With surprisingly no real motions from either party, the case proceeds to trial in (relatively speaking) an extremely quick fashion. Before that, however, charges were quietly dropped against Dena Carter for her role in the murder of Leon Vorgitch in light of the murder of her daughter, while Robert Purcell was given a pardon by the Governor in light of the circumstances that resulted in his role in the murder of Leon Vorgitch. The latter developments didn't please Jack at all, even though he understood why they were done, as it was going to hinder his case against the Fuscos. Even without that, wanting to avoid a repeat of what happened with Robert Purcell, Jack offered the Jury the chance to consider lesser charges of Man 1 and Man 2 on each count (as there were four deaths), which Abbie and the Fuscos accepted as options before going to trial, with it clear they wanted their day in court.
After opening arguments, Several witnesses who saw the car and the shooters would come first, explaining what the saw, with the car following Luann as she walked south on Broadway towards 13th street, with their noting she clearly was not dressed for waiting on line for the GameSet4 that was slated to come out later the night of the shooting. Those witnesses made it clear in their opinion the Fuscos did the shooting there to make it look like some sort of mob or gang hit knowing how many people were waiting to get their hands on the GameSets, also noting how with the product still in very limited supply they were still being sold at online auction sites for as much as $50,000. Nina followed by Ed and Dani then testified as to what they saw at the crime scene.
Serena was the next witness, with her explaining what she saw, "I happened to be out walking my dog around 2:00 in the morning in the area where the car was found, as I live on Washington between 13th and 14th and often take my dog down to where the car was abandoned as it's relatively quiet. I dialed 911 as soon as I saw the Fusco's car, but when I made that call I thought something had tragically gone wrong and they had been kidnapped, not realizing until I talked with Detectives Beck, Cassidy and Green and remembered the shooting at 13th and Broadway."
"And what made you realize they had done it?", then asked Jack.
"Ever since they got back from a trip following what Leon Vorgitch did to those kids, their blood had been boiling. They had many times been screaming at the top of their lungs how Vorgitich deserved to die, and were very happy when they found out he had been killed by Robert Purcell. I do remember specifically the Fuscos, as well as others who lost friends and loved ones in the restaurant massacre in 1997 asked Mr. Branch not to prosecute Mr. Purcell at all, though I know being a former prosecutor myself Mr. Branch had no choice but to given the precedent it could set if it wasn't done", then said Serena.
"And that precedent would be?", then asked Jack, with Abbie objecting because of relevance and Judge Sirkin sustaining, with Jack then asking Serena how she could hear them so well, and Serena responding by saying, "I've lived directly below the Fuscos since I first moved into the building with my then-husband in 1995", referring to her late ex-husband Doug Southerlyn, who was brutally murdered in the spring of 2003, three and a half years before this case went to trial (a few years after her divorce), pausing briefly before resuming, "They had yelled many times they wanted Vorgitch dead, and when Robert Purcell was tried for killing him and Dena Carter did what she did, they screamed how much they felt her going to jail wasn't enough, that she had to suffer the same way the parents of the victims of Leon Vorgitch's murders did, as only then she would truly understand what she did. I just never dreamed they'd actually do it."
"And once you realized they did, what did you do?", then asked Jack.
"Being a former prosecutor and knowing the proceedings, I went up with Detectives Beck, Green and Cassidy to their apartment to knock on their door explaining they and other officers were with me, as I was afraid they would otherwise either try and take their own lives or come out with guns blazing. In fact, even with knocking on the door, I still quickly walked to a stairwell close to their apartment just in case they did have guns in tow", then said Serena.
With that, Jack was finished with questioning his former assistant, with Abbie beginning cross-examining by asking her successor as Jack's assistant, "You said you have lived directly below the Fuscos for 11 years now. Were they always the way you described them when Mr. McCoy asked?", with Serena then replying by saying, "Before their daughter was murdered, they were very nice people, and my now-late ex and I used to run into them and their daughter quite a bit. Afterwards, they were very distraught and became quite a bit isolated, though over time that seemed to get better, especially after 9/11, but only for a while. They managed to be able to work and function like normal people, but seeing their daughter murdered like that really took it's toll emotionally."
