Chapter 22
Bree walked in wearing purple scrubs, having just gotten off work. She smiled as the clerk swore her in.
“Ms. Wharton-Brent,” I said. “I’d like to clear something up off the bat. Will you please tell the jury how you and I are related?”
“Technically, we’re not,” she said. “But my wife is Kathleen Wharton-Brent. Her brother is your former husband, Jason Brent. Your son is our nephew.”
“Thank you. And how were you acquainted with the victim in this case?”
“Ellie was my classmate. We went to nursing school together. We were friends.”
“So your connection to Ellie Luke predates you and I knowing each other.”
“Oh yes. By quite a bit. I didn’t know you back then. Kat and I have been married for just shy of two years. I’ve only known her and you for a little over four years. I met Ellie twenty-five years ago now.”
“Okay. And have you and I talked about Ellie’s case prior to today?”
“Yes. You were present when Detective Ritter interviewed me again a couple of months ago.”
“Is that the first time Detective Ritter interviewed you regarding Ellie Luke?”
“No. I, along with most of our friend group, was interviewed after Ellie went missing.”
“Thank you,” I said, hoping that would satisfy the jury and head off any attempts by Bennett Cutler to make something out of our relationship that wasn’t there.
“Sabrina, how well did you know Ellie?”
“We were close,” she said. “I wouldn’t say she was my best friend, you know, in life. But she was certainly one of my closest school friends.”
“How often did you see each other?”
“During the school year? Almost every day. We were in a cohort together. Took the same classes. And we did a clinical rotation together at the same hospital. We were in a weekly study group together that we formed early on.”
“Who else was in the study group?”
“Well, there were seven of us initially. We met freshman year. It was me, Ellie, Paul and Sarah Mansfield, Lisa Gorman, Shante Jones, and Jamie Simmons.”
“Jamie Simmons,” I repeated. “So you were also acquainted with the defendant?”
“We were. Initially.”
Bree took me through the basic history of her college friends’ group, how Ellie had always been the most serious and studious.
How she was viewed as the most responsible.
The mother of the group, in a way. She then described what she’d told me earlier about how Jamie began to make others in their original group uncomfortable.
“He started to cross a line,” she said. “Jamie would make inappropriate comments. Come-ons.”
“To you?”
“Yes. To me. He kind of burned through every female in the group. First, he’d start calling all the time. Wanting to meet up outside the study group. Then he’d start bringing gifts. Little trinkets. He tried to give me a necklace one time. Flowers another. He did the same thing to Shante and Lisa.”
“How did you handle it?”
“I was polite at first. Jamie was just … I don’t know.
He just didn’t vibe well with the rest of the group.
He was too intense somehow. When he started coming on to me, I told him I had a girlfriend.
He backed off and things were sort of normal after that.
But then he moved on to Shante. It got awkward in the group after that.
We started making plans to meet without him.
Shante wasn’t comfortable around him. Neither was Lisa. ”
“What about Ellie?”
“Well, what I’m describing, how Jamie burned through the group.
This happened over the course of about two years.
Freshman to junior years. It wasn’t all at once.
It was gradual. That first year, we were all kind of joined at the hip.
But by the time we were juniors, Jamie was really on the outside of it.
I personally didn’t see him much at all. Ellie still did.”
“She did. Did Ellie know about your experience with him?”
“I told her,” I said. “I know Shante and Lisa did too.”
“Why did you tell her?”
“It was just kind of a known thing within the group. That Jamie was on the make. That we didn’t feel like his friendship was genuine. That he was looking to hook up.”
“How did Ellie feel about all this, if you know?”
“The thing with Ellie. She was just nice. She never had a bad word to say about anyone. She was one of those people who was always gonna take in a stray, you know? So I think she felt a little sorry for Jamie. As far as we knew, he didn’t have any other friends.
He just put people off. Came on too strong.
Seemed to have an agenda. So of all of us, Ellie was the last one to maintain a friendship with Jamie. ”
“How would you describe Jamie and Ellie’s relationship in the months before her disappearance?”
“Well, she went missing right around spring break our junior year. I know she was still communicating with Jamie that previous Christmas. Just before Christmas. She was going to meet him for coffee. She told me that and I remember having a reaction.”
