Madman Walking by L F Robertson

Author:L F Robertson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan

28

Sandra Blaine was all business as the clerk read her the oath. As she agreed to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, she even managed to look a bit humbled by the solemnity of the ritual. I was impressed.

Mike questioned her about her decision to prosecute Howard.

“There were strong grounds,” she explained. “People in the trailer park told the police that Henley was dealing drugs and that Lindahl had beaten Henley and stolen his money and drugs. There were people who said they saw him after the robbery with a black eye and swollen face. Henley had a motive to kill Lindahl, and people said he had been threatening to kill him and asking where he could buy a gun.”

Blaine admitted that the district attorney had had to dismiss the first prosecution against Howard when records showed that Howard had been in the local lockup when Lindahl was killed. And a search of Howard’s trailer had found no gun and no ammunition—and no drugs, for that matter, except a couple grams of marijuana.

“So the first time you ended up dismissing the complaint against him except for the misdemeanor marijuana charge?” Mike asked. Blaine agreed.

“So why did you charge him a second time?”

Laszlo’s relevancy objection was sustained, but Blaine went ahead and answered the question on her own.

“Freddy Gomez came forward,” she said, “and told Detective Springer that Mr. Henley had asked him where he could get a gun and someone to kill Lindahl. Mr. Gomez said he gave Henley contact information for another man who sold guns, and suggested to him that Steve Scanlon might be up for a paid killing because he was in the Aryan Brotherhood, so he was probably a killer. Gomez said he was at Howard’s cabin a couple days later when Scanlon showed up. He saw them talk and Henley hand Scanlon a revolver.”

Blaine didn’t feel that Gomez was any less believable because he was a heroin addict under arrest and desperate for a deal that would get him back on the street.

“Did Freddy Gomez receive any compensation from the prosecutor’s office for his testimony at Mr. Henley’s preliminary hearing?” Mike asked.

“Not that I recall,” Blaine said, with a defiant lift of her chin.

“Do you recall why Freddy was in jail?”

“Not off hand.”

“Do you recall that it was for possession of heroin and felony assault with a deadly weapon?”

“No.”

“For trying to run his girlfriend over with a car?”

“No,” Blaine said, testily.

“And that he was looking at an attempted murder charge and a long time in prison?”

“No.” She turned her head toward the judge, as though asking him why he wasn’t putting a stop to Mike’s badgering.

“Were you aware that after he testified in Henley’s and Scanlon’s preliminary hearings, Mr. Gomez was permitted to plead guilty to simple battery and was sentenced to credit for time served?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Didn’t you make that deal with him?”

“Not if I wasn’t prosecuting him, and I wasn’t. Any plea bargain would have been made with the prosecutor in Mr.

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