No Regrets

trial continually. Only a few days into jury selection, her blood pressure had risen dangerously high and she suffered a severe nosebleed. Every effort was made to keep this emergency from the potential jurors’ eyes, but one person did see her as she was spirited from the courtroom, a handkerchief pressed against her face in vain, and her blouse already stained with blood.
    She was flown to a hospital in Bellingham. Subsequently, she spent a week in a local convalescent center until she was deemed well enough to come back to court. Although the jurors didn’t know it, Ruth had suffered from “the DTs”—delirium tremens—in the medical center. They were brought on by alcohol withdrawal.
    Almost anyone on trial for first-degree murder might be expected to experience a rise in blood pressure, but Ruth Neslund looked ill when she returned to her trial.
    But there was no mistrial. They had all dodged another mistrial bullet.
    Finally, Greg Canova asked that the defendant, who was free on bail, be confined to the Islands Convalescent Center where she could have her vital signs and her consumption of alcohol monitored. Unless she was, Canova argued that she was “in a position to control this trial.”
    Judge Bibb agreed and ordered that during the week, Ruth should be in the center from 8:00 P.M . to 8:00 A.M. She would be allowed to go home on weekends.
    She was, in many ways, a pathetic figure, a limping old lady. But Ruth was also a consummate chameleon. Throughout her life she had morphed from capable businesswoman to persuasive mistress to Lady Bountiful to furious and combative wife to alleged murderess to kindly neighbor to gracious hostess, and finally, to an elderly invalid whose own community seemed to surround her with concern.
    But who was she... really?
    With all the delays, it was November 13 before opening statements began. The jurors looked at Charles Silverman expectantly. As youthful and inexperienced as he was, the man known to islanders as “Charlie” did a good job as he laid out the whole case for them in a comprehensive fashion. He characterized the relationship between the Neslunds as “rather vicious,” growing from the “seeds of violence” that had been germinating in their home for some time, culminating in a terrible argument that was sparked by Rolf Neslund’s discovery of his wife’s financial manipulation of his money. Silverman promised jurors that Ruth’s niece, Joy, and her brother, Paul, would describe what had happened in the last bloody day of Rolf’s life.
    He promised the jurors a plethora of physical evidence that would back up the circumstantial evidence that pointed to Ruth as her husband’s killer.
    Fred Weedon opted to delay his remarks until the defense began its case. Attorneys sometimes choose to hear the opposition’s case before they lay out their own.
    This was a small-town trial, but it drew tremendous interest. “It felt like being part of a real-life book,” Lisa Boyd remembered. “There were lots of ‘actors.’ Greg Canova was very handsome—like the actor Pernell Roberts—and he dressed beautifully. Charlie Silverman was quite young then, and earnest. He didn’t pretend to be an expert in criminal law, and we liked him for that.
    “Fred Weedon was known for being a real estate attorney in the islands. He wasn’t a big-time criminal defense attorney. Ellsworth Connelly—who I think was appointed by the state—wasn’t familiar to us. He had a habit of jingling coins in his pocket. I don’t think he was aware of it. And he always referred to Deputy Ray Clever as ‘Cleaver’—like Beaver Cleaver.
    “Ruth constantly wore what appeared to be that navy blue pantsuit. She didn’t care how she looked. Her hair was straight and short, and stuck out every which way. It was gray and it often looked greasy or dirty.
    “We could see that she had a cane or a walker, but we didn’t know if she really needed it or not.”
    Joe Caputo, Ray Clever, and other detectives were local men, deputies from the small Sheriff’s Office, and not like investigators from Seattle, Spokane, or Tacoma. Jurors felt comfortable with them, as they described what they had found during the sweeping search of the Neslunds’ home three years earlier, telling things no one had heard before.
    Joe had created an exhibit that would document exactly where the blood spots on the floor were found. “I had actually got a large roll of white butcher-type wrapping paper and