Chapter 17
Sharon DePaul owned more than one suit. I knew this because I’d seen her in them. But every time she testified in court, she wore the same one. A cuffed burgundy pantsuit with straight lapels and a silk rose blouse underneath.
Addison spent just half an hour going through her background testimony.
She graduated from Wayne State with a degree in Communications.
From there she’d served five years in the Coast Guard, and in the reserves for twenty years beyond that.
At fifty-five, she now had twenty-five years with the Delphi PD, with ten handling sex crimes and the last year in violent crimes and homicide.
“Thank you for your service, Detective DePaul. That’s a long career, indeed.”
“It’s coming to an end.” She smiled. “I plan to retire at the end of the year.”
“Well deserved. If I could bring your attention to the morning in question. Can you tell me how you became involved in this case?”
“Sure,” she started, adjusting her jacket. “I received a call from my lieutenant that there was a suspected homicide on River Lane in Kimball Township. I was immediately dispatched to the scene.”
“Can you give me your timeline? When did you arrive?”
“On scene? 6:32 a.m.”
“Can you describe what you saw or encountered when you got there?”
“Two field ops units had already secured the block around Mr. Loomis’s residence.
Deputy Borman turned control over to me.
I was informed that an employee of Mr. Loomis’s had made a 911 call approximately thirty minutes before my arrival.
The employee, I learned, was Jenna Rodney, the housekeeper.
She was sitting in Deputy Winkleman’s patrol car when I got there.
In addition, the victim’s wife, Katy Loomis, was seated in the back of Deputy Wallace and Sanchez’s patrol car.
I had already been informed that Mrs. Loomis was also a material witness and the crux of what Ms. Rodney had informed Deputy Winkleman and the 911 dispatcher. ”
“Did you speak to either of them?”
“I did, but it wasn’t the first thing I did.
I put on latex gloves and booties and entered the residence through the front door.
Deputy John Sanchez was inside, standing in the living room, also gloved and booted.
He directed me to a back bedroom at the end of the hallway.
I observed a white male, later identified as Tom Loomis, laying supine on the bed.
He was naked from the waist up and covered in copious amounts of blood.
The fatal wound was quite obvious. His neck was slashed, leaving a gash of about an inch wide from just beneath his right earlobe and cutting through to the left side of his neck just above the clavicle. ”
“He was dead?”
“Most definitely. I learned later that he had been almost completely exsanguinated. He bled out just about every drop of blood in his body. It covered the mattress beneath him, dripped down to the floor and his entire chest was coated with blood.”
One by one, Quick introduced the crime scene photos.
By any rubric, they were gruesome. They depicted multiple angles of Tom’s body and the room itself.
The process took close to ten minutes. At the end of which Quick left a close-up shot of Tom’s face, his eyes fixed on the ceiling.
The photo had been cropped just above the wound, but the lower half of his face was covered in blood.
“What did you do next, Detective?”
Sharon cleared her throat. “I called for the medical examiner and the Michigan State Police forensic team. I directed Deputy Sanchez to take the photographs you’ve just entered into evidence.
I explored the scene looking for any signs of forced entry or a struggle.
Finding none, I exited the home and went to speak with first Ms. Rodney, Mr. Loomis’s housekeeper. ”
She essentially reiterated the statement Jenna had given to her the day of the murder. Jenna had walked into the home and found Katy covered in blood and holding a knife over Tom’s lifeless body.
“You’re aware Ms. Rodney has already testified. Can you very briefly tell me what actions you took after speaking with her?”
“I went to speak with Mrs. Loomis. She was distraught. Nearly hysterical. I was concerned about both her mental and physical well-being as I observed she was also covered in blood.”
I stayed at the ready. Sharon had reached the point where she had first violated Katy’s rights, in both my and the court’s opinion.
Armed with Jenna’s statement already, Katy had been a person of interest the moment Sharon walked up to her.
I knew Katy had started spouting off at that very moment that she didn’t remember what had happened.
That she’d just woken up next to him already dead.
Mercifully, Sharon respected the court’s earlier decision and answered carefully.
“Though she indicated she wasn’t hurt, I was quite concerned Mrs. Loomis might be in shock.
I had Deputy Wallace call for an ambulance.
One arrived approximately four minutes later.
I instructed Deputy Wallace to accompany her to the hospital and stay with her. ”
“All right, what happened next?”
“By then, the ME had arrived. A very short time after that, the crime scene analysts showed up. According to my log, it was 7:02 a.m. I, along with Deputies Winkleman and Sanchez, began canvassing. I instructed them to speak to the neighbors on each side of Mr. Loomis’s residence along with those across the street and behind the house. ”
“All right.” Quick paused. He then had Detective DePaul run through the remainder of the investigative steps she’d taken that day.
Most were mundane, routine canvassing, checking in with the ME and the forensics team, communicating with command.
She had gone back to the police station to question Katy, but the bulk of that testimony had already been ruled inadmissible, so Quick had no choice but to bypass it.
Once Detective DePaul had been on the stand for just over an hour and a half, Quick got to her case disposition and ultimate arrest of Katy.
“Detective, what did the physical evidence in this case reveal?”
