Mari & Ilna- you guys are the absolute best. Thanks for EVERYTHING!
Sandy-what would I do without you?
REAL Worlders-I can never fully express what all your amazing support means to me. All I can say is that in our fourth calendar year your support and encouragement keeps me as enthusiastic as I was about this project day one.
Lemonade from Lemons (1/1)
"Mary sends her love and said to tell you she can't wait to see you."
Steve slipped his phone into his pocket as he entered the living room where he saw Catherine sitting on the couch, surrounded on both sides by open file folders and the unmistakable blue covers of police reports. Her laptop was open in front of her on the coffee table which was piled high with even more paperwork. Cammie raised her head from her position on her bed across the room, thumped her tail a few times, then returned to her nap.
Catherine looked up and smiled. "Everything ready for Aunt Deb's surgery?"
"Pretty much." Steve shifted a pile of papers to the coffee table and took a seat beside his wife. "Aaron and Joanie went to the party store and bought balloons and streamers to decorate Aunt Deb's room since she'll be staying with them for a few weeks after surgery until she's ready to go back to her own place."
"Let me guess. BINK?" she grinned.
"And lots of Disney princesses," he chuckled.
"Deb will love it," Catherine replied confidently as her eyes drifted back to the coffee table and her demeanor changed slightly.
Steve picked up on the shift in her mood. "You still working on the Akanu sentence commutation thing?"
She nodded. "I wanna have my recommendation to Lea before we leave for LA. I've been going over the old case file and I think I spotted something. Can I bounce a few thoughts off you?"
"Anytime." He settled against the back of the couch. "You know that."
Catherine could see his sincerity written all over his features and couldn't help but smile. She knew how lucky she was to love a man who was a true partner in every part of her life and who she knew felt the same about her.
She leaned over and kissed his cheek then plucked a thick folder with a blue cover from the pile in front of her and handed it to him. "This is the original police report."
As he looked it over she continued.
"I contacted the prosecutor and the defense attorneys from both the first trial and the appeal and asked them for anything they remembered that might be relevant to the issue of commutation and I found out something very interesting."
"What's that?" he asked, his eyes never leaving the report in front of him.
"There were two different defense attorneys involved, one for the original trial and one for the appeal, but both told a similar story. Helene Akuna was adamant they not paint Keao as an evil man. Through years of court appearances she never wavered from the story that she killed her husband in self-defense but she was insistent that he was a good man who loved his family and the events of that night were an aberration caused by untreated mental illness. She refused to allow her counsel to refer to her as a battered woman."
"Let me guess, that wasn't the strategy the lawyers wanted to go with." Steve flipped back a few pages to look at a diagram of the crime scene then returned to reading the conclusions of the investigating officer.
Catherine shook her head. "Even the prosecutor, who handled both the original case and the appeal, said he was surprised they didn't push that angle more. Not that there was any guarantee it would have been successful but without it she had virtually no chance of an acquittal."
"She was the one on trial so it was her decision." Steve's brow creased as he looked at the crime scene photos. "The defense attorneys had no choice but to go along."
"The statement she wrote to accompany the commutation request is consistent with everything the attorneys said." Catherine picked up Helene's statement and skimmed the page even though she'd read it so many times she could practically recite it by heart. "She admits her crime and takes full responsibility for what happened. She says she had no choice but to defend herself but still maintains Keao's behavior that night was not representative of who he was as a man."
Steve looked at the report in her hand skeptically. "Is defending the victim the best tactic for someone looking to have their sentence commuted?"
"I had no idea what petitioners usually say since this is my first experience with something like this so I looked back over some old commutation requests."
"Of course you did." Steve knew this whole process took Catherine completely out of her comfort zone so it didn't surprise him at all she'd do as much research as she needed to do to feel comfortable making a decision. "Like I said, Cath, you're definitely the right person for this task."
"Thank you." She smiled at him.
"So, what did you find out?"
"In cases like hers, where there's no dispute about whether or not the petitioner committed the offense, taking full responsibility is a requirement. Without it the petition has no chance of getting support from the Parole Board or the Attorney General's office which means it would likely never even make it to the governor's desk. But most people claiming self-defense in a murder case, at least the dozen or so cases I looked at, put an equal share of the blame for what happened on the other party involved. Helene doesn't do that. She still says she feels like she had no choice but to pull the trigger but that what happened that night was beyond both her and her husband's control."
"Why do you think she's still protecting him?" Steve thought back over several similar cases he'd handled since returning to the island. "Is it just because she still loves him?"
Catherine pulled one leg up under her and turned to face Steve. "The investigating officers did an interview with one of the neighbors the night of the murder."
"Anything interesting?"
"The neighbor said she used to babysit the kids from time to time and considered Helene a friend. She said Helene used to talk a lot about how she loved Keao and wanted him to get help for his mental issues. Helene told this person Keao was on the waiting list for services at the free clinic but no one could say how long it would take for him to see a doctor."
Steve frowned. "They were clearly reaching out for help and couldn't catch a break."
Catherine squeezed his knee, touched by his compassion. "The neighbor said the reason they kept getting back together was that Helene really loved Keao and when he was stable he was a great guy. But when he wasn't he drank, claimed to hear voices and could get very violent. Apparently when he was released from the inpatient facility the doctors said they thought he needed further treatment but their hands were tied because his insurance wouldn't pay. Helene was livid. She said for the first time in years there was light at the end of the tunnel and then just like that it was snuffed out."
Steve shook his head with disgust and Catherine continued.
