A Cure for Night (18 page)

PART

THREE

28

G
OOD MORNING
, ladies and gentlemen," ADA O'Bannon said, beginning the opening arguments in
People v. Lorenzo Tate.
He was standing at the podium in front of the prosecution's table. The ADAs had the table closest to the jury; Myra and I sat flanking Lorenzo at our table. Behind us were a half dozen rows of public seating, which was about half-full. The courtroom was new and antiseptic, lacking the imposing formality of the federal courts I'd generally practiced in while at Walker Bentley, but a good deal nicer than the criminal court on Schermerhorn where I handled arraignments and misdemeanors.
"This is a murder case. The murder in question arose from a debt. The intended victim, Devin Wallace, owed money to the defendant, Lorenzo Tate. You will hear evidence that the defendant came looking for the intended victim at his home in the Glenwood Gardens housing project on the night of the shooting. You will hear that the defendant made threatening remarks while he was looking for Mr. Wallace that night. And you will hear that an eyewitness saw the defendant actually do the shooting.

"Devin Wallace did not die, even though he was shot twice in the back. But the defendant fired a full six shots, and one of those four bullets that missed Mr. Wallace went into the head of a college student named Seth Lipton, killing him instantly. That is the murder in this case.

"The People do not believe that the defendant set out to kill Seth Lipton that night. There is no evidence that the defendant had ever seen Seth Lipton before. We believe that Seth Lipton was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The reason that Seth Lipton was there, as strange as this might seem, was for his studies. Now, perhaps the defense will try to put a more sinister spin on it, but the fact is that Seth Lipton was studying sociology in school, and he was doing his senior honors thesis on life at the Glenwood Gardens housing projects.

"Devin Wallace, on the other hand, was the intended victim, hunted down and shot because of a debt. You will hear testimony from Devin's sister, Latrice Wallace. Latrice Wallace lives with her brother. She will tell you that a few hours before the shooting, the defendant came knocking on their door. She will tell you that the defendant was looking for her brother, that he was looking for his money, and that when she said her brother wasn't home and hadn't left any money, the defendant made a threat.

"Now, as I said, Mr. Wallace was shot in the back, so he did not see who shot him and Mr. Lipton. But there was a witness, a woman named Yolanda Miller.

"Ms. Miller, who also lives in Glenwood Gardens, was on her way to a deli to get some milk for her child. She had just stepped out of her building and had spotted Mr. Wallace, who she was dating. Ms. Miller will testify she was starting to approach Mr. Wallace and the deceased, Mr. Lipton, when the shooting started. She will testify that she saw the defendant run right by her with a gun in his hand, and that she was able to identify him by his street name, which is Strawberry, because she had seen him on several occasions prior to the shooting.

"The evidence will show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the
defendant shot and killed Seth Lipton, and shot and attempted to kill Devin
Wallace. We will ask you to find him guilty on all counts. Thank you."

O'Bannon had given his entire opening while standing in front of the small podium placed a few feet in front of the jury box, occasionally glancing at notes. Myra had written out her entire opening, which she had then gone over with me before boiling it down into a page's worth of bulleted trigger phrases. Myra stood at the podium for a moment, looking from face to face, making sure she had fully gathered the jury's collective attention to her.

"I'd just like to clear a few things up," she began. "To begin with, nobody knows who the intended victim of this crime was. Two people were shot. One was killed, but the police and the prosecutor assumed that the actual murder victim just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We're going to present some evidence suggesting that Mr. Lipton's death might not have just been a matter of bad luck. That perhaps it wasn't just bad timing, but that something else was going on.

"It's true that Lorenzo Tate came looking for Devin Wallace that night, but that in no way makes Lorenzo Tate a murderer. Lorenzo Tate was friends with Devin Wallace. Lorenzo Tate often spent time at Mr. Wallace's apartment. That Mr. Tate had stopped by looking for Mr. Wallace earlier that night is simply not evidence that he had anything to do with the shooting.

"The prosecution talked about a motive in this, that motive being that Devin Wallace owed Lorenzo Tate money. But dead men don't pay debts. And as you will learn, Mr. Wallace was almost certainly in the midst of getting a significant amount of money at the very time he was shot.

"The assistant district attorney also told you they had an eyewitness, Yolanda Miller, who claims that she saw Lorenzo Tate do the shooting in this case. He told you that Ms. Miller was dating Devin Wallace at the time of the shooting. But there're a few things the DA didn't mention about that eyewitness. He didn't mention that she'd had a child with another man, Malik Taylor, not long before starting her relationship with Mr. Wallace. He didn't mention that this other man, Malik Taylor, had fought—physically fought—with Mr. Wallace just a couple of weeks before the shooting took place. He didn't mention that, despite the fact that Ms. Miller claimed to recognize my client, Lorenzo Tate, because she knew him from around the neighborhood, Ms. Miller failed to identify Mr. Tate when shown a photo array the day after the shooting. He didn't mention that Ms. Miller has herself been arrested for drugs since the night of the murder.

"The prosecution also told you that the victim who was killed,
Seth Lipton, was just an innocent bystander, a college student. But like just
about everything he said, the truth is a little more complicated than what he
told you. Seth Lipton was a college student, and he was studying drug dealing at
the Gardens as his senior thesis in sociology, but that wasn't all he did down
there. The truth is that Seth Lipton was in business with Devin Wallace. You
will hear testimony regarding the fact that Seth Lipton himself dealt drugs on
campus, drugs that Devin Wallace furnished him with."

There was a stir in the courtroom as Myra spoke. I resisted the urge to turn and look at Lipton's parents, who were seated directly behind the prosecutor's table.

"As will become clear to you over the coming days, perhaps any one of these facts would suffice to create a reasonable doubt of Lorenzo Tate's guilt in this case," Myra said in conclusion.
"Taken together, they go much further than that. Thank you."

"
SO, JOEL
," Adam Berman said, sliding up to me as we filed out of the court for our lunch break.
"You happy with my story?"

The sight of Berman made me feel awkward, even a little guilty. I forced myself to be civil, recognizing that he might continue to be useful, if not in this case then in future ones. I assumed the story had caused some shift in the public perception of Seth Lipton, transforming him from college student to drug dealer. But I hadn't been prepared for how grubby it'd made me feel. I saw ADA Williams watching us from down the hall. I stared back at her until she looked away.
"Sure," I said to Berman. "You got pretty deep into it, I thought."

"That's what I do," Berman said. "I'm a dog with a bone when you
give me a lead."

"I believe it," I said. "Anyway, I've got a lot of work to do."

"Listen," Berman said, leaning forward conspiratorially. "A lot of
the reporters you're going to meet in this building, they just take what the
prosecutors give them. The tabloids mostly just want to demonize a defendant. I
try to get the full story across, which is why defense lawyers generally talk to
me when they're going to talk to someone. I hope that's how you'll feel."

"I hear you," I said.

"Great," Berman said. "Anything I should know?"

"Not just now," I said.

"But if you're going to take something to the press, you'll bring
it to me?"

"Who else?" I said with a smile.

29

T
HE PROSECUTION
began their case slowly. Any criminal prosecution had to establish the elements of the crime in question, even when they weren't in dispute. So here they had to establish that Seth Lipton and Devin Wallace had in fact been shot, and that Lipton had been killed, even though such evidence shed no light on who had done the shooting. So the prosecution put on the offduty emergency services worker who'd been on his way home when he'd heard the shots and had been the first person with any medical knowledge to arrive at the scene, as well as the medical examiner who had conducted the autopsy on Lipton, and a doctor who had treated Devin Wallace at the hospital. Myra and I took turns conducting cursory cross-examinations, but there wasn't anything here that we really took issue with.

It was late afternoon when the prosecution called their first important witness, Latrice Wallace. Latrice was dressed well, and looked as composed and attractive as she had when we'd interviewed her at her apartment.

ADA Williams took Latrice's direct testimony, establishing that she was Devin's sister and that she'd been home alone the evening of the shooting.

"Turning your attention to around seven p.m. that evening," Williams continued.
"What, if anything, happened?"

"Somebody knock on our door," Latrice said, glancing over at Lorenzo as she said it. We'd talked to Lorenzo about the importance of his not showing emotion when hearing the evidence against him, and I was pleased to see how calmly he met Latrice's gaze.

"Did you recognize the person who was knocking?"

