Disclaimer: I own nothing at all to do with the Mentalist
Patrick has testified and now can relax. Time for the forensic evidence. This case should be put to bed before the newest little Jane makes an appearance.
Thanks for all the reviews! DaboGirl: I appreciate the longer review. Thanks for writing a review again. Nic73: Glad you liked the courtroom scenes! They are hard to write! LouiseKurylo: You are absolutely right! Fandomqueen86: I am not really too uptight about the actual timing and the number of years since Patrick and Teresa met, but I was going on how long they knew each other, plus the year he disappeared and ended up in a mental institution. That came to 15 years I think, but I could be completely wrong. make-mine-a kiaora: Nice to hear from you! Glad you are enjoying the story so much!
I hope I have not left anyone out! Thank you all for taking the time to review this story. As a first time writer it is great to know that people are enjoying this story. If I was writing this exact story again, I would make many changes, but since it is my first, I consider it a great learning experience.
And Their World Came Tumbling Down
Chapter 25 Just The Facts
Patrick and Teresa found a parking spot near their favourite Thai restaurant. It was still early and the lunch crowd had not descended on the tiny restaurant just yet. Taking a seat by the window overlooking Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin, they both buried their heads in the menus. A lovely dark haired waitress appeared and took their orders. Teresa decided to order cautiously, not wanting to suffer heartburn with overly spicy food. Patrick had no such qualms and ordered much more exciting fare. Once the waitress left, Patrick reached over and took Teresa's hand in his.
"Interesting session in court this morning don't you think?" he said with a smile.
"I would call it a massacre" replied Teresa. "I think the attorney thought it would be enough to discredit you right out of the gate."
"It was what I was expecting. He surrendered pretty quickly, don't you think?" Patrick said thoughtfully. "Do you suppose they will call me or both of us back to testify some more? I mean, today was a complete disaster for the defense, so why not try again?"
Teresa looked up at Patrick and nodded. This was a distinct possibility. If there was some way to redeem himself, she was sure the defense attorney would try again to chip away at the prosecution's case.
"If we do have to testify again, nothing will change. What happened to us, happened. No amount of denial on their part can change that for Beau and Colt, Patrick." she smiled.
"Yes, you're right of course. I was hoping to be done with all this as of today. No use thinking about it. We'll just wait and see I guess." he said, seeing the waitress approaching with their spring rolls.
They took turns discussing the trial in between bites of the crispy deep fried rolls. Teresa was looking forward to eating anything she wanted again once the baby was born. For now, she was willing to forego the spicier dishes she preferred to avoid the dreaded heartburn this pregnancy had brought into her life.
After a leisurely lunch, they returned to their car to make their way back to the courthouse. The Forensic team leader was due to present all of the hard evidence which had been gathered in Harrington County. Professor Krakowski would also be called to testify, along with Sally. This would make for an interesting day in court.
Patrick and Teresa sat part way back in the courtroom, and waited for the proceedings to begin again after the lunch break. Cho had also joined them and the three of them sat together. There was a good chance Wylie and Abbott would also be called to testify as to their little charade in the diner which ultimately ensnared the Three Amigos. Abbott would be cool as a cucumber, but Wylie could be a nervous wreck taking the stand. Time would tell.
The courtroom filled up rapidly and soon it was called to order. The Judge made his usual grand entrance and the session began.
The Forensic team leader, Bill Carson, was the first person called to testify.
A table was covered with evidence sealed in plastic sleeves. As needed, each piece of evidence would be entered into the records.
The prosecution began the questioning.
"Agent Carson, Deputy Sheriff Lassiter claims he was just a friend of Beau and Colt. That whatever happened in Harrington County was purely circumstantial in nature and that no link can connect criminal activity to all three men. What proof has the FBI found to connect any criminal activity to these defendants?"
Agent Carson took a deep breath and spoke directly to the lawyer. He was not nervous in the least, having testified many times at similar criminal proceedings.
"We were looking for a connection between the cell phone records of Deputy Sheriff Lassiter, Police Chief Lassiter, Beau Chandler and Colton Franks. On the day Mr. and Mrs. Jane arrived in Harrington County, at around dinner hour, a cell phone call was placed by Deputy Sheriff Lassiter to Beau Chandler. We traced the call via a local cell phone tower. Mr. Chandler was with Mr. Franks at the time, about 10 miles away from the diner, where the call was made. Soon after the call was made, our agents reported seeing Beau and Colt appear at the diner where they later made contact with Mr. Jane."
"The records for previous calls concerning earlier victims are harder to find, as we won't know exactly when those people disappeared until all the bodies are identified. Is there any other indication of contact between these three defendants via cell phone records?" asked the attorney.
"Yes, there were numerous calls going back and forth between the cellphones of Chandler, Franks and Lassiter. The last set of calls that can accurately be timed to criminal activity took place when our agents Wylie and Abbott went to Harrington County to lure Mr. Chandler and Mr. Franks into approaching them to buy the stolen Airstream belonging to Mr. Jane."
"What do those records show?"
"Our agents entered the diner talking loudly about buying an Airstream RV. Deputy Sheriff Lassiter was in the diner at the time, and soon a call was placed from his cell phone to that of Beau Chandler. Very shortly thereafter, both Beau and Colt arrived at the diner and made contact with our two agents."
"Is there any link between Police Chief Lassiter and Mr. Chandler and Mr. Franks? Any cell phone contact?"
"No Sir, not between the Police Chief and Beau and Colt. It appears that all the contact was between the Police Chief and his son John Lassiter."
"And how can this be construed as being connected to any crimes that may have been committed?"
"The calls were always between the Chief and his son. We don't know of course what was discussed, but there was an irregular pattern to them, sometimes many calls in a short time, and then a long lull between calls. The cell phone calls placed by the Chief of Police to the man operating the garbage truck often coincided with calls between the Chief and his son."
"Why should the court be interested in calls to a garbage disposal man?"
"The calls were placed soon after a fresh body was dumped into the canyon. Chief Lassiter would be called by his son and told that another body had been thrown into the canyon, and the Chief had to do something about it to cover it all up."
"Objection Your Honour! Speculation! We don't know what the calls were about!"
"Sustained. Agent Carson, please stick to facts. We cannot speculate as to the nature of the calls."
"Yes Your Honour" the agent replied. He wasn't perturbed by the Judge's admonishments. He had done this many times before and knew how it all worked.
"Is there any way to prove the timeline of these calls and the deaths of these victims?"
"Well we know a call was made right after Mr. Jane was shot and thrown over the cliff. Records show the call was placed to Chief Lassiter by his son, and then the Chief made a call, and shortly thereafter, garbage was driven out to the campground and dumped over the cliff."
Patrick leaned over and whispered in Teresa's ear. "Government efficiency at its' best!"
The attorney picked up a sheaf of papers and handed it to the Judge.
"Cell phone records Your Honour, to be entered as evidence."
The prosecuting attorney then turned back to Agent Carson to continue his questioning.
"Much has been made of the evidence collected at the canyon and in the farmhouse. Was anything found that can connect the defendants to the attempted murder of Mr. Jane and the kidnapping of his wife Teresa?"
"Guns were found at the farm belonging to Mr. Chandler. Some of the guns were owned by Mr. Chandler, and others were the property of Mr. Franks. They were taken to our labs and were fired. We took the bullets taken from these tests and compared the bullet markings to those found on the bullet and fragments taken from the body of Mr. Jane."
"And was there any evidence at all to prove that one of those guns had been used to shoot Mr. Jane?"
"Yes, the shell casing found at the campground matched the shell casings we took from Mr. Franks gun. Also, the bullet extracted from Mr. Jane was found to be a perfect match to that same gun owned by Mr. Franks."
Beau looked at his one-time friend and smirked. Any time someone else could be blamed for something he was happy.
"What other ballistic evidence was discovered either at the farm or at the campground Agent Carson?"