"Which you can relate to because your ex-husband and his second wife were among six murdered in April 2003 when as Athletic Director of (place name of fictional University here) he denied his basketball team the opportunity to play in the postseason because of a scandal involving the coach, who also was among those murdered by the Grushkovs over what happened", with Jack objecting to that line of questioning on relevance, and Judge Sirkin sustaining.
With that, Serena then stepped down.
From there, Jack calls Dena Carter to the stand. To this point, Dena had been silent about her daughter's murder, but knowing charges against her had just been dropped in light of her daughter being killed by others due to her earlier actions, she would be very open when she testified, first when asked by Jack what her motive was in having Vorgitch murdered: "Leon Vorgitch was a brutal killer who didn't care who his victims were. That was obvious in first the restaurant shooting in 1997 and then when he killed a man who was guarding him when being transported back here before killing those kids. Mr. Vorgitch was a shining example of why we need the death penalty back in New York State."
Jack then said to Dena, "You were aware I was about to proceed with trying to put Mr. Vorgitch back on death row for his actions in the killing of the kids in that school when you had him murdered by telling Robert Purcell when and where Mr. Vorgitch would be?", with Abbie objecting to the line of questioning on relevence and Jack responding by saying this was very much relevant to what happened to Luann, with Judge Sirkin overruling the objection. Dena then answered by saying, "What were the chances he would ever be executed without the legislature passing a new death penalty stature? Leon Vorgitch got justice for what he did, but what should never have happened was first Robert Purcell ever spending a minute in jail for shooting him and then my daughter being brutally murdered for my trying to get justice for the families of those who lost loved ones at the hands of Vorgitch!"
With that, Jack was finished with Dena, and Abbie began her cross by saying to Dena, "It's funny how you mention the 'families of loved ones', since one of those families that lost a loved one in the restaurant massacre in '97 was the Fuscos. Do you really think they wanted to kill your daughter if they were of a sound mind?"
Dena then responded by saying, "I can't understand why they felt killing my daughter would 'send a message.' I know in retrospect in the trial of Robert Purcell I should have allowed the jury to consider second degree manslaughter, but that doesn't give the Fuscos or anyone else the right to murder my daughter, who was completely innocent in all of this!"
"So, you do realize had you allowed the jury to consider second degree manslaughter in the case against Mr. Purcell that your daughter would still be alive?", then asked Abbie, with Jack objecting on relevance, but Judge Sirkin overruling.
Dena then answered the question: "That is true in she would still be alive, but that should be the case anyway. My daughter had nothing to do with my actions whatsoever", with Abbie then saying to Dena, "You certainly weren't thinking about anyone but yourself when you wouldn't allow the jury in the case against Mr. Purcell to consider a lesser charge?", with Jack then objecting and Abbie withdrawing the question, then finished with Dena, who stepped down.
Robert Purcell was the next witness. Jack would ask him exactly how he wound up on trial in the first place, with his saying, "After Leon Vorgitch escaped, he went into the school my daughter was in and with no regard to anyone shot her and seven other kids. All of the parents of those killed by Vorgitch felt something had to be done to 'send a message' that even trying him with a death penalty that could never be enforced being attached wasn't enough, and Ms. Carter set it up where I would shoot and kill Mr. Vorgitch. Of course, we couldn't have known that Ms. Carter's real intentions were to further her own political gain. That was why I agreed to testify against her in a trial that we now know will never take place thanks to the Fuscos murdering her daughter in their own twisted idea of revenge. I'm sorry they lost their daughter as one who lost his thanks to Mr. Vorgitch as well, but murdering Dena Carter's daughter, even if what Ms. Carter did was wrong doesn't make anything right."
Jack then was finished, with Abbie declining to ask Robert any questions and his stepping down. This concluded the prosecution's case, with Abbie then starting her's for the defense by calling several relatives of other victims of the 1997 massacre, with their explaining the kinds of emotions they went through at the time of the original shooting along with after that and then what they were feeling when they found out that Leon Vorgitch had first escaped, murdering a corrections officer and then murdered the schoolkids. All were pretty much in unison in their views that Robert Purcell should never have been tried in the first place for killing Vorgitch and also saying how in their cases they also wanted Dena Carter to suffer in a way that jail could not do so because of how she was looking at her own political aspirations, taking advantage of a man who had lost his daughter to Vorgitch's act in the school. Jack would in cross with these witnesses ask if they were thinking of going as far as the Fuscos did in murdering Luann Carter and in the process shooting two others to death and causing the death of a fourth person, with all of them saying they would while they had thought of that, none of them would have actually done so.