"It was Lorenzo Tate."

Williams took her time asking the next question. "And how were you
able to recognize Mr. Tate?"

"He been over at our house, time to time."

"Do you see Lorenzo Tate in this courtroom today?"

Latrice dutifully pointed him out. These in-court IDs were an empty, offensive ritual. Identifications based on a lineup or photo array were one thing, but I hated that the prosecution could ask a witness to pick out the defendant in open court. Lorenzo sat at the defense table between two white lawyers in suits—how was anybody going to fail to identify him as the accused? We had dressed him up, putting him in a dark blazer and striped tie from the office's ragtag wardrobe of dress clothes that we kept for our clients' court appearances, but the clothes didn't look convincing on him: they looked more like a costume than an outfit.

"And what did you do after you recognized Lorenzo Tate as the
person who was knocking on the door?"

"The door was on the chain. I opened it a little bit, but I didn't
take the chain off."

"If you knew Lorenzo Tate, why didn't you just open the door all
the way?"

"I know he gonna be looking for my brother, not me."

"What, if anything, did the defendant say to you once you'd opened
the door a little?"

"He asked if Devin be home," Latrice said. "I told him I ain't
seen him."

"And then what did the defendant say?"

"He ask if Devin left some money for him."

"And what did you say to that?"

"I said I didn't know nothin' about no money."

"And what, if anything, did the defendant say to that?"

Myra was quickly back on her feet. "Objection. Hearsay."

"Statement against penal interest, Your Honor," Williams replied.

"Overruled," Ferano said.

"He say that Devin don't know who he's fucking with, but he's going to get his," Latrice said, again glancing quickly over at Lorenzo.

"And then what happened?"

"Then he was out."

"Thank you, Ms. Wallace," Williams said, returning to her seat.

By the time the direct was finished it was just a few minutes before five. We didn't bother to protest when Ferano declared that we were finished for the day, as we knew it was no use. Myra was doing the cross on Latrice, and at least this way we'd have the night to look for any weaknesses in her direct testimony.

"
SO WHERE
are we so far?" I asked Myra. We'd walked over to Dumbo to review the day and preview tomorrow over a quick dinner. We were at Superfine, a couple of blocks from the East River, just steps out from under the Manhattan Bridge. The bar fit the neighborhood: stylish but quiet, underpopulated and well designed. It was just a block or two from Paul's apartment, but I did my best to push that last visit to Dumbo out of my mind.

"They haven't hit us too hard yet," Myra said. "But they haven't
brought out their big guns yet, either."

"How about Latrice's testimony?" I said. "Think we survived that
okay?"

"I do," Myra said.

"Lorenzo was talking to me about how he wants to testify, explain
away his visit to the apartment that night, what he said to Latrice."

Myra's laugh carried little trace of amusement. "That's not going to happen," she said.
"Not if we're earning our fees, anyway."

"Earning our fees?"

"It's an expression I understand real lawyers use," Myra said.
"Lorenzo's one of those people thinks he can charm a jury all the way to an
acquittal. It never happens. A defendant gets up on the witness stand, no jury
ever sees the nice guy. They see a guy who's been called a killer."

"But it's Lorenzo's right to testify, isn't it?" I said. "I mean,
if he wants to, don't we have to let him?"

"Technically," Myra said. "Which just means it's our job to make
sure he doesn't want to. One of the victims owed our guy money for drugs?
Please. Lorenzo wanders off the trail in his direct, he opens the door for this
to come in. No way can we let him get crossed on that. It'd be game-over."

"So how do we explain that to Lorenzo?" I said.

"Pretty much like that," Myra said. "Sugarcoating things isn't
going to help us with him."

I smiled.

"What?" Myra said, tilting her head quizzically.

"Nothing."

"What?" she repeated.

"I just . . . I was just thinking that I like watching you work."

"Oh, no," Myra said in mock horror. "No compliments."

"Hey," I said. "That was an entirely professional compliment."

"As compared to what?"

"I mean, it's not like I said something about how I like your
perfume."

"Did you actually notice my perfume?" she said.

"Sure," I said. "I mean, I was sitting near you in court all day."

"That's what you were doing in court all day?" Myra said.
"Smelling me? No wonder you're still on the market."