Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

the judge. But every person on that jury was looking at that photo while we were at sidebar and every one of them was thinking how hard it would have been for Margo Schafer to see what she claimed she saw. That’s how it works. It’s cold and calculating. Sometimes you win a point but most times you don’t.”
    “I know,” she said dismissively. “It doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
    “No, you don’t.”

Twenty-four
    Freeman surprised me after lunch by not calling Margo Schafer back to the stand to try to repair the damage I had inflicted on cross. My guess was that she had something else planned for later that would help salvage the Schafer testimony. Instead, she called LAPD Sergeant David Covington, who was the first officer to respond to WestLand National after the 911 call from Riki Sanchez was logged.
    Covington was a seasoned veteran and a solid witness for the prosecution. In the precise if not droll delivery of someone who has seen more dead bodies and testified about them more times than he can remember, he described arriving on scene and determining that the victim was dead by means of foul play. He then described closing access to the entire garage, corralling Riki Sanchez and other possible witnesses, and cordoning off the second-floor area where the body was located.
    Through Covington the crime scene photographs were introduced and displayed in all their bloody glory on the two overhead flat screens. These more than any testimony from Covington established the crime of murder, a requirement for conviction.
    I’d had marginal success during a pretrial skirmish involving the crime scene photos. I had objected to their introduction, particularly the prosecution’s plan to display three-by-three blowups on easels in front of the jury box. I had argued that that they were prejudicial to my client. Photos of real victims of murder are always shocking and provoke strong emotions. It is human nature to want to harshly punish those responsible. Photos can easily turn a jury against the accused, regardless of what evidence connects the accused to the crime. Perry tried to split the baby. He limited the number of photos the prosecution could introduce to four and told Freeman she had to use the overhead screens, thus limiting the size of the photos. I had won a few points but knew that the judge’s order would not limit the visceral response of the jurors. It was still a victory for the prosecution.
    Freeman chose the four photos that showed the most blood and the pitiful angle at which Bondurant had dropped face-first onto the concrete floor of the garage.
    On cross-examination I zeroed in on one photo and tried to get the jury thinking about something other than avenging the dead. The best way to do that is to plant questions. If they are left with questions but no answers then I have done my job on cross.
    With the judge’s permission, I used the projection remote to eliminate three of the photos on the screens, leaving only one remaining.
    “Sergeant Covington, I want to draw your attention to the photo I’ve left on display. I believe it is marked People’s Exhibit Three. Can you tell me what that is in the foreground of the photo?”
    “Yes, that is an open briefcase.”
    “Okay, and is that how you found it when you arrived at the scene?”
    “Yes, it is.”
    “It was sitting there open like that?”
    “Yes.”
    “Okay, and did you make any inquiry of any witness or anyone else to determine if someone had opened it after the victim was discovered?”
    “I asked the woman who had called nine-one-one if she had opened it and she said she had not. That was the extent of my inquiry on it. I left it for the detectives.”
    “Okay, and you’ve testified here that you have been working patrol for your entire career of twenty-two years, correct?”
    “Yes, that’s correct.”
    “You have responded to a lot of nine-one-one calls?”
    “Yes.”
    “What did seeing that open briefcase mean to you?”
    “Nothing really. It was just part of the crime scene.”
    “Did your experience cause you to think there may have been a robbery involved in this murder?”
    “Not really. I’m not a detective.”
    “If robbery was not a motive in this crime, why would the killer take the time to open the victim’s briefcase?”
    Freeman objected before Covington could answer. She said that the question was beyond the witness’s scope of expertise and experience.
    “Sergeant Covington has spent