And Baby Makes Three

by Cassiesmum02

Newlyweds Jax and Sarah finally bring baby Abel home and try and start on their lives. With a trial in their very near future how easy can wedded bliss be?

65. Chapter 65

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

Website where all photos of all outfits mentioned is on my profile. This chapter does contain some medical details that may be a bit difficult to deal with.

Arriving at the court house I'm surprised that there aren't as many reporters there as there was the day before but Derek's quiet explanation as I get out of the car that Patrick and Charlotte had gotten together and released a statement which answered a lot of questions on my behalf makes me nod.

Charlotte is already inside the room, her briefcase open but behind her as she talks quietly to two men and one woman. Stepping into the row of seats behind them they all turn around and look at me. Gayle smiles "You doing okay?"

I nod "I think I've surprised myself with how well I'm handling all this."

Jax wraps his arm around my shoulders "Apart from falling out of bed."

I elbow him lightly "That was your fault."

"Oops." He says with a grin, introducing himself to the people in front of us then taking a seat and turning around to talk to Derek and Juice about the firewall they're building for the porn house.

The doctor from the hospital in York gives me a very quick once over and I'm glad that Jax is now looking the other way when he smiles "You're looking a heck of a lot better now then you were the last time I saw you."

I nod, sitting down beside Jax "Most of that is thanks to my husband and relatives."

He frowns "I thought you didn't have any family."

I shrug gesturing to the three men in leather sitting behind me "My husband is part of a motorcycle club that sees itself as one huge family. When we got married I inherited what amounts to a sister, 2 brothers, 2 aunts, 5 uncles, and 4 cousins."

Happy rests his arms on the back of the bench I'm on "Who are the cousins?"

I lean back onto his forearms "Chibs, Juice, Miles and Kip."

"Sack and shithead I get, but Chibs and Juice?"

I nod, shooting an apologetic glance towards Juice "I still don't know them well enough to move them into another category. Juice is getting closer to 'brother' every day and Chibs took a great leap towards uncle with his devotion to Doj but it's still on the road."

Happy nods, ruffling my hair like an annoying older brother would laughing when I make random threats about cupcakes which go right over the doctor's head.

Moving back to my former position against Jax's side I can see the interaction between Happy and myself did exactly what I was expecting it to. Dr Connor turns back to the front and sits slightly stiffly in his seat. Happy whispers "You're evil." behind me and my responding nod makes him chuckle, the sound making its way to my ears as Johnson comes in with a bang of the door and a scowl on his face.

Charlotte laughs lightly; turning around to face the front as the bailiff comes in and we all go through the now well practiced routine of standing for the judge and jury.

Calling the court to order the judge turns control to Charlotte who stands up with her usual smile towards the jury "I only have four more witnesses then I'm done. My first one for today is Anthony Murphy."

The unfamiliar man in front of me gets to his feet and I quietly whisper to Jax that I guess he must have been the boss in York. Charlotte's first question confirms this.

"Please state your name and relationship to the defendant for the record."

"My name's Tony, Anthony, Murphy. I employed Craig Turner to work on my boat in Maine."

"So you saw him on a daily basis?"

"I did. He'd show up for work every morning at 6am, work till 4pm then leave."

"Did you have any contact with him other than work?"

Shaking his head he replies "No. We had after work drinks every Friday and at least 2 work dinners while he was working for me and he never came to any of them."

"Did Mr Turner ever mention a girlfriend?"

Tony laughs "He mentioned a woman often, someone he was planning on marrying as soon as fishing season was over and he went back home. But I don't think he never said her name, or where home was."

"And the person you employed, has he been present in this court room at all?"

Tony shakes his head "No. The guy that was here was too tall to be Craig. I had to have a height limit on employees due to some of the gear we use. Anyone over 5 foot 10 would have knocked themselves out."

"No further questions."

Johnson jumps to his feet "During his time working for you how was Mr Turner paid?"

"Cash, he said he had lost his bank cards and there wasn't a branch of his bank in town so he always asked for cash."

"And you kept records?"

Tony nods "I got signed receipts for each of his payments for accounting purposes and as proof I'd paid him."

Charlotte stands up "Copies of the receipts have been submitted for evidence."

The judge nods as Charlotte sits back down again. Johnson smirks "Has the signature been verified as being Mr Turners?"

Tony shrugs "I don't know. I always watched him sign so I could co-sign that they'd been paid."

"No further questions."

Charlotte stands up "For the record, the signatures on both the receipts and Mr Turners drivers licence were compared by an analyst and confirmed that they were done by the same person. They were also compared against letters Mr Turner wrote to his family while incarcerated and they were also a 99% match."

Tony steps off the stand and returns to his seat. Charlotte calls Gayle to the stand next and swearing her in takes a little longer when the oath has to be revised due to her status as a psychiatrist and that there are some things she can't share due to her oaths.

Charlotte sits on the edge of her desk "You treated Sarah for approximately 1 year?"

Gayle nods "She's still an active patient, while we no longer have regular meetings she still can contact me whenever she needs to."

"And she has since returning to California?"

Gayle nods again "As she said, twice. Once prior to filing adoption papers for her stepson and once just four days ago."

"Are you able to tell us anything of the conversations you had?"

"Sure. She's already covered most of it. She rang the first time to make sure the adoption wouldn't be hindered by her undergoing treatment with me, I reassured her that her sessions were completely private and any information that was requested would have to go through legal channels, or have her approval."

"And the second time?"

"Four days ago she rang me to make sure I would be on hand during this trial in case she needed me. Today was the first time I've spoken to her since then."

"And she's agreed for you to answer what relevant questions come up here?" Charlotte asks quietly.

Gayle nods again "As long as they are directly relating to the treatment she had due to her captivity then she's agreed for me to answer them."

Charlotte nods again "So, briefly how was she when you started seeing her?"

"She was terrified, withdrawn, confused, malnourished, sleep deprived and very untrusting."

"Was she treated with any drugs of any sort?"

Gayle shakes her head "Not from me. She was given sleeping pills and anti-anxiety by her physician but she never struck me as needing antidepressants or antipsychotics as I would have expected."

"In the beginning how often were you seeing her?"

"While she was hospitalised I was seeing her every day for a minimum of an hour, but I was on call 24 hours a day in case she needed me for something else. Once she was discharged and returned to New York I saw her twice a week for the first three months then weekly for the next three. Her last month in New York I was seeing her fortnightly."

"Did she recover as well as you would have expected?"

Gayle smiles at me "She's done better than I initially thought, she's managed to get past all the issues she had regarding trusting people."

"Were you seeