No Regrets

in Bellingham, Everett, or Seattle, it might be more likely to end in a conviction, just because large-city dwellers might expect shooting and dismembering a spouse and then burning the pieces would be something islanders would do to solve marital problems.
    It was all quite ridiculous, of course. People in Washington State who live on windswept islands may be individualistsand close to nature, but they tend to be highly intelligent professionals, who visualize life there as more serene than city life, and are anything but low-browed renegades living in “hollers.”
    Today, the price of San Juan and other island property is sky-high, and there are virtually no waterfront lots available to anyone who cannot afford hundreds of thousands—even millions—of dollars.
    Judge Bibb was on the bench, assisted by Mary Jean Cahail, who had decades of experience as clerk of the Superior Court of the Joint Judicial District combining San Juan and Island counties. Connie Burns (Sundstrom) was her coclerk, and Karen King, the bailiff. Except for Judge Bibb, they were a “hometown” group of court officers who had served in the antique courthouse, now replaced by the new structure built with amazing speed with this trial in mind.
    Ruth Neslund sat quietly at the defense table, the perfect picture of a sweet grandmother type. She had said that she still half-expected to see her missing sea captain come walking up their driveway. So did some of those anticipating her trial.
    Rolf Neslund was listed as a potential witness in his own murder trial!
    What did that mean? For one thing, it meant that every time the courtroom door opened, heads jerked and everyone in the gallery looked to see who was coming in.
    There was scarcely space to breathe in the courtroom; every seat was filled and some spectators stood. It remained that way throughout the proceedings.
    Picking a jury for a case that had had sensational headlinesand media coverage in minute detail for so many years is always difficult. Judge Bibb wrote to the pool of hundreds of potential jurors and asked them not to read or watch television news or newspaper accounts that proliferated as Ruth’s trial drew near. He hoped not to have to sequester the jury during the trial, which was expected to last four to six weeks. San Juan County could scarcely afford the trial, much less hotel and food bills for jurors for that long. The county had budgeted eighteen thousand dollars for the trial, and keeping the jury sequestered would cost at least twenty-four thousand dollars, an unheard-of drain on the county budget.
    But from the beginning, everyone concerned, which, indeed, was most of San Juan County’s residents, had worried about the possibility of a mistrial. They would hold their breaths and hope that no one got sick, that there was no misconduct, and that everyone from witnesses to jurors would show up on time for every session. If the jurors were not sequestered, there was always the chance that one or more of them might be approached or overhear something they were not supposed to.
    It took six days before all but thirty of the original four hundred in the jury pool had been winnowed out by the state and the defense for cause, and for medical and financial reasons of individuals who felt serving on the jury would be a hardship.
    And still, Judge Bibb felt that it had become necessary for more potential jurors to be called. On Veterans’ Day, Lisa Boyd, an Orcas Island banker, was shocked to receive just three hours’ notice that she must report to the courtroom in Friday Harbor. The county needed five more jurors. Although her supervisor at the bank wasn’t happy to have her leave on such short notice, Lisa and five other citizenscaught the ferry to San Juan Island just in time. Only one of that half dozen was dismissed, and finally, twelve women and three men took their places in the jury box. Lisa had become Juror Number One.
    No one on the Neslund jury was from Lopez Island; they had all been removed “for cause” by the state—much to Fred Weedon’s disappointment. Ruth had a lot of loyalty from Lopezians, despite all the “meat-grinder” folktales. Many of the potential jurors had mentioned the meat-grinder when they were asked what they might remember of the Neslund case, but said they didn’t think that would influence their ability to judge the testimony fairly.
    It was to be a trial full of fits and starts; Ruth’s health and habits would interrupt her