Not Guilty by Jay Meservy

Author:Jay Meservy [Meservy, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jay A. Meservy
Published: 2015-01-21T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

The Fourth Day of Trial

Colfax spent the rest of the afternoon and evening reworking his case and his closing argument. At home that evening he got the details of the touring accident on the 10:00 o’clock news. Sleep performs wonders and it did its work well that night for Colfax. When he met Jonathon the next morning sleep had performed its work for Jonathon as well. He evidenced more confidence than would be expected in view of the evidence presented the previous day.

Mrs. Gunderson too had been revived by the magic trance. She was in her place five minutes early and showed no signs whatsoever of the previous days trauma.

As the trial resumed the court instructed Officer Mathews to resume the stand for the formality of dismissing him as a witness before the jury. Colfax had determined not to cross examine him so as to avoid further insult on the jurors with further exposure to the photographs.

The state then called William Salsette, the state chemist.

Colfax called for an immediate sidebar.

“What is it now?” the judge asked.

“We object to any testimony as to blood type, the shirt or the stains on it.” he said.

Then he continued. “As you will recall, although the shirt was identified, Mr. Ericksen did not offer it into evidence. We naturally assumed he was not going to pursue this evidence in view of the loss of the DNA evidence. It would be unfair now to allow testimony when the state did not include the shirt in its pretrial list of evidence and did not offer it into evidence.”

Colfax knew what would follow, but he had his record. He stood patiently while the nature of Ericksen’s oversight registered. Ericksen did not portray the panic he felt. He said calmly, “The failure to make the formal offer was strictly an oversight. It has always been our intent to pursue this aspect of the case. We formally offer the shirt at this time.”

The judge thought for only a moment and said, “The shirt will be received.”

Then speaking so that all could hear said, “Mr. Ericksen, you may proceed.”

Colfax returned to his seat only a little disappointed. He knew he had another ground for his appeal.

Ericksen’s questioning was again to the point.

“Did you make an analysis of the Atkins girl's blood type?”

“Yes sir, I did,” was the quick response

“And what was it?”

“A positive, Sir.” Again the response was given quickly, as if rehearsed.

“Did you make an analysis of the stains on the white shirt, Exhibit 37?"

"Yes, Sir, I did."

“What were those stains?”

“They were human blood sir.”

“Did you make a type analysis of the blood on the defendant’s shirt?”

“Yes, sir, I did.”

“And what was the blood type on the defendant’s shirt?”

“It was A positive.”

The effect on the jury was noticeable. They appeared to be coming to a simultaneous conclusion. All, that is, except Mrs. Gunderson. She was shaking her head as she looked around at her fellow jurors in disbelief.

“Did you make an analysis of the defendant’s blood type?" Ericksen continued.

‘Yes, sir, I did.

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.