"To our top story now: Skyler White, wife of Albuquerquedrug lord Walter White, was today found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of money laundering. In a shock end to a three week-long trial which has been watched with keen interest across the nation, jurors found Mrs White not guilty of the second-degree felony charge which had been brought against her by the Drug Enforcement Administration, but found her guilty of a lesser misdemeanor charge. Melissa Lyons has the story."
Marie sat down on the sofa next to Flynn, a glass of wine in her hand.
"She asleep already?" he said.
"Yeah well, pizza, icecream and emotions really tire you out."
"Oh look!" Flynn pointed at the TV. A very serious Marie and Skyler could be seen walking up the ramp into the courthouse, Marie's arm around Skyler and her concerned eyes on her, and then the image cut to the two of them embracing inside.
"Good, I'm glad they showed that," said Marie.
"The look on her face."
"Don't worry. It was a good outcome, but we didn't know that at that point."
"It was the longest trial ever held in New Mexico and one of the longest in the country, partly due to the large amount of evidence that was presented by both sides, but the trial was also adjourned on four occasions due to quote unquote 'the defendant's health.' The judge ordered a psychiatric assessment after the second such adjournment; the psychiatrist's report was not disclosed to the court but the defendant was observed to be physically shaking in the dock on numerous occasions, and twice became so distressed that the judge had to call an immediate adjournment. Despite this, after the verdict was handed down today, Prosecutor Greg Martin was quick to point out that Mrs White had not been found not guilty on the grounds of insanity."
The image cut to the prosecutor standing outside the courthouse addressing the media. "Skyler White is guilty of laundering the profits of her husband's illegal methamphetamine enterprise through the car wash business that she ran from May 2009 to March 2010. She confessed this to agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration in March 2010. Throughout this trial, we have presented substantial evidence of the calculating, controlled and detailed manner in which Mrs White carried out this crime. But all Americans are entitled to a fair trial and for the jury to hear both sides of the story, so the Defence countered this with evidence that Mrs White had been placed under coercion and control by her husband, Walter White. The jury retired and deliberated this for more than five days, and they decided to convict Mrs White of the lesser charge of misdemeanor rather than felony. This is still a guilty verdict. I will be meeting with the DEA prosecutor this afternoon to discuss whether the Administration will appeal the reduction to a lesser charge. I can assure you we will consider the matter very carefully and act according to the best interests of the citizens of America."
The image cut to file footage interspersed with images of Walt, Jesse, Jack, Todd, Saul, Mike, Hank and Steve. "The DEA had a lot riding on this trial, since they were never able to bring charges against their main target, Walter White, also known as Heisenberg, after he was killed in a shootout on an Albuquerque industrial estate in September 2010. Also killed that night and at various other times, directly or indirectly involving White himself, was almost everybody else who was involved in his methamphetamine business, with three notable exceptions: Jesse Pinkman, Saul Goodman, also known as Jimmy McGill, and Michael Ehrmantraut. None of these three has been arrested and their whereabouts remain unknown. This left the DEA with just one person to prosecute for a multi-million dollar drug enterprise that spanned five states: the battered wife of its kingpin. If the lack of prosecutable culprits wasn't enough, the DEA had lost two of its own officers, ASAC Hank Schrader and Agent Steve Gomez, who were killed in the course of investigating White, so they threw everything they could into a six month-long Grand Jury investigation followed by a three week-long trial, and they came up short.
"Defence lawyer Kim Wexler spent more than a week presenting evidence, mostly in the form of detailed and often emotional witness testimonies, that Mrs White was not in control of what she was doing but rather was forced into it by her husband Walter. A psychologist testified that their married relationship was toxic and that Walter was a sociopath. The Defence claimed that Mrs White was under the complete control of her husband, that she feared him and that she felt she had no choice but to launder his money. Her bouts of shaking and gasping in the dock provided further evidence of the traumatic abuse that she suffered at the hands of her husband."
Marie glanced sideways at Flynn, thinking that Skyler would kill her for letting him watch this. He looked straight at the television, his face showing no reaction other than the tightening of his jaw.
The image cut to Kim standing outside the court addressing the media. "Today, our legal system did just what it was designed to do. It prevented the scapegoating of the abused wife of a master criminal. It prevented her, a moral woman who neither knew nor controlled what she was doing, acting only under the tyrannical control of her husband, from being punished for his crimes."
The image cut to the reporter standing on the sidewalk opposite the courthouse.
"Perhaps the most significant piece of evidence was that which the Defence presented last, on the trial's final sitting day last Monday, a phone call recorded by Albuquerque Police on the evening of the day Walter White escaped, which he did after threatening his wife and son with a knife and abducting his then eighteen-month-old daughter. In the phone call, White threatened and abused his wife and told her that he had taken her daughter to teach her a lesson. Fortunately, the child was later returned unharmed.
"White then fled, leaving his wife Skyler to face the music for the crimes he had committed, and six months later he shot dead eight of his co-conspirators and himself. But this morning it was confirmed that the music would not play for as long as the DEA thought. Taking into account the significant evidence of coercion presented by the Defence, the jury arrived at a compromise, convicting Mrs White not of a felony but a misdemeanor. The Felony Two charge she was previously facing carried a maximum penalty of nine years in prison; the misdemeanor charge, only one year in jail."
Gene lifted his whisky glass to his lips, drained it and sighed in satisfaction. "Good job, Kim," he said. "Very well done." He got out of his arm chair, grabbed the glass and took it to the kitchen to pour himself another.
"And that concludes our nine o'clock News In Depth bulletin. Coming up next is the question on everybody's lips, who is Kim Wexler? Why did a successful Chicago lawyer fly to the other side of the country to give a pro bono defence to the wife of a drug lord? Well, it may have something to do with the fact that she has a few shadows in the closet herself. She used to be the de facto partner and one-time business partner of Jimmy McGill, also known as Saul Goodman, Walter White's lawyer and corrupt criminal associate." Images of Saul in different clothes, guises and ages, including some of him smiling with Kim, began to pop up on the screen. "Unlike most of White's other associates, Goodman remains alive, at large, and as yet unable to be pinned down by police."
In his small kitchen, Gene banged his Scotch glass onto the counter with a crack. "Oh, fuck."