Sharon opened the buttons of her jacket. “This was a particularly bloody crime scene. Quite a bit of physical evidence was collected. Most importantly, we recovered the murder weapon at the scene. A buck knife with a wooden handle and a retractable three-and-three-quarter-inch blade.”
Quick brought the actual knife itself. He slipped on latex gloves and held the knife up for the jury to see. The bloodstains on both the blade and handle were still prominent.
“Was there anything unique about this blade?”
“Not really,” she said. “It’s a pretty standard hunting knife. It looked fairly well worn but the blade was razor sharp. It wouldn’t have taken very much force to inflict a wound like the one Mr. Loomis had.”
“Objection,” I said. “The witness is not a forensic pathologist. She isn’t qualified to testify about how the wound was inflicted.”
“Sustained,” Judge Castor said.
“Let’s limit this to what you could actually observe about the weapon,” Quick redirected.
“Sure,” Sharon continued. “No. While I didn’t find anything particularly unique about this knife, it did have unusual markings on it. There are three letters carved into the handle. XYZ.”
“What did the analysis of this weapon show?”
“We found four latent fingerprints, three on the handle and one partial print on the blade. All matched the defendant, Katy Loomis.”
“Any other prints on the knife itself?”
“No, sir,” she said. “Mrs. Loomis’s were the only prints on the knife.”
“What else?”
“Blood recovered from the knife was consistent with Mr. Loomis. Forensic testing also identified DNA on the handle consistent with the defendant, Katy Loomis. That included what’s commonly referred to as touch DNA—skin cells deposited through contact.
And as I said, latent prints recovered from the knife were also identified as belonging to Mrs. Loomis.
No other identifiable DNA or prints were found. ”
“Got it,” Quick said. “What else did the blood evidence reveal?”
“As I visually observed, Mrs. Loomis had blood on her face and staining her clothes and all over her hands. The blood was matched to the victim’s.
None of it was hers. There were no signs of a struggle in the home.
No sign of forced entry. Nothing appeared to have been stolen.
Mr. Loomis had two rolls of cash in a cigar box in his nightstand.
A thousand dollars. A jewelry box on the dresser contained several diamond rings along with two gold bands.
So, based on the evidence collected at the scene alone, I felt I had probable cause to arrest Mrs. Loomis. ”
“You said based on the crime scene alone. Was there anything else that drew your suspicion?”
“Yes.”
“What was that?”
Katy gripped my arm. “Cass,” she whispered. “She’s making it sound like it was unusual that I had Tom’s blood on me. I never denied holding that knife. He was stabbed in my bed while I was right next to him.”
I patted her hand. “Shh. Just be patient.”
“I interviewed Mr. Loomis’s attorney. Her name is Marcia Murphy. Ms. Murphy provided documents that she had drafted for Mr. Loomis within thirty days of his death.”
I knew the documents would come in. I had no legal basis for preventing it like I did Katy’s statement to DePaul that morning.
Quick wouldn’t get into the detailed contents of those documents until he put Marcia Murphy on the stand.
But what Sharon DePaul could say about them now was damning enough.
“What was the nature of those documents?” Quick asked.
“Ms. Murphy had drafted a divorce complaint on Tom Loomis’s behalf. Additionally, he provided copies of a new draft will and trust. Mr. Loomis was preparing to disinherit his wife.”
“Objection,” I said. “Calls for speculation. This witness has no direct knowledge of what was going on in Tom Loomis’s mind.”
“Sustained,” Judge Castor said. “Stick with the facts, Detective. Leave the interpretation to the jury.”
“Of course,” Sharon said.
“Was there anything else in your investigation that you felt rose to the level of probable cause to arrest the defendant?”
“Oh, for sure,” she said. “Statements were taken from the Loomises’ next-door neighbors, Christine and Jarred Wemyss. Mrs. Wemyss heard shouting the night …”
“Objection,” I said. “The detective cannot be permitted to provide hearsay testimony. It’s improper for her to testify about what any witness told her for the truth of the matter asserted.”
“Your Honor, I asked the detective in a specific context. What factors went into her formation of probable cause to issue an arrest warrant.”
“The objection is sustained,” Castor said. “She can talk about the factors she relied on. She can’t repeat what a witness told her.”
“Fine,” Quick said, clearly annoyed. “Besides the eyewitness testimony of Jenna Rodney, the positive DNA, fingerprint and blood analysis connecting the defendant to the murder weapon, information from Mr. Loomis’s attorney, the lack of evidence of a burglary or forced entry or that anyone besides Katy and Tom Loomis were in the house that morning, what other facts did you rely on to support probable cause to arrest Katy Loomis for the murder of her husband? ”
Judge Castor gave Addison a withering look. He was trying both our patience.
“Statements I took from the victim’s and accused’s neighbors were of a nature that shed strong suspicion against the accused.”
“Thank you,” Quick said. “I have no further questions for Detective DePaul.”
“Cass, you have to …”
I shot her a hard look. Katy had raised her voice to a level everyone in the courtroom could hear.
“Ms. Leary?” Castor almost shouted. “Do you think you can conduct your cross-examination before five o’clock today?”
“Absolutely, Your Honor.” I stepped up to the lectern.