Mean Justice by Edward Humes

Author:Edward Humes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

5

BY THE TIME THE TRIAL REACHED THIS POINT, PAT Dunn sat numb and barely able to follow the proceedings. He had been active and participating fully at the start, writing notes, whispering to his lawyers, savoring early victories and any look of chagrin on the prosecutor’s face. But his enthusiasm had faded with time and, even now, with his moment finally arrived—the start of the defense case—he had become so intimidated and fearful of being on trial for his life that he found it hard to concentrate. He would later say he could remember little of what was said or done. He stopped expressing a desire to take the witness stand and instead kept saying to Laura, “I just wish it was over.” She bit her lip and stopped herself from replying, “Be careful what you wish for.” Because if it ended then and there, she feared, he’d lose.

The defense had been wounded by Judge Baca’s decision to compel Teri Bjorn to testify, but though Laura was uneasy, the team by no means considered it a fatal blow. Gary Pohlson mounted Pat’s defense as planned, presenting witnesses to speak of the good relations between the Dunns, to deny there were any serious fights, money problems or plans for divorce, and to confirm that Pat had confided in a select few early on about Sandy’s disappearance. In addition to these, there was Jim Marino, who could testify about his own experiences with Sandy’s memory problems, bolstering Pat’s statements to police. Together, these witnesses provided a different mosaic than the prosecution’s, a portrait of a man who had no reason to want his wife dead and who acted reasonably after her disappearance, and of a woman whose mental state left her at risk to wander off—making her easy prey for street criminals or worse.

The financial planner, Kevin Knutson, returned to the stand a second time, now a defense witness key to building this alternate assemblage of the puzzle pieces—Laura Lawhon’s version. Knutson all but destroyed the prosecution’s theory that a desire to get Sandy’s money provided Pat’s motive for murder. Knutson swore that during their June 30 meeting, one of the things Sandy said that she wanted was a living trust to allow all of her money to go to Pat without a will, without inheritance taxes, and without the ability of relatives such as her sister to interfere. There was no way Sandy wanted a divorce, Knutson added. The Dunns were getting along well, loving and at ease with one another when he left them on Sandy’s last day alive.

Knutson went on to say that he would have had the papers drawn up in a week or two, and that Pat’s financial position would have been infinitely better once Sandy signed them. Citing Knutson’s testimony, Tom Goethals, one of Pat’s lawyers, would argue, “There is no evidence Pat Dunn killed his wife to get her money. He didn’t need to. . . . On June 30, he had every reason to let her live.

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