"She was also terrified of him going back to prison. She said not only did his mental state get worse when he was there before but because of his issues he was a target for some of the other prisoners. The neighbor said Helene sobbed to her one day that Keao admitted he didn't stop taking the meds because they made him feel foggy. The real reason he wasn't getting his prescription filled was because insurance didn't cover it and he needed the money to help pay bills."
Steve's jaw tightened. "No one should ever have to make a decision between medication and keeping the lights turned on."
"I agree."
Catherine watched his eyebrows knit together in concentration as he went back to studying the police report. "You see it too, don't you?" She'd noticed something when reviewing the complete report earlier and was eager to see if Steve interpreted it the same way she did.
He nodded but didn't need to say anything. As always, they were completely in tune with each other's thoughts. She handed him a separate blue folder.
"Take a look at the reports from the three times he violated the restraining order."
"No way he shouldn't have been back in jail after three violations," Steve said as he opened the folder and began to read.
Catherine scooted closer so she could look over his shoulder.
"The first time it happened the kids were with Keao's mom." She pointed to the report in question. "Helene admitted she called him and asked for a ride home from work then invited him in. At some point a fight started over her dancing and a neighbor called the police. They interviewed both parties then gave him a warning and let him go."
Steve skimmed the rest of the page. "It says here she begged them not to arrest him."
"That seems to have been the pattern," Catherine said sadly as Steve flipped the page. "The second violation occurred about a week later when Keao showed up at the club in the middle of one of her sets and made a scene. The manager called the cops. By the time they got there Helene had fingermark bruises on her arm but she claimed they came from another customer."
Steve exhaled deeply. "So they released him again."
"Yes. The third violation wasn't long before the murder. He came to the house drunk. Luckily the kids were at Helene's mother's. There was a loud argument and again a neighbor called the police. When they arrive Keao told them he had just found out that a customer from the club where Helene danced followed her home and tried to get into the house. He said he was worried about the safety of his kids. Helene had a bloody lip but he claimed it was an accident and she backed him up."
Steve sighed. "Once again she didn't want him going to jail."
"Apparently not. But look at the dates of all these reports, Steve. From the time Keao was released from the mental health facility to the night he died was a little more than 90 days. Their lives had to have been absolute chaos with no time to think or make a plan."
Steve placed the folder with the violation reports on the table and picked up the one he had been reviewing earlier. "There's something about this report from the night of the crime though that doesn't make sense. Helene claims Keao lunged at her and she shot him in self-defense. The downward trajectory of the bullet seems to support the fact that he was lunging but it entered his chest from the left side."
"Exactly," Catherine replied animatedly. "The police claim he saw the gun at the last minute and tried to turn. But if you look at the crime scene pictures his body isn't contorted at all. He looks as though he fell straight in the direction he was lunging."
Steve's eyes met hers. "So, she was standing off to his left when she fired."
Catherine nodded in agreement. "According to the neighbor Helene kept the gun she bought on the top shelf of the hall closet so it would be safely away from the kids." She pointed to the picture on the top of the pile. "The closet was to the left of the door."
Steve looked at the pictures again, one after the other, and then he saw it.
On the stairs.
A small tattered blanket.
The kind a child carries around.
He looked at Catherine.
"He was lunging towards one of the children."
She nodded sadly. "The report says he knocked on the door for close to ten minutes before forcing his way in. Plenty of time to wake up the kids. Maybe one of them followed Helene down the stairs to see what was happening."
"She wasn't defending herself." Steve took a minute to let the reality of what had happened settle in. "She was defending her kids."
"It sure looks that way." Catherine felt an overwhelming sadness for everyone involved in the situation. "Either she's covering it up or she doesn't even remember it herself. Maybe her mind won't let her consider the possibility Keao might have ever hurt one of the kids. Or maybe she just doesn't want any of them to have to live with the knowledge that their father was shot because he was lunging at them."
"If she felt her kids were in danger it might help explain the three extra shots to the head though," Steve suggested.
"The psychiatrist who examined her for the petition report said that in his opinion she still isn't dealing 100% honestly with what happened that night but he also feels she's no danger to society and is a good candidate for continued rehabilitation outside of prison."
Steve surveyed the pile of information. "What are you gonna do?"
Whatever she decided he would support her 100%.
"I talked to Frank Kaewa. He said if Lea decides on a commutation to life with the possibility of parole he'll support an immediate release. That way though, she'll still be under the supervision of the parole system which will give her access to the mental health services she needs to deal with what really happened that night."
Steve rubbed the back of his neck "That's ironic."
"I know," Catherine sighed. "But I think Keao would be pleased. According to his mother he wouldn't have wanted Helene to spend her whole life behind bars. Also, as a parolee she'll have access to job training and all kinds of services to help her transition back to life on the outside."
"Sounds good."
"I think it's the best-case scenario for everyone involved, including the children, but we need to find a way to get people like Helene and Keao help before something tragic happens. Like Lea is trying to do with the expanded duties for Five-0. Intervene before small things become big things."
Steve wrapped his arm around her. "It's not gonna happen overnight, Cath, but you and Lea are gonna make a difference."
"Thanks." She laid her head on his shoulder. "I think I want to sleep on all this overnight and then type out my report for Lea in the morning."
"She still ok with you being away for a few days next week?"
"Absolutely." Catherine yawned. "Marliyah and Tara can handle things."
"Just like Danny." Steve leaned back and pulled Catherine with him.
They sat in silence for a few minutes then Steve face broke into a huge grin. "Just think, this time next week we should know whether Niblet is a boy or girl."
Catherine raised her head and beamed at him. "I can't wait."
THE END
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