Last Dance, Last Chance

grand jury hearings are secret. Debbie had to testify once more, and now she had to do it alone. Even attorneys are not allowed behind the closed doors of a grand jury.
     
    On April 27, 2000, Anthony was indicted on charges emanating from Debbie’s poisoning: attempted murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree, and three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree. He had been transferred a week earlier to the Elmira Correctional Facility to begin his sentence for violating probation. He was being held in the reception area while prison officials decided where he should serve his time.
    District Attorney Frank Clark refused to comment on the poisoning case. Defense Attorney Joel Daniels remarked that “There is no case, and we’re going to fight the indictment and try to get it thrown out because we believe there isn’t any real proof, only imaginary proof.”
     
    Contrary to popular belief, a prosecutor’s case against a suspect does not have to have direct physical evidence or eyewitness testimony to make it viable. DNA, hair fibers, fingerprints, teeth impressions, tape recordings, and video are, indeed, wonderful tools for a prosecutor to hold. But circumstantial evidence can also be very powerful. If there are enough circumstances that point to a suspect who has a motive, a method, and a means to commit a murder, and if that suspect has behaved in such a way as to make him or her look like the only person with reason to want a victim dead, a gutsy prosecutor will take a chance. All that is needed for conviction is one pebble of circumstantial evidence following another that can be piled on top of still another until there is a wall of evidence—something that a reasonable juror can turn over in his mind until he comes up with the only possible killer.
     
    Anthony Pignataro’s patterned response when his back was to the wall had always been to draw his wife and family around him like a protective cloak. While he had neglected them in his hedonistic pursuits, he used them when he needed them.
    On April 27, even as the charges against him were announced, Anthony wrote to his children:
    “Hi,
    “How are you guys. I haven’t heard from either of you??[sic] Grandma said you wrote me, but I haven’t got it yet?? I miss you both so much. Why don’t you write to me?? I think about you all the time & I miss you both. Do you think you could at least write a short note & let me know how you are doing, how’s school, sports etc. Did you guys get my letters and Easter cards?”
    He gave them his new address: Elmira Correctional Facility, Box 500, Elmira, NY 14902—0500, although he expected to be moved one more time.
    “How about sending me a picture or 2 of both of you?
    “Try to see Polo. He doesn’t get to see anyone & grandma can’t handle him on the leash so he doesn’t get out much. I know he’d love to see you both. Every day, I wait for the mail & hope for a letter from my children. Please don’t let me down! Be good and look out and take care of your mother.”
     
    He knew what buttons to push. Polo, their German shepherd, had been their pet since Ralph was five, but Debbie certainly couldn’t handle him. She felt lucky to be able to walk a few yards. Ralph ached for his dog, and Anthony knew it.
    After he’d gotten out of his first jail sentence, Anthony had sat in his recliner chair drinking tequila or spent time with Tami Maxell. His only interest in Ralph had been when his boy was a football star, but now he heaped guilt and pleas for love upon his children.
    Ralph wrote to his father that April 2000, and he asked him some hard questions.
    “I have a lot of unanswered questions,” he wrote. A topic I would like to start on is why you are telling everybody that Mom put you in jail for your probation violation. Do you know how hard it is for me to go with Grandma to help her buy a new car (You know I love cars!) and hear her say bad things about Mom? It hurts. And what is this about heroin? And heroin with Tami? Was Mom responsible for that? I can’t believe you sometimes. I just want to ask why? Why did you have to be so stupid? Even I know not to do that sort of thing. You’re a doctor; you should definitely know right from wrong. That was wrong!”
    Ralph pleaded with his father to confess the truth to Lena Pignataro and admit his own flaws.
    “Mom can’t even afford the mortgage nowadays…we may have to move. How come Grandma