Seasonable Doubt by Robin James

Author:Robin James [James, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

“Dr. Charles,” Lucky Braunlin said. “Can you describe the extent of Steven Anspaugh’s injuries to the jury?”

Noah Charles was the kind of witness juries loved. Handsome with a distinguished amount of salt and pepper through his thick, wavy hair. He wore a pair of black, horn-rimmed glasses that gave him that professorial air. He wore a three-piece suit, the style of which harkened back to the early eighties, but somehow he made it look fashionable. I knew my best play was to get him off the stand as quickly as I could if at any point he stopped being neutral.

“Mr. Anspaugh suffered severe trauma to the head and upper body. He had a comminuted frontal fracture and a right orbital floor fracture. In lay terms, the area above his right eye was broken in three places and the bone beneath his right eye was also fractured. In fact, a few millimeters up, and he probably would have lost that eye. There were of course several deep lacerations to his face and an avulsion on the back of his head at the crown. He had more minor, non-life-threatening injuries as well. A couple of broken ribs, his left wrist, and multiple contusions and lacerations on his arms and legs.”

“You’re describing a series of injuries that covered his entire body, aren’t you?”

“I am, yes. This man was severely beaten for a prolonged amount of time.”

One by one, Lucky Braunlin introduced photographs of Anspaugh’s injuries. As the doctor described, he was bruised and beaten on nearly every part of his body. The head wounds were of course the worst to look at. His eye bulged out unnaturally in the photos taken close to his admission to the ER. The avulsion the doctor described to the back of his head was a giant flap and part of his skull could be seen. Other photographs taken a few days and weeks after the attack were in a lot of ways worse as the bruising settled in.

“Dr. Charles, would you describe this case as one of the worst beatings you’ve ever seen?”

“Objection, counsel is leading the witness,” I said.

“Sustained. Try again, Mr. Braunlin.”

Beside me, Nick started to weep. He buried his face in his hands. Every single juror turned their attention to him. I couldn’t decide whether that was a good thing or not just yet.

“Doctor, can you give me an idea how bad a case this was, based on your experience?”

“As a neurologist, I specialize in trauma to the brain and spinal cord. As such, the majority of my caseload is made up of patients who’ve been injured in car accidents or falls. I’ve also treated many victims of violent crimes. Domestic violence makes up the majority of those. But I can tell you, in my twenty years in this specialty, Mr. Anspaugh’s injuries would have to rank in probably the top five in terms of the severity and brutality. At least among those patients who’ve survived.”

“Dr. Charles, I’d like to draw your attention to the injuries on Mr.

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