Chapter 15 #2
“I walked into the house through the garage. Again, like always. I bring my own supplies in a tote. So I brought those in and set them on the kitchen table.”
“Did you hear anything?”
“No,” she said.
“Did you notice anything unusual at that point?”
“Only that Tom’s car was still in the garage. He’s usually gone well before I get there.”
“Okay. I want you to take me through, step by step, in as much detail as you can remember. What happened next?”
“I usually start in the master bedroom,” she said.
“I clean the master bath. I make the bed. I vacuum the carpet. I did call out though. If Tom were still home, it could have meant that he wasn’t feeling well or something.
I called out and asked if anyone was home.
Because it was strange that number one, Tom’s car was still in the garage.
And number two, that Katy wasn’t already in the kitchen with her coffee, waiting for me. ”
“Then what did you do?”
“I heard something. Someone was moaning. That’s the best way I can describe it. It was coming from the bedroom. So I walked down the hall to see what was going on. I got as far as the master bedroom door.”
“Let’s stop there. So you were in the hallway?”
“Yes.”
“Did you cross the threshold into the bedroom?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“The door was open. That’s when I saw Katy … Mrs. Loomis. And I saw Mr. Loomis on the bed.”
Her lips quivered. Jenna looked toward the ceiling.
“Tell me exactly what you saw, Jenna.”
“Mr. Loomis was already dead. That was obvious. There was blood everywhere. Soaking the sheets. Dripping down onto the carpet. His eyes were open and I could see he had this horrible, gaping wound in his neck.”
She cried softly and dropped her chin to her chest. Jenna had a handkerchief and she twisted it between her fingers.
“What else did you see?”
“I saw Katy. She was standing over the bed on Tom’s side of the bed. She had a knife in her hand.”
“Which hand?”
“Her right.”
“How was she holding it? Please be as precise as you can.”
“Like this,” Jenna said. She held her own hand up in a fist, raising it to ear level.
“I need you to describe it out loud, Jenna.”
“Right. Sorry. Katy had a big knife in her hand. The blade was dripping with blood. She held it up and over Tom’s body. And she had blood on her too.”
“Did she say anything?”
“Not immediately. She was staring right at Tom’s body. She had some blood on her. Smeared on her face. On her sleeve.”
“Did you say anything to her?”
“No. I mean, I screamed. Really screamed. And she was just standing there like a statue. Like she was frozen in place. Those are the two images I can’t get out of my head.
All that blood. And Katy just standing there holding that knife.
It didn’t even look like she was breathing.
She didn’t even see me at first, I don’t think.
But then I screamed. That seemed to snap her out of whatever was going on in her head.
She took a step back, dropped the knife, and kind of backed up against the wall. ”
“What did you do?”
“I ran. I was just panicking. Just shocked. I fell over my own feet trying to turn and run back down the hallway. I just wanted to get out of there. I didn’t know what Katy was going to do. If she’d chase after me or what. I just wanted to get out of that house as fast as I could.”
“Did she chase you?”
“What? Um … no. But I didn’t look back. I ran through the kitchen and out the service door into the garage.”
“Did you have to open the garage?” Quick asked.
“No. It was already open. I left it open.”
“Is that what you normally do? Leave the garage door open?”
“Usually. Yes. And that morning, like I said, Tom’s car was still in the garage. I just thought he was maybe running late.”
“Okay. So after you ran out through the garage, what happened? What did you do?”
“I was just crazy in my head. Panicked. I might have still been screaming. Because one of the neighbors saw me. Mr. Kinney. He lives across the street and one house over. He was in his own driveway. He had his little white dog with him, taking it to go potty on the front lawn. I ran straight at him. I don’t really remember what I said.
But I got enough out so that Mr. Kinney took out his cell phone and we called 911. ”
“Okay. Did you see Mrs. Loomis again after that?”
“I never went back into that house. I wanted to drive away. Mr. Kinney took me into his house. He waited with me until the cops arrived. It couldn’t have been even five minutes later.
They came to Mr. Kinney’s house first. I told them again what I saw.
What I just told you. Then another crew showed up and the two crews went to the Loomis house.
Then another set of cops showed up and took me with them back to the sheriff’s so I could explain again what I saw.
Somebody went in and got my purse and stuff sometime later, because they brought it to me at the police station. ”
“Okay, do the Loomises have any security cameras at the house?”
“No.”
“Are you aware whether the neighbors do?”
“I became aware, yes. The neighbor directly across the street. I was later shown a video from it by the police.”
After a small procedural dance, Quick entered the neighbor’s security footage from the morning of the murder into evidence.
“Can you explain what I’m seeing?” he asked Jenna as the video played. The timestamp ran at the bottom left of the screen.
“That’s me coming into work.”
The video had no sound, but showed Jenna pulling into the driveway in her black Mazda.
She exited the vehicle, fumbled with her cleaning tote, balancing it on her hip as she went to the garage and punched in the code.
You could see the garage door raise. Jenna went inside and disappeared.
It was 5:52 a.m. on the morning of March 14th.
Her headlights had triggered the motion camera. The video took one full minute of footage. It stopped a few seconds after Jenna disappeared inside Katy and Tom’s house.
There was no footage showing when she ran out of the house. But the neighbor, Rich Kinney, had his own security camera. It captured Jenna running up his driveway at 5:57 a.m.
“Jenna,” Addison said. “Did Katy Loomis say anything to you when you saw her in the bedroom with the knife?”
Jenna shook her head. “Not really to me. She heard me scream. Like I said, she dropped the knife and backed away from the bed. I didn’t stick around. I can’t tell you what she did after that because I was running for my life.”
Addison paused at the lectern. He flipped through his sparse notes.
“Thank you, Ms. Rodney. I appreciate your candor. I have no further questions.”
“Ms. Leary?” Judge Castor motioned me forward to begin my cross-examination.