“What kind of reaction?”
“I just rolled my eyes, you know? I asked her why she was still giving him the time of day. She knew how the other women in our friend group felt. But Ellie felt sorry for him, I think. That she felt sorry for him because he didn’t have any family and was going to be alone on the holiday.
So he asked her to meet him for coffee. She didn’t see the harm in that. ”
“Do you know how that meeting went?”
“I don’t. But I know when we came back after break, Ellie was different.”
“How so?”
“She was like the rest of us. Didn’t want anything to do with Jamie.”
“How do you know that?”
“We were sitting in class, just before class started. Jamie tried to call her on her cell phone. She saw the caller ID and got mad. She didn’t answer.
She just clicked it off. He called two or three more times right after.
She seemed upset. And as far as I know, she never met with him again after that. ”
“Was there anything else you witnessed about Jamie and Ellie in those weeks before she disappeared?”
“No. But I never saw her with him. As far as I knew, they weren’t talking.
And I have to be honest, I didn’t think much of it.
Jamie was just kind of this annoying guy in our classes.
We just all stopped hanging out with him.
I can’t say I thought much about him after that.
The school year went on. Then Ellie disappeared and it was just all so awful. ”
“I can imagine. What did you tell the police when you were questioned?”
“There wasn’t much I could tell them. I knew Ellie was working for that home health aide agency.
During that time, I can’t say I saw her much outside of class.
We were all so busy with our studies and our jobs and gearing up for our senior year and finding placements after that.
Ellie going missing just came as such a shock to all of us. ”
“Did you have any interactions with Jamie Simmons after Ellie went missing?”
“Yes. He was very involved in trying to organize search parties for her. He took her disappearance very hard.”
“Did that surprise you?”
“Actually, no. Like I said. I knew Ellie, at least up until the couple of months before she went missing, kept up some kind of friendship with him. She … I’m sorry to say it.
But in my opinion, from what I observed, I felt like she had taken pity on him.
She felt bad that he’d alienated everyone else in the group. ”
“Objection, witness is speculating.”
“Ms. Wharton-Brent indicated it was her opinion based on her observations.”
“Sustained,” Judge Saul said. “The jury should disregard the witness’s statement about Ellie Luke’s feelings. She has no firsthand knowledge of those.”
“Okay,” I said. “Tell me about your interactions with Jamie Simmons after Ellie disappeared.”
“Well, again, Jamie was just very involved in setting up search parties. Encouraging all of us to put time in whether it was actively searching or putting up flyers or attending vigils. It was like he made it his mission to ensure everyone in Ellie’s class did something.
He took her disappearance very hard. That was my observation. ”
“Did that seem strange to you?”
Bree shrugged. “Honestly? At the time? No. It was a confusing time. We were so rocked by what happened. Everybody had to deal with it in their own way. I just kind of assumed it was Jamie’s way of dealing with it.
It was … well … he was abrasive, almost bullying about making sure we all did something.
But I just … I don’t know … we didn’t give him trouble about it because again, I just figured it was how Jamie had to cope.
I wasn’t going to get in the way of someone else’s grief process. ”
“I see. But you used the word bullying. Can you elaborate on that?”
“Jamie was very much in everyone’s face …
in my face … about what we were doing to help in the search.
Like he’d ask for time at the beginning of classes to address the whole class.
Tell us when and where to meet to help the police search.
And if there was a vigil, and I remember two specifically, Jamie was always right up there wanting to be one of the ones to talk.
Once, Sarah and Paul Mansfield mentioned they weren’t going to be able to attend one of the vigils.
They were going to be out of town. Well, we were all talking about it in the courtyard on campus. Jamie got angry with them.”
“What do you mean?”
“He snapped at Paul and Sarah. Accused them of not caring enough about finding Ellie. That they owed it to her to show up. Jamie got in Sarah’s face and Paul grabbed him by the arm.
Pulled him back. It was just extremely awkward and inappropriate on Jamie’s part.
In my observation, anyway. And I heard later that he’d befriended Ellie’s family. ”
“How did you feel about that?”