"We had cadaver dogs at the base of the canyon, where they worked for approximately one week. They successfully uncovered many skeletal remains of previous murder victims."
"Objection Your Honour! Supposition!"
"Overruled.. Carry on Agent." said the Judge
"The skeletal remains were removed and taken to our lab in Austin. We were able to extract bullets or bullet fragment from most of the bodies."
"What did these bullets show Agent?"
"We discovered that the victims were either killed by the gun of Colton Franks, or Beau Chandler. It was about a 50/50 split."
There was a loud murmur in the courtroom as the hard evidence was once again laid out, pointing to the guilt of Beau and Colt.
"Your Honour, we enter the ballistics report into evidence as well as the guns used on the murder victims " said the prosecuting attorney, passing the Judge a large report and then several tagged guns.
"Mr. Carson, Sally Morgan has insisted that a pregnant woman was kidnapped and taken to Beau Chandler's farm, where she died in childbirth, along with her baby. Did you find evidence of such a person at the bottom of the canyon."
"Yes we did. After uncovering all of the remains, we found a tiny skeletal baby laying on the body of a young female. We have determined both died approximately three years ago."
"Where there any bullets found in the woman's body?"
"No Sir. There was no way to determine how this victim died."
"Have any of the victims found at the bottom of the canyon been identified yet?"
"Yes. Once the story of these events in Harrington County hit the news, many people came forward and asked to be tested for DNA matchups with the victims. So far, we have identified 7 bodies in this manner."
The lawyer knew the identity of the pregnant woman had been discovered, but he was going to keep that to himself for now.
"What other evidence has been collected to show any connection between Mr. Chandler, Mr. Franks and Deputy Sheriff Lassiter?|
"Our Forensic Accounting department has studied the bank accounts of all three men and have seen a pattern of deposits that cannot be explained as work related pay. Large deposits would be made to all three bank accounts at the same time. There is no reason to conclude this money came from legal enterprise. For example, the amounts in lump sum deposits were far too large to be employee pay for the Deputy Sheriff. And Beau Chandler and Colton Franks are both unemployed, drawing no regular paychecks. So a large deposit to their bank accounts would be hard to explain away."
"So if Beau Chandler made a deposit of say, $4000 on a particular day, very soon afterwards Colton Franks and Deputy Sheriff Lassiter made the exact same deposit into their bank accounts as well."
"Yes Sir."
"Why do you suppose they all had the exact same deposit based on a shared experience?"
"I cannot be sure, but it seems reasonable to correlate the deposits with the sale of stolen vehicles. All of the cars stolen were high end, and could be resold easily."
"Objection! Speculation!"
"Sustained. Please only discuss what you know, not what you suppose." reminded the Judge.
"Yes Your Honour." said the Forensic agent.
"Did you find any evidence linking the cars discovered in the barn to any missing persons?"
"Yes we did. We checked the VIN numbers on the cars we found in the barn to cars reported stolen or missing. When we traced those cars, we always found out that the driver had disappeared. None of the owners were ever found again."
"Was there any evidence inside the Airstream linking it to Beau Chandler?"
"We found the fingerprints of Beau Chandler all over the door and the steering wheel."
"Thank you Agent Carson."
"We are finished with this witness Your Honour." said the prosecutor.
The Judge turned to the defense attorney and addressed him.
"Do you wish to question this witness?"
"Yes Your Honour."
The attorney stood up and smoothed down his jacket. This afternoon he wanted to remain calm and not get rattled so easily. Was it just Patrick Jane who had that effect on him, or was he losing his touch? He shook those thoughts out of his head as he approached Agent Carson sitting in the witness box.
"Good afternoon Agent Carson."
"Good afternoon."
"You have testified that the numerous calls between Deputy Sheriff Lassiter and his father Chief Lassiter, somehow connected them to criminal activity, yes?"
"Yes, that is my belief based on the timing of the calls."
"Agent Carson, is there a limit to when and how often a son can call his father?"
"No, not at all."
"So these calls could just be friendly calls between two professional men, who happen to be father and son. Nothing scary or nefarious about that!" joked the attorney.
