One Life for Another, page 12
“Well, I wouldn’t say they are friends. Of course, we have all known each other for years and went to high school together, but Andy was probably out there to visit Gabriel. Ever since the day Ashley was killed, Andy has kind of been like a big brother to him. Andy says he feels some responsibility to take care of Gabriel since he is the one who carried him out of the house that day. He goes out there almost every Saturday, I think, and takes Gabriel places. I think Brent and Julie honestly appreciate the break with one less child in the house.”
“Do you know what they do?” Booger asked.
“I think they just go to the park at the lake most days, or just whatever. I’m honestly not sure about all the details.”
“Okay,” Booger said. “Thanks.”
After the two men got into the car and began to pull away, Steve looked over at Booger. “What do you think?”
“Well, she was definitely hiding something. I could tell that clear as day. The only question is, was she just hiding her affair, or did she kill her hero to take her place on the mantel? I’ve seen it several times over the years. You have two best friends, one with a strong personality and the other a follower. Over time, the idolization turns to something else, and the follower wants not only to start having a say in the relationship but to also take over the other person’s life. It definitely explains why she started sleeping with Scottie, but I’m not sure if it makes her a murderer.” Booger turned and smiled at Steve, “One thing I do know; this sure is going to be an interesting journey, my friend. I’m glad you got me involved. Let’s go to that park.”
Steve turned right on Blue Starr Drive and drove toward the park. As they neared the parking lot adjacent to the playground, they saw the sheriff’s patrol car. Steve pulled his car up next to it. Both men got out. Booger took a few pictures of Deputy Blackburn pushing Gabriel on the swing before they approached.
As they got within earshot, Deputy Blackburn left his position behind the swing and headed toward them. By the time they met up, all three men were a considerable distance from Gabriel.
Deputy Blackburn calmly said, “Hello, gentlemen. I know why you are here. Brent told me who you are and what you are up to. I would be happy to meet with you sometime when the little man is not around.” He turned and gave a nod toward Gabriel still on the swing. “I don’t like to talk shop around him, especially not this case. I’m sure you understand.”
Steve spoke first, “Yes, of course, there’s no reason for him to hear about it. Is there a time next week you’d be available?”
“My on-duty hours are Monday through Thursday from 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every week, but I would be happy to meet with you anytime that Gabe is not around. Brent told me about your theory, and I would love to find out what you have uncovered. As a lawman and the first officer on the scene, I would hate it if we got the wrong person. However, I must tell you that I find it highly unlikely we made a mistake. Considering all the evidence that pointed to your guy, there is no doubt in my mind the right man is in prison. That said, I’m extremely curious to see what you
think my department missed in the investigation.”
Steve looked at Booger and said, “I have a court hearing on Monday. Can you do Tuesday?”
Booger nodded. “I’m fairly open at the body shop this week and I got a text earlier the Javelin I expected on Monday won’t be coming in. I can be wherever whenever, young man.”
Steve turned back to Deputy Whitmore. “How about Tuesday morning around nine thirty?”
“Can you do 4:00 p.m.? That way, I don’t have to worry about being called away if something comes up, since I will be officially off-duty.”
“Four sounds perfect. We will see you then,” Steve said.
CHAPTER 20
When they arrived back in Tulsa, it was a little after 1:00 p.m. Steve turned to Booger. “All that lying and evading we heard today has got me real hungry. Do you like traditional English food?”
“What do you consider traditional English food? Internal organs and French fries?” Booger frowned. “Probably not.”
“You’ll love this place. The White Lion Pub near 71st and Yale. I love the ‘Lancashire Feast’—a steak and mushroom pie. No intestines. I promise.”
“Okay, I’m game. I’m sure I can find something to eat.”
At the pub, a waitress brought Steve a Guinness and Booger a Bud Light. Booger took a swig from his bottle and asked, “How can you drink that stuff? It looks like tar.”
“Well, I’ll admit it is a bit of an acquired taste,” Steve said with a shrug. “But once you get used to it, there is not another beer in the world that can compare to its complexity. I actually started drinking these in law school at Georgetown in DC. The law school campus is downtown, not out in Georgetown proper where the main university is situated. There were two Irish bars/restaurants within walking distance of the campus.”
“The Dubliner was located on the ground floor of a posh hotel. It had leather chairs and cloth napkins, and they served a nice pint of Guinness. A lot of businesspeople, as well as students who had a few bucks, ate and drank there. Right next to The Dubliner was The Irish Times. It was more of your hole-in-the-wall type of Irish pub. There was always the smell of stale beer stuck on the floor with the occasional whiff of puke on the wrong nights. The rest of us went there. The Irish Times served the best Guinness I
have ever had in the States, and that is pretty much what everyone who went there ordered. Grew to love this stuff in that place, and I hope one day to visit the brewery. I think I would be in heaven if I ever got to have a pint there.”
“Georgetown, huh?” Booger said. “That is a top-shelf law school. You must be some kind of intellectual. Not that I’ve picked up on that thus far.” He said jabbingly.
After lunch, they drove home without much conversation, each man quietly pondering their morning’s activities. As Steve pulled up to the body shop, Booger said, “Spend the next couple of days thinking about what all happened this morning. Not just what was said, but also what wasn’t said, and how everyone reacted to our presence. Plus, we need to go see Scottie again. Something has been eating at my gut ever since our meeting with him. There is still something he isn’t being completely honest about. I know it, and we need to get it out of him.” “Okay,” said Steve.
“Lastly, I remember you told Deputy Blackburn you have something Monday. Can we meet at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday and go over our thoughts before we go back to Claremore to meet him?”
“Yes,” Steve said with a nod. “Can you meet me at my office? If you have the time, we can even plan on meeting about noon and have lunch first. If that works for you?”
“Sounds good. By the way, just out of curiosity, what type of case do you have Monday?” Booger asked.
“Oh, it’s not the juiciest of cases, but it was the most important case in my filing cabinet before I got this one. I represent a guy accused of embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from his company. The preliminary hearing is set Monday afternoon, but
CHAPTER 20
after all the evidence I’ve seen, I think our best bet is to take a plea. I am meeting with him Monday morning to discuss all of our options.”
CHAPTER 21
Monday came all too quickly for Steve. He had spent so much time thinking about Scottie’s case that he had neglected the Hamilton matter. He started early that morning by going back over the entire file. He wanted to be completely prepared for his meeting with Hamilton at 11:00 a.m, so he spent most of the time reviewing the information contained in the zip drive that Emily had provided him. It contained all of the data she had extracted from Hamilton’s hard drive. Some of that time Steve spent thinking about Emily herself, but he did his best to focus on the zip drive information.
Steve had told Hamilton today’s meeting was so they could go over any final questions before their preliminary hearing at 1:30 p.m. before Judge McCuan. But Steve’s real plan was to present Hamilton with the new evidence and see if Hamilton would fess up. At this point, Steve knew that Hamilton’s best option was to plea; however, that would never happen as long as the man kept denying his guilt.
Hamilton arrived on time, and Carol showed him to the conference room in the back. After leaving him with a soda, she went into Steve’s office.
“Hey, Mr. Death Penalty, your embezzler is here to see you. I put him in Conference Room B—assuming you still have time for your other clients.”
Steve said, “Thanks, Carol,” before shaking his head and muttering something under his breath as he got up. He walked to the conference room, and the two men exchanged pleasantries before Steve got down to business. Steve sat at the end of the long wooden table near Hamilton who had been placed in the first seat along the side earlier by Carol.
“Okay, we are set for your preliminary hearing this afternoon. Before we go forward with that, I want to make sure you understand all of your options. Most importantly, I want to make sure
I have answered any questions you have.”
“Sounds good,” replied Hamilton. “My first question is: What exactly is a preliminary hearing?”
“A preliminary hearing is a gate-keeping procedure wherein the state must prove that there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed and probable cause to believe you are the one who committed that crime,” said Steve. “If the state is unable to meet that burden, then the case is dismissed. However, you should understand that, at this point, they only have to show probable cause, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt as they will at the final jury trial.”
“I’m not sure I understand. What is the difference between probable cause and beyond a reasonable doubt?”
“Probable cause simply means the evidence shows it probably happened. Beyond a reasonable doubt means there is almost no doubt in the jury’s mind you committed the crime charged. A simple analogy would be to think about two children playing in the other room, and a lamp falls over and crashes. The mother could meet the burden of probable cause against both children because she was in the room next door, heard the crash, and immediately came in to see the broken lamp. But she would only have proof beyond a reasonable doubt against either child if one of the two confessed, and the other agreed. Without the confession, she does not have proof beyond a reasonable doubt against either of them,” Steve explained.
“So, the state could win a preliminary hearing against both children, but couldn’t win a jury trial against either?”
“Correct, unless they got more evidence against one of them, like a confession, or maybe the dad saw what happened from outside or whatever.”
Hamilton frowned. “It sounds like it doesn’t take much evidence for them to show probable cause.”
“Correct again, the state wins probably 90 percent of all preliminary hearings because, if the prosecutor knows he or she can’t meet the burden, they usually dismiss the case without wasting time having a hearing. But if they think they have enough evidence to get past the low burden of probable cause, they proceed.
“Also, the law in Oklahoma assumes that the prosecution will continue to gather more evidence after the hearing and make their case even stronger before trial. So, yes, it is a very low burden, and they almost always win at this stage. You should understand that most defense attorneys never put any evidence on for the defense at these hearings, and I don’t plan on putting on any evidence today myself.”
“Why not? Shouldn’t we prove my innocence now?”
“No. The main purpose of this hearing, from our perspective, is not to win the hearing, but to hear the testimony and evidence the state has available so that we can begin to come up with a strategy to defeat them at trial. They are basically forced to show their cards while we are able to keep ours tight. If we put on evidence, we would give them an idea of our strategy. Make sense?” “Yeah, your plan sounds good to me,” Hamilton said.
“However,” Steve continued, “we have another option. We can waive this hearing, should you choose to do that.”
“Why would I waive the chance to see their evidence?”
“Well, the first reason is that I already know what evidence they plan on producing. They are required to show me the police reports and other documentation they have gathered. I just haven’t been able to ask questions of any officers involved or cross-examine them about their actions, which, in your case, wouldn’t truly produce much more information. Your case is not like a traffic stop or something similar where the officer is a key witness. In those cases, we might be able to catch the officer lying or admitting to doing something wrong that would let us keep evidence out of the hearing.”
“And what’s the second reason?” Hamilton asked.
“The second reason is that Ms. Turner, who is the prosecutor in your case, tends to look kindly upon defendants who do not force her to put on a hearing that we all know she will win. At this point, she has made us an offer for a plea deal that would let you stay out of prison as long as you pay the money back. I think—”
“I’m not taking a plea deal!” interrupted Hamilton. “I didn’t do anything. I didn’t take any money.”
“While I understand that is your position right now,” Steve said in an understanding manner, “I have to tell you that the evidence against you is quite substantial. Their star witness is a woman named Dr. Emily Babbage. She is a computer forensics expert. What that means is that she knows how to search the hard drive of a computer and find files and information that the person who owned the computer had previously deleted. You see, nothing deleted from a computer is truly gone unless you wash the entire hard drive. If a person simply removes items by clicking delete or dragging them to the trash, it doesn’t completely erase them. They will still be somewhere on your computer, and Dr. Babbage is trained in finding those files.”
Hamilton began to shift in his chair, looking very uncomfortable as Steve continued.
“Dr. Babbage took your computer and searched it for deleted files. The United States Constitution requires the prosecution in every case to provide defense counsel with all of the evidence the state has procured against a defendant. This is because the courts want transparency in prosecutions so that no defendant is ambushed at trial with a bunch of evidence they knew nothing about. Plus, the defense should always be given an opportunity to rebut with evidence of their own.”
Steve opened the box of documents he had printed from the zip drive provided by the state. He began pulling certain marked pages out from the stacks of paper.
“When Dr. Babbage went through your computer, she found all of these documents that you thought were deleted. There are a few specific ones I would like to ask you about. This one, for instance, shows a transfer of money from the corporate account of Phillips Industries to an unknown account on April 23 of last year. Here is another from April 27 and a third from May 8. There are several more of these. Can you tell me how they got onto your computer?”
“I have no idea… I promise I did not take that money,” Hamilton responded, his voice quivering.
“Did anyone else have access to your home computer?” asked Steve.
“No.”
“Let me show you a few more documents she recovered from your computer. These are spreadsheets showing your accounting ledgers. This page shows the ledger that you turned into the company, and this page shows all the changes that were made to that document from the time it was first created and all the way through to the final version you submitted. Here you can even see where you misspelled the word ‘account’ and went back and added the second ‘c.’ Here the ledger shows that $2,689 was originally transferred to the same unknown account as all the other transfers. Plus, on this one, your name is listed as the recipient, and then, in the document turned into the company, your name is replaced with one of Phillips Industry’s suppliers to make it appear as a legitimate expenditure. It seems when you first made transfers, you put your name on it so you would know how much and when the transfers were made. Later, you went in and changed those transfers to names you thought no one would notice when reviewing your ledgers.”
Hamilton’s head slowly drooped as he continued to listen to Steve.
“I should also let you know, although they haven’t tracked down the information yet, Ms. Turner has requested the judge allow the state to send a subpoena to the bank where the unknown account is located. They will get all of the bank’s records relating to this account, including the name of its owner.” Steve paused, laying the stack of evidence on the table.
“Now, this is what my mentor, Frank Ackerman, would call a ‘come to Jesus’ moment. All this information is pointing directly to you, so if your name is going to appear as the owner of that bank account, I need to know that right now in order to best represent you in this case.”
At this point, tears were beginning to form in the corners of Hamilton’s eyes.
“Is your name going to be listed on the account? Is your signature going to be on the enrollment documents for this account?”
Finally, Hamilton cracked. “I’m sorry… I’m so very sorry… I never meant for it to get this far. I just borrowed a little that first time and was planning on paying it back. There is something I haven’t told you, and it is a big reason for my divorce as well. I have a serious gambling problem. I simply love playing slot machines at the casinos around town. The Osage Casino north of town is my favorite. The excitement I feel in my bones when I hit a bonus on those machines is the most exhilarating feeling to me. When they spin red. The biggest problem was that I actually won a lot of the time. That was how I paid your retainer; I came in right after winning over ten thousand dollars on one spin. It makes me think I’ll win every time I go play. So, when I didn’t win, I just kept putting more and more money into those damn machines, thinking I would eventually win. When I won five hundred, I thought I could get one thousand. When I won a thousand, I thought I could get two thousand. No matter how much I won, it was never enough, so I’d keep trying to win more until I checked my pockets, and there was nothing left. Not the one thousand I’d won, not the five hundred I’d won, not even the money I’d originally brought with me. I would realize I’d given it all back to them. Then this awful feeling would start in my stomach, and I’d sometimes want to kill myself.”
