Honeymoon With A Killer by Don Lasseter

Author:Don Lasseter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2012-01-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Preparing for Battle

For the prosecution, the trial of Rebecca Cleland, Jose Quezada, and Alvaro Quezada encompassed all the traps and perplexity of a sophisticated video game or a treacherous obstacle course. The DA’s team had little to rely on except circumstantial evidence and the statements of two witnesses who saw a shadowy dark figure running away from the crime scene. Observers and analysts considered it a defense attorney’s paradise.

In June 2000, with Americans across the nation beginning to argue about the forthcoming presidential election showdown between George Bush and Al Gore, a group of lawyers, officers, reporters, and prospective jurors assembled for a different battle. On the ninth floor of the downtown Los Angeles Criminal Courts Building (CCB), they all filed into Department 109, Judge Jacqueline Connor’s courtroom.

The nineteen-story building had been the site of numerous, dramatic legal-contest battles since its opening in 1971, providing endless fodder for books and movies. O.J. Simpson had been acquitted of murder in Judge Lance Ito’s Department 110, next door to Jacqueline Connor’s domain. Down the hall, “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez, who had sprinted along sidewalks a few paces from the Cleland murder scene, had been found guilty of thirteen savage killings.

With collar-length streaked-blond hair, attractive photogenic features, and statuesque height, Jacqueline “Jackie” Connor could have been mistaken for an entertainment celebrity. However, lawyers who underestimated her professionalism, intelligence, or dedication to the law found themselves in a world of hurt.

For Ron Bowers, a long-standing knowledge of Judge Connor brought back both pleasant and embarrassing memories, particularly in connection with DDA Craig Hum, the prosecutor assigned to the Cleland-Quezada case.

Long before Connor or Hum’s appearance on the legal horizon, Bowers had established a DA’s branch office in the City of Alhambra, several miles northeast of the L.A. Civic Center. His wife, Rosemarie, worked there as a courtroom clerk.

In 1977, fresh out of the University of Southern California Law School, Jacqueline Connor launched her legal career as a neophyte DDA in Alhambra. By that time, Bowers had been reassigned, but his wife, Rosemarie, remained working at the courthouse. Recalling it, Bowers said, “Within several months of Jackie’s arrival, my wife told me how impressed the judges and jurors were with her skills in the courtroom. She didn’t suffer the usual pitfalls and seemed a notch above the rest. When Jackie moved on, my wife made a point to inform me that administrators in the DA’s office should take note of this young lady because she had real potential. I made a mental note and later used it in support of Jackie. Within a couple of years, she was assigned to create a sexual assault unit downtown. Over the years, I had the opportunity to be in contact with Jackie on special cases and became keenly aware of her organizational skills and decisiveness.”

As an operations administrator, Bowers needed to fill an important vacancy in the problem-riddled Inglewood office. He persuaded officials to assign Connor as deputy-in-charge. “She was a master at planning and implementing improvements.”

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