Dancing on Her Grave (14 page)

“You’re still in love with him. Is that correct?” Fleck asked.

“No,” Agnes replied unequivocally.

“When you came in, you had a visible reaction to seeing him.” Agnes’s look at that point had been quizzical and almost sad, but ultimately inscrutable.

She replied that she hadn’t seen Jason Griffith for years.

After Agnes Roux left the stand, the defense rested.

Before the trial, and before she was aware of Jason Griffith’s avoidance of the truth on the stand, Agnes had written a letter in his support to Judge Kathleen Delaney. The letter is now public record and is reproduced here:

To the Judge or the Court,
the Honorable Kathleen Delaney,

Please find my letter of support to Jason Omar Griffith “Blu” to help you understand the good-hearted man he has been for many of us, outside the criminal justice system.

I met Blu in May 2010, as he was the chosen choreographer for a charity event raising money for kids in the Las Vegas Community. This highly recognized fundraiser called “A Choreographer’s showcase” is a sold out program happening once a year at the Mystere theatre (Treasure Island Hotel and
Casino) It is a beautiful initiative born from the collaboration between world famous Cirque du Soleil and the Nevada Ballet Theatre.

Selected among other Cirque du Soleil artists volunteering their time and energy, Bluchoreographed a very moving dance piece for the high level athletes from Cirque du Soleil and the Nevda Ballet theatre dancers. It did represent about 3-4 months of work; of course, nobody was paid, it is simply a wonderful act of generosity than to put time and talent at the service of the Community.

Blu’s ballet was the most memorable work that was presented. There was a spoken part in the music track, here again, his poetry stood out.

I saw him redirecting a rehearsal and I was amazed by the contract between his hip hop look and the extreme care and sensibility with which he was demonstrating to the male dancer how to hold his female partner. Gentle, he was teaching his dancers how to be very cautious, and he treated the lady as a very precious thing.

I was intrigued by this man dressed like a teenager but who seemed to havedepths of an accomplished artist. We exchanged numbers and started dating within 3 weeks.

I also work for Cirque du Soleil and all the connections I had in his show “LOVE” (Sandrine,
Mattei, Pendu, Eve Castello Blanco, Hassan, . . . among others), spoke very highly about him: his flawless work ethic, his perfect attendance, the fun reliable colleague that he was, and the great friend they found in him.

We had the same background. He is a trained ballet and modern dancer; from a very reputable New York School (La Guardia) I loved how wrong were my first impressions of him.

His talent and creativity, with his commitment to help the kids from the community through exposing them to Art, Theatre, movement, or writing, were quiet admirable for a young man at the epic of his dance career.

I went to see him perform and his energy and generosity on stage blew me away. Versatile, and charismatic, he was interacting a lot with other characters on stage; you could tell he was a great team player.

He was bringing me a rose every single time were meeting. It sounds cheesy, but I liked this romantic side. He had been patient with me. I respected that.

Just like me, he didn’t smoke or drink. At all! I was absolutely thrilled by that.

Interestingly enough, we never fought; he was this very mature way to approach disagreement. Never was
he physically or orally abusive. I never saw him lose control or become disrespectful. He kept his voice down with me at all times.

I felt he was wise in relationship issues, he was even giving “couple counseling sessions” to his friends (Tina and Cameron, or Meredith and Brent for instance) they would call him and ask for his views and advices on their problems. They trusted his judgment. I was impressed by how he was able to take both sides into consideration and give a very fair recommendation on what should be done, or said, to fix the problem. I really felt that I was with a very special man.

With me he was very loving, supportive, tender and tolerant. Things were easy. He is very driven and ambitious, we both worked hard to meet our personal goal, but within the relationship, it was very peaceful.

Because of the high profile case with high media coverage he gets, I do not wish to testify in court, because of the impact it has on my personal life and my partner. I hope you will understand.

