life savings. These victims would have a motive for revenge.
“A 2019 Jaguar XJR575 is not a dull gray Toyota.
It is a very unusual-looking car. The prosecutor would have you believe that Jack Blackburn murdered Terrance Cogen for a car he would never have been able to keep for very long.
The absolute proof of that is the fact that Mr. Blackburn was arrested driving the car within days of Mr. Kramer reporting it stolen.
You will have a massive reasonable doubt about whether Mr. Blackburn would murder someone for a car he would never possess for long.
“You will also wonder why Mr. Blackburn, who stayed in Portland, is a better suspect in Mr. Cogen’s murder than Mr. Kramer, who ran away from Portland to Arizona on the day Mr. Cogen was murdered and hid from the police.”
Karen paused and looked at each juror.
“I’m going to sit down now and let you hear the evidence. And I am confident that when you have heard all the evidence, you will have no doubts that my client is completely innocent and the victim of a vicious frame-up. Thank you.”