"No Sir."
"The Deputy Sheriff also called Beau several times on his cell phone, correct?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"Agent Carson, did you check to see who else the Deputy was calling on his cell phone?"
"Yes we did. He placed numerous calls on his cell phone. Some were to Beau, others were to his barber, some to his father, some to random people in town. There was no set pattern to the calls."
"But you would have this court believe that some calls indicated criminal activity, while other calls were simply social in nature."
"We correlated the timing of the calls to criminal activity and it was then that we saw a pattern. That is why those calls were suspicious."
"Suspicious perhaps if you were looking for someone to blame, but hardly hard evidence, correct Agent Carson."
"It can be open to interpretation, yes."
"Alright, moving on" said the now much more assured lawyer.
"You have said bullets were found in and around the bodies found in the bottom of the canyon."
"Yes sir."
"In some cases, those bodies had been there for years, correct?"
"Yes"
"Animals move bodies around. The flesh falls away from a body over time. Weather moves objects around in the wind, and especially in a heavy rainfall, wouldn't you agree Agent?"
"Yes, that is something that happens when a body is out in the wild for a long time."
"So is it not conceivable that Beau and Colton could have stood on the edge of the cliff shooting off their guns for fun, and some of those bullets would have ended up in the bottom of the canyon, amongst the bodies that they did not know were down there?"
The forensic agent looked at the defense lawyer with distaste, but had to admit it could happen.
"It would be a big stretch for that to happen, but it is not outside the realm of possibility."
"So the fact that bullets fired from the guns of Beau and Colton were found near the bodies is not really proof that those same victims had in fact been shot by my clients."
The agent smiled and was happy to answer this very question.
"You are absolutely correct. If a bullet was found near a body in those extreme conditions, we would have no way to prove without question that the bullet got there because a crime had been committed."
"So there really is no proof at all that anyone was killed by either Beau Chandler or Colton Franks."
"Actually, I wasn't finished my answer sir" said Agent Carson.
Looking a bit startled, the defense attorney turned to face the agent and had to backtrack to the original question.
"But you just said there was no way to connect those bodies to a crime committed by the defendants, did you not?"
"I was going to say, if the bullets were found close to the bodies, they could possibly have been randomly shot down there and landed near the bodies, yes. But, in this case, that is not what happened."
"What did happen then Agent Carson?" asked the defense attorney smugly.
"We found the bullets in the bodies. Several skulls had the bullets sitting inside them still, the bullet hole clearly visible to the naked eye. If the bullet was shot into the skull post mortem, we could tell from the marks on the entry site of the skull. But if the bullet is what killed the victim, the markings of the bullet wound in the skull would have aged and worn down at the same rate of time as any other aging on the skeleton. Where the body had been shot, many times the rib or another large bone was shattered by the bullet, and then we found the bullet close by or underneath the body. The bullet fell out of the victim as the body decomposed. So in answer to your question, yes, we did find forensic evidence that the victims were killed by the guns belonging to Beau Chandler and Colton Franks."
The defense attorney had no response to this so thought better of following this line of questions. He had to cast some other evidence into doubt.
"Agent Carson, you have said that there were numerous fingerprints in the Airstream belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Jane, Sally Morgan and Beau Chandler."
"Yes Sir, that is correct."
"It would be speculation on your part to assume Mr. Chandler's fingerprints were in the RV solely due to criminal activity, yes?"
"We can only collect the evidence. The testimony of the eye witnesses tells us why those fingerprints were in the RV."
"Assuming the eye witnesses are telling the truth and not coming up with a story to enhance their testimony."
"Objection, Your Honour! Prejudicial!" shouted the prosecuting attorney.
"Sustained. Counsellor, careful how you word your questions."
"Yes Your Honour."
"So Agent Carson, you have fingerprints in the RV which can be explained away in a variety of ways. That in itself is not evidence."
"That is not for me to decide Sir."
"Could the RV have fingerprints from Mr. Chandler inside if he had wandered into the RV to take a look around? It is quite a nice vintage Airstream. Perhaps many people have stepped inside to look around and left prints."