Nevertheless, I wish the Court should show Blu leniency for the generous citizen, loyal, talented dancer, and lovable man he is to us.

With all my due respect.
Best regards.

Agnes Roux.

Agnes Roux, just like Debbie, had apparently been fooled by Jason Griffith’s well-manufactured mask. I wondered what she thought of him now. But when I approached her after the trial, Agnes Roux declined to speak to me. She simply responded, “I’m sorry, Carolina. I can’t.”

Tuesday, May 20, 2014, the ninth day of trial, ended with an aggressive comeback from both sides. Jason Griffith, dressed in a white shirt and a black suit, paid close attention as both sides talked to the jurors, making their closing arguments before deliberations, walking the jury once more through all the testimonies they heard. It would be up to the jury now to decide whether Griffith was guilty of either first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or voluntary manslaughter—or whether he was not guilty of any of them and would be acquitted of all charges, a scenario that was now highly unlikely.

During more than three and a half hours of closing arguments, the defense asked the jury to consider Griffith’s state of mind when he killed Debbie, telling the jury to consider another gender scenario: What if Jason Griffith was a woman and Debora Flores-Narvaez had been a man? What would have happened, and how would others react, if Griffith had been stalking and harassing Debbie, if he’d broken into her house, if he’d slashed the tires of her car, if he’d threatened her? Would she have had the right to defend herself?

Prosecutor Michelle Fleck, however, hammered home that Debora Flores-Narvaez “was a young woman, a successful woman, she loved her family, her friends, music, dancing, and in the end, she loved the wrong man.”

DA Marc DiGiacomo put it even more bluntly. “Everything Mr. Griffith does is for Mr. Griffith,” said the prosecutor, adding, “Debbie was nothing but a vehicle for his sexual appetite.”

Jason Griffith had testified that he’d killed his ex-girlfriend, Debora Flores-Narvaez, in self-defense. The prosecutors questioned why Griffith said he thought Debbie was armed.

“Nobody on earth but Jason Griffith says she had a gun,” DiGiacomo said.

Griffith looked annoyed at the proceedings. He could probably see which way the wind was blowing, and it was not in his favor.

“Tell the twelve people in the box the truth. That’s all you had to do!” said DiGiacomo, practically shouting at Griffith and visibly frustrated. “Is there a single fact that he didn’t lie to you about?” he again asked rhetorically of the jury.

Prosecutor Michelle Fleck argued, “If a 165-pound man takes his hands and wraps them around his girlfriend’s throat, and compresses her throat to the point that she passes out and dies, there is absolutely no other reason that a man would do that if he was not trying to kill her.”

Defense attorney Abel Yáñez countered that Debbie was volatile herself. “There were times when she was nice; there were times when she was sweet. But when she was violent, she would hit him, she would spit on him, she would slash his tires.” Yáñez showed the jury the picture of Griffith’s car with its flat tires.

Despite all efforts from the prosecutors to paint Jason as an aggressor, the defense’s task was to convince the jury their client acted in
self-defense.

The Verdict

I had been following the case closely online, talking to my former colleagues and to Celeste every night after coming home from work in Los Angeles, California.

After nine days of arguments and almost two days of deliberation, the jury of seven men and five women finally reached a verdict on May 22, 2014: guilty of second-degree murder. After first-degree murder, this was the harshest sentence that could be handed down. Once the verdict was read, the jury went out through the back door, so no reporters were able to ask them any questions.

Jason Griffith sat motionless as the verdict was read, and only blew a kiss to his mother, Charlene Davis. His attorney Abel Yáñez placed one arm around his shoulders.

Debbie Flores-Narvaez’s family cried and hugged one
another while hearing it. Although it was not as hefty a sentence as she’d hoped, Celeste had been waiting to hear the word “guilty” for almost four years.

After the trial ended, media reporters surrounded the prosecutors and the families.

Marc DiGiacomo, the DA, said they understood why the jury had gone for second-degree murder, and that they “respected the jury’s verdict.”