George Huang and Elizabeth Olivet were next for Abbie, as Jack had declined to have them testify for the prosecution. George and Elizabeth would both testify that they felt that what Dena did brought back nightmares to the Fuscos they originally suffered when their daughter had been killed in 1997. In each case, George and Elizabeth would go on to say how hearing what happened to Robert Purcell was too much, and that Dena had to pay in a way jail would never do for what she did, which led to their deciding murdering her only child would be the only way they could "send a message." In cross, Jack would ask why that was the case, and in each case George and Elizabeth would say how they had just become way too distraught and could not realize that murdering Luann Carter wasn't going to bring justice for their daughter.
Nancy and James Fusco followed. Both basically re-interated what George and Elizabeth had said about what they had been going to, in each case adding how what Dena Carter did had opened up too many old wounds in their mind, with their becoming insensed to the point that Dena Carter had to suffer. While in cross Nancy didn't say anything when she was on the stand with Jack, James did, responding to what how they knew where to follow Luann by saying, "We knew Luann Carter lived in a high-rise on 11th and Broadway and that she often walked home from 14th after getting off the subway there. We also knew she usually walked past the store that was selling the GameSets, so if we timed it right, we could do what we felt was necessary and no one would realize. We had no choice in our minds, and I'm sorry those other people lost their lives, but what Dena Carter did is something that could not be paid for by rotting in jail herself!", with James becoming increasingly emotional towards the end.
That concluded Abbie's case, and in closing arguments she reminded the jurors of the pain and suffering the Fuscos had been dealing with for nearly a decade while Jack then said how while that was true, it didn't give them the right to murder Luann Carter and cause the deaths of Richard Carter, James Berman and Steve Hammond. The latter point did hold with the jury, as while they did accquit the Fuscos of second degree murder on all four counts, they did convict on lesser charges of first degree manslaughter in the case of Luann and second degree manslaughter in the cases of Richard Carter and Steve Hammond, though they also completely accquitted the Fuscos in the case of James Berman. It would be worked out a short time later where the Fuscos would serve all sentences concurrently rather than consecutively, which Judge Sirkin would accept given the circumstances in this case. The longest of those would be an 10-15 year sentence on the Man 1 charge.
The final scene takes place on an unseasonably warm early February Friday evening (temperatures in the low 60s) with Connie running into Abbie by pure chance on Broadway and Leonard Streets, shortly after sentencing actually took place.
"Guess you have a hot date", said Connie to Abbie, notcing Abbie was wearing a metalic gold blouse with a matching hairband/headwrap in her hair and well above-the-knee black skirt with black 4" stiletto pumps and carrying a suit jacket.
"Only if you consider a 'hot date' to be opposing council in a lawsuit", Abbie then replied as Connie then saw she also was carrying a briefcase", with Abbie then saying, "To be honest, I'd rather be wearing what you are", seeing Connie wearing a white turtleneck with a skirt similar to Abbie's and black UGG boots, carrying a denim jacket. After pausing for a second, Abbie then said to Connie, "Anyway, The Fuscos were very satisfied. They mainly wanted their day in court above all else, and I think in retrospect they were resigned to serving at least some time even before they asked me to take over the case."
Connie then replied by saying, "That's what I figured, seeing them at the sentencing. Deep down, I think they knew they weren't going to get off completely, but I'm surprised they got off as light as they did."
Abbie then said to Connie, "We both did our jobs, as did Jack, speaking of which, how is he?"
"He's doing fine, a lot better than I expected given he still blames himself for Lexi's death, though not as much as before", Connie then replied.
"He can't blame himself for that. I know if Jack tried to pull the Andreas case from me, I would have been furious, though after the murders that happened before she was killed I probably would have pulled back", then said Abbie.
"I know. Susanne made it clear to Jack that there was nothing he nor anyone else could have done to have prevented her murder", then said Connie.
"That's right! You would know that because you were Susanne's assistant before Lexi was killed!", Abbie then replied.
"Right up to and including her becoming Buereau Chief", then said Connie as the ladies then continued briefly before continuing to where they were headed (Abbie to meet opposing council on a case, Connie to somewhere she could have dinner, undecided of what she wanted to do after that).