Disturbed Ground by NORTON CARLA

Author:NORTON, CARLA [NORTON, CARLA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: William Morrow and Company, Inc.
Published: 2010-04-27T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 31

Asking questions rapid-fire and speaking so quickly that the judge had to call extra breaks so the court reporter could rest, Williamson called a string of experts, including David Moore, the senior document examiner at the Department of Justice. Moore, with the diligence of an entire army of ants, testified on hundreds of signatures (on pension, SSI, tax refund, and Social Security checks). In his expert opinion, they were virtually all signed by Dorothea Puente.

But, as the defense well knew, theft was one thing, murder was another.

Williamson also called deputy coroners, detectives, virtually everyone who'd been involved in the discovery and exhumation of the bodies. That included Detective John Cabrera, who testified about his role in apprehending Puente. (Afterward, he stopped to chat with reporters in the hall, confiding that complicated crimes of this nature "take a lot out of you." This same man who'd volunteered to escort Puente past police lines, who'd even agreed to stir her soup as she fled the scene, boasted—without the least hint of irony—about his investigative instincts. "I had a gut feeling about this case," he declared.)

Next, Williamson advanced on the core of the case: cause of death. Grisly details emerged during the testimonies of the two tall, pale forensic pathologists who'd performed the autopsies. While Williamson displayed gruesome photographs of the bodies, first Dr. Robert Anthony and then Dr. Gary Stuart recited a macabre litany of decomposition and skeletonization. With the utmost thoroughness, the doctors verbally lay bare each individual's bones and organs, citing medical histories.

This dark subject turned illuminating when Williamson focused on the infinitesimal traces of drugs found in the bodies. Starting with the first body unearthed, Leona Carpenter, the court was about to get a crash course in pharmacology.

Dr. Anthony explained that found in Carpenter's brain tissues were traces of three drugs: Dalmane, Valium, and codeine. Of the benzodiazepine class of drugs, Valium (or diazepam) and Dalmane (or flurazepam) were both "sedative hypnotics," or sleeping pills, he said, and codeine was an opiate, a narcotic painkiller. A potent combination. And, the doctor noted, these drugs were "very liquid soluble."

"So they can be put in liquid rather easily—in water or alcohol?" Williamson asked.

"Yes, sir."

Visions of toxic cocktails floated through the courtroom.

"Could a large amount cause death?"

"Yes." The doctor explained that each of these drugs caused "sedative, muscle relaxant, hypnotic effect[s],” and that “in large quantities, [they caused] stupor, coma, difficulties in operating."

Further, the "synergistic effect" made them even more powerful in combination, particularly for elderly people. And, he added, when added to alcohol, they could become "highly toxic."

Moving to a deeper level of complexity, Dr. Anthony explained that the sedative known as Dalmane, or the "parent" drug flurazepam, was quickly broken down by the body into metabolites, traces of which might linger in the body for two weeks or more. Since the metabolites were found in the tissues along with the parent drug, the body hadn't had time—probably less than twenty-four hours—to metabolize the drug prior to death.

For example, Leona Carpenter's tissues carried .

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.