"That is not up to me to speculate on Sir. But we have Mr. and Mrs. Jane's testimony to tell us that they did not invite Beau or Colton into the RV at any time, not voluntarily at least."
"Well that is open to discussion" dismissed the now overly confident attorney.
"Did you find anything else that could indicate a crime had taken place at the farm or anywhere else?"
"We found handcuffs in the farmhouse, with the fingerprints of Beau and Colton on them, with traces of skin cells which belonged to Teresa Jane. She had been wearing those handcuffs at one point."
Before the defense attorney could say anything to refute this news, the prosecuting attorney stood up and walked over to the table at the front of the room.
"Your Honour, we enter the handcuffs into evidence for the court" he smiled sweetly and handed the judge the bag containing the tagged cuffs.
"Thank you" said the Judge. "Continue Counsellor."
"Skin cells on handcuffs can be there for any number of reasons. There are those who dabble in more extreme versions of sexual activity than the general public may be accustomed to" smirked the defense attorney.
"Objection!" leaped up the prosecuting attorney, now truly angry at what the defense attorney was insinuating. "Mrs. Jane was a kidnap victim. This is a cheap attack on her dignity and her veracity!"
"Sustained. Counsellor, you had better be sure of this line of inquiry before you go too far" warned the Judge.
"I am merely pointing out that there are many reasons why skin cells can be on handcuffs Your Honour, and not all of those reasons pertain to a crime being committed."
"If you have a point, make it soon Sir" said the Judge.
"My point has been made Your Honour."
Turning back to the forensic agent, he continued his line of questions.
"Is there any way to pinpoint when the bodies were thrown into the canyon?"
"Yes, it is actually quite easy to test the bones and the nearby vegetation and insect life in and around the bodies to delineate the time the bodies were placed in that location."
"What has your testing shown you as to the length of time the bodies where down there?"
The agent spent a moment in thought, then looked up at the defense attorney.
"The body which had been down there the longest is estimated to have been placed in the canyon approximately 8 years ago. The most recent body was thrown down there in the last year. Mr. Jane would have been the newest additon if he had not landed on the ledge."
A murmur of disbelief rippled through the courtroom as the timeline showed how long the murders and crimes had been going on.
"Order, order in the court!" the Judge said softly as he banged his gavel upon his desk top.
"And how does your forensic team determine how long a body has been left to decay out in the open?"
'As I said, it is a lot of things which tell us what we need to know. Insect activity in the body and around it will tell us how long a body has been left outside. We study the insects, learn their life cycles, and see from that evidence how long the insect has inhabited the body. For corpses which have been out in the open for very long lengths of time, the outcroppings of trees or other vegetation in and around the body will also give us a clear timeline. As the bones get older, then we can rely on forensic dating, comparing the condition of the bones to how they would be if the body had been found recently. There are very clear and reliable ways to date a corpse."
The defense attorney walked back to his table, quite pleased with himself. This afternoon had gone quite well he thought, far better than this morning. He decided to quit while he was doing so well.
'Your Honour, we are finished with this witness."
"Would you care to cross-examine this witness?" the Judge asked the prosecutor.
"No Your Honour, we are finished with this witness."
"Then you may step down Sir." said the Judge.
Agent Carson smiled and stepped down from the witness box. He was happy to be done and go back to the security of his lab. Courtrooms took too much valuable time away from his work.
"We will adjourn for the day. Court will resume tomorrow morning at 10am!" stated the Judge. With that, he stood and everyone stood up in turn. He stepped down and left the courtroom and the doors opened to disgorge the now stiff and thirsty crowd.
Patrick and Teresa were disappointed that the professor and Sally had not had time to give their testimony. Perhaps it would be better to hit the defense with their story when they both were rested and keen, first thing in the morning. For now, Patrick and Teresa were just happy to go home again, arm in arm, to sit by the pond and watch the sun go down.
XXXXXXX
Well another day in court is out of the way. Soon the rest of the story will emerge.