Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder

I’ll let you know.’ ”
    When Yancy told Jensen that he might have a better plan, he learned that Bill wanted more people killed, not just his wife.
    “When you say he added family members,” Cheryl Snow asked, “who specifically did he add that he wanted to be killed?”
    “The first one was his sister-in-law, because then the money would go to his daughter and his son. I don’t know how wealthy they are. He said they were wealthy to a point. And then, when I explained the way I would do it— if I was to do it—I said, ‘Well, wouldn’t your daughter get all the money instead of you, now that she’s eighteen?’ He went, ‘Oh, yeah. Let me think about this for a little while.’ So the next day, he said, ‘I wouldn’t mind if she goes with them.’ I said okay. He asked me a price. I told him one price for all.”
    “What was the price?”
    “A hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
    “That was for killing how many people?”
    “Three. I told him it wasn’t enough, and if it was done right, there’d better be a bonus. He said he couldn’t give me a bonus until after the job.”
    “Did he explain why?”
    “Because he had to inherit the money.”
    Yancy told the jurors that he had asked for “up-front” money and also told Bill Jensen that he could make it look like an accident.
    “How did the defendant respond to that?” Cheryl Snow asked.
    “He loved the idea. He got tickled pink.”
    Snow asked the witness if there had been any more planning about how this should occur. Carrothers said that was when Jensen had started to give him descriptions and addresses of the specified targets.
    Cheryl Snow introduced into evidence the sheet of paper that Cloyd Steiger had removed from Yancy’s property box.
    “Can you tell me whose writing that is, or who wrote that document?”
    “He wrote the first one,” Yancy answered. “And then I wrote this one because he didn’t want his prints on it, or anyone to see it.”
    Yancy Carrothers was almost too good a witness, rushing forward with information before Cheryl Snow had a chance to ask the next question. She reminded him to answer one question at a time.
    This scene in Judge Jones’s courtroom was reminiscent of The Sopranos on television, only it was all too real.
    “Who wrote the material on the document you’re holding in your hand?”
    “Mr. Jensen. I copied it.”
    “Who provided the information that is listed there?”
    “Mr. Jensen.”
    “How did he convey that information to you?”
    “He wrote it on a piece of paper just like this. He brought it to my ‘room’ [cell], slid it through the door, told me to copy it and rip up the one that he did. Then I told him, ‘Oh, I don’t have any paper. Have you got a piece of paper so I can copy this?’ This paper came out of his notepad also. His prints are on it. I made sure of that.”
    Yancy was clearly aware of forensic evidence, and he smiled at the jury to be sure they caught the fact that he had tricked Bill Jensen.
    Now, at Cheryl Snow’s request, Yancy read the words on the page aloud for the jury, beginning, “Wife, Sue Jensen, white female, 47 years old, five six, 155 pounds, dark brown hair…Big house on corner…Car, Ford Mustang convertible…blue and white…Sister, Carol Harris, white female, early 50s…Daughter, Jenny. She lives with mother—”
    “I’m going to stop you right there,” Cheryl Snow cut in. She wanted the jury to understand exactly what this piece of paper was. “And that information was provided to you by the defendant?”
    “Yes ma’am.”
    “Prior to meeting the defendant on the eleventh floor of the King County Jail, had you ever met Bill Jensen before?”
    “No.”
    “Had you ever met Sue Jensen?”
    “No…I had never seen any of their family in my life.”
    The May afternoon grew late as Yancy Carrothers spelled out the details of a plot to kill three people. He testified that he had identified himself to Bill Jensen’s sister by using the code word “Flying Kings” and received $2,500 “front money.” Yancy stressed that he knew that the job was to be carried out before Bill went to trial on the felony–domestic–violence charges. Jensen wanted to be sure there were no witnesses against him.
    Yancy Carrothers gave no indication in his testimony that he wasn’t prepared to carry out the plan. He was voluble, accommodating, expressive, and he was akin to a creature from another planet to the jurors. None of them had ever