“There’s no question this was a domestic dispute. But whenever there is a question of premeditated, if a jury can’t agree on first-degree murder or second-degree murder the jury is instructed to then come back with a second-degree murder verdict,” DiGiacomo said. “We certainly respect that decision.”

“Everyone thought this would be a death penalty case, and it’s satisfying that we got a verdict of second-degree murder,” said defense lawyer Abel Yáñez, adding that his client still had several issues to appeal on, such as the various pieces of evidence the judge had not allowed shown in the trial, items that they felt would’ve shown more of Debbie’s violent behavior toward Jason Griffith. “As to the verdict, in general I think it was a fair one based on the evidence the jury was allowed to hear. There were several legal rulings by the judge that prevented critical evidence from being presented to the jury. For example, the secret video taken by Jason of Debbie Flores-Narvaez
admitting to all her crimes, stalking, and harassing was not seen by the jury.”

The attorney was referring to the video where Debbie admits slashing Jason’s car tires and throwing egg whites on it, as well as looking in his computer and slapping him.

Judge Kathleen Delaney had ruled out that particular video, which the defense had considered “critical for the jury to see, as it not only corroborated Jason’s story, but it gave an example of Debbie’s violent character and demeanor. The several jurors I spoke to afterwards asked about the video and how they wanted to see it.”

“We had hoped to represent a clearer picture of the relationship, which was even stormier than what the jury was allowed to hear,” Yáñez said. “Nevertheless, I was still hoping for a manslaughter verdict even with the evidence that was excluded by the judge.”

Yáñez said Griffith was disappointed with the verdict and felt that the jury would have reached a different result if the jury members had gotten all the facts and evidence.

“Sometimes I have to remind myself, ‘Abel, at the end of the day, it is not you who will be sleeping in jail,’” he told me later. He says he starts to “suffer” when he sees his client on the stand making a mistake, or saying something he knows will cost his client a longer sentence or worse conviction.

Also speaking for the defense, attorney Jeff Banks
added, “That’s trial work. Truth at trial is always seen by a jury through the goggles of evidentiary admissibility.”

Debbie’s mother, Elsie Narvaez, said in Spanish: “We plan to come back as many times as he tries to appeal. We won’t allow him to.” Now her tears had given way to anger. “When someone kills once, they lose their fear of God, and they’ll do it again.”

Debbie’s father, Carlos Flores, a laconic and private man with a dry sense of humor, said of Jason Griffith’s tears while on the stand: “His tears didn’t even coincide with his emotions. He is going to be dancing; the only difference is that he’s going to be dancing to a different tune now and he’s going to remember her name for the rest of his life.” Carlos Flores has declined to speak with the authors for this book.

On the other side, Charlene Davis declined to speak to anyone. “I don’t want to talk right now. I have to talk to my son’s attorneys,” she said.

Defense attorney Yáñez said he advised his client not to speak to anyone at all about the case until all of his appeals were exhausted. He stated that they would appeal: “In Nevada, a defendant has thirty days from the filing of the judgment of conviction to file his notice of appeal, which we will do.”

Then came Marc DiGiacomo, the aggressive prosecutor. Had it been his strategy going in to prove that Jason Griffith was a liar and a narcissist?

“Well, yes,” he said with a small laugh. “It was pretty clear to me Mr. Griffith didn’t have any empathy for anybody except himself.” Recalling the note on Griffith’s car, which Griffith attributed to Debbie but the prosecutor proved he’d actually known all along was only a bad joke from his roommate, DiGiacomo said, “After the first ten minutes I knew that I had him.”

