...And Never Let HerGo

evidence that Tom talked to his brother Joe about doing something for Gerry—the kid brother—who was very good to Tom’s kids by taking them out on his boat. You will hear that Gerry had just bought a new $125,000 boat and Tom wanted to get him something. Joe suggested a cooler.”
    Oteri dismissed the $8,000 loan from Gerry. He could explain that. He would explain the borrowed gun. But most of all, he would explain through testimony that Tom Capano had not murdered Anne Marie. “Anne Marie Fahey died as a result of an outrageous, horrible, tragic accident, that only one other person—who was there—knows everything that happened that night.”
    A buzz started in the courtroom. This was the first time that anyone suggested that Anne Marie had died in an accident. What accident?Where? Was Tom there? And who was the other person who had been present?
    “Tom Capano and his brother Gerry,” Oteri continued in a startling admission that Tom had been involved in a death, and its subsequent cover-up, “disposed of Anne Marie Fahey’s body by placing it in a cooler and taking it to sea and sinking it. You’re going to hear that Tom Capano is not the least bit proud of that. You will hear that it was motivated by fear for himself, by a desire to protect himself, by a desire to protect others. You will hear what happened to Anne Marie Fahey’s body. This is the difficult thing you’re going to have to do. You hear about what happened to Anne Marie Fahey. You are revolted. You want revenge. You want to strangle the person that did it. But you can’t—because you’re jurors. You’re twelve people. You have to decide—never mind what happened after she died.
How
did she die? Was it murder, or was it not? Was it an accident? Was it something?”
    Joe Oteri had just pulled a sensational rabbit out of his hat. The question was, could he make it hop? He ended his opening remarks with a patriotic paragraph about America and the “presumption of innocence” that ruled its courts. “What that means is any one of us—me, you, this lady, Wharton—no matter what we’re accused of, no matter what we’re charged with, we stand here in this jury room before you, sir, and you, ma’am, and everybody else, presumed innocent. And we will remain innocent, wrapped in a cloak of innocence, until that prosecution can rip that cloak from you by proof beyond, and to the exclusion of, all reasonable doubt.
    “And until that’s done, Tom Capano is innocent.”
    T HE opening statements in a trial give the jury an overview of the entire case. Both the state and the defense attorneys tell the jurors what happened and how they will prove it. Their conclusions are, of course, dissimilar. Now, each had to produce compelling witnesses and physical and circumstantial evidence to validate their rhetoric.
    The first morning of the trial had come to an end and with economical use of time; both sides had finished their opening statements. The suggestion that Anne Marie had died in an accident had everyone guessing. It could not have been an automobile accident; there had been no damage to any of the cars involved in the case. Had she fallen down Tom’s stairs or drowned in his bathtub? One reporter thought Oteri was suggesting that some kind of kinky sex had gone wrong.
    Outside the courthouse, reporters crowded around Oteri. Heseemed comfortable when he said, “Yes, Anne Marie did die at Tom’s house.”
    “Why did he take her out on the boat if it was an accident?” someone asked.
    “Because you can’t keep it at home,” he shot back in jest. But it was a sick joke and drew only nervous laughter.
    Oteri was already walking away as someone asked him, “But why didn’t he call 911?”

Chapter Thirty-seven
    O NE PART of the long journey toward the truth was over; the witnesses and the evidence came next. Now, Colm Connolly and Ferris Wharton would present their case to the jurors. Often, one of them began with the direct examination of a witness and the other did the redirect. Each had a mind geared to details, but Connolly was the more intense of the pair, while Wharton often began his questioning with an easier style, homing in later. Tom’s “dream team” watched carefully for any weak spots that might provide an opportunity to jump in on cross and lessen the impact of the testimony.
    No one in the courtroom heard what went on in the sidebar conferences at Judge Lee’s bench. On the opening day of the trial, there was a