“I don’t know how he couldn’t have known about that writing on his car,” DiGiacomo said. “He requested we show the video of Debbie being ‘violent,’ and it was in there, on that disc.” DiGiacomo referred to the disc of information obtained from Jason Griffith’s computer—the disc had included not only the video of Debbie, but backups of all Griffith’s text messages. “But this guy had so many text messages from so many girls! And I came across that writing the night before. I thought, ‘Oh my God that was fun!’” The prosecutor relished having caught Jason in one of his biggest lies yet. “That was the plan on cross-examination. It didn’t [even] look like Debbie’s handwriting. When I came across the writing it was like ‘Oh boy!’”

Although he understood why Celeste, Debbie’s sister, had wanted a harsher verdict—“I understand Celeste wanted more. She’s been very active from the very beginning,” and as prosecutor Michelle Fleck said, “she makes you wish if anything happened to you, that there would be someone around who is a crusader for justice, like she
is”—the DA said he hadn’t expected to get a verdict of capital murder. “We knew we didn’t have the kind of case for death penalty at all. We chose as an office not to pursue a death penalty sentence. We didn’t feel a man in his thirties with no previous criminal record [would get that verdict]. We felt the jury would come back with second.” Although Griffith had accusations of domestic violence against him, and had been briefly incarcerated for this offense, he had not committed murder before.

Were the prosecutors satisfied with the verdict? “Well, I believe the judge will give him life in prison,” DiGiacomo said. “He will be a very old man before he gets out of jail.”

It would be two more months before anyone would know if the prosecutor’s theory was correct. The sentencing would be handed down on July 23, 2014, at 9:30
A.M.
, about two weeks after what would have been Debbie’s thirty-fifth birthday.

During the trial, Celeste said the courtroom was full of not only reporters, dancers, and Debbie’s friends but also a lot of people who had read about the case and felt, like I did, that they knew Debbie. Celeste was very thankful for all the support. I spoke to her briefly, and she said she was exhausted, but that the verdict closed an important chapter in their lives. “I don’t want anyone else to
ever go through the pain I’ve been and I’m still going through.”

But even Jason Griffith’s conviction was not enough for Celeste to find peace and closure.

On May 31, 2014, about nine days after the verdict, Celeste posted on Facebook:

“I know I haven’t spoken since the trial and Las Vegas. A lot of friends and loved ones are asking or want to make sure how I’m doing and don’t get a response I’m sorry about that. Truth is, I’m not sure about any of it at this point or the verdict. It hurts a lot. I’m shutting myself off and away from everyone and family. I know it’s not good. But I’m stubborn and I feel alone in a bubble.”

Would she ever forgive Jason?

“No,” she said later. “Although, I’ve learned to forgive others for me, I could never forgive him.”

The trial had been “especially hard for
mami
,” Celeste said. They hadn’t been expecting to see photos of Debbie’s autopsy in court, and when they were shown, “I just had to cover my mom’s eyes.”

But despite being highly upset, Celeste had managed to remain composed in the courtroom. The first time she had appeared in court, she’d had an outburst, shouting expletives at Griffith, and she’d had to be removed.

“I just had to control myself in the courtroom. I did it for Mom,” she said.

Celeste posted links to the verdict along with photos
of her sister on Facebook. Finally, she made her feelings clear:

“Why Second Degree Murder was given for my little Sister Debbie’s murderer? I’m still speechless about it all. Call it shock. It hasn’t hit me yet, but at least this question was answered.”

Celeste was referring to an interview with one of the jurors, Vincent King, who had tried to clarify how the jurors, who had deliberated for two days, had finally settled on the second-degree verdict, even though prosecutors and Celeste wanted to hear first degree.

King said it was a difficult verdict. He was aware that neither the victim’s family nor the prosecutors would be happy with the second-degree murder verdict, and admitted that, at first, he, too, had been in favor of Murder One, but said he’d wavered between second- and first-degree murder when Jason Griffith was cross-examined. Griffith had certainly not helped his cause any. Vincent King said he thought Griffith had seemed arrogant and unremorseful.

But the juror explained that, according to instructions, the jury had had to determine whether the murder was premeditated, and they came to the conclusion that it was not. King said he felt confident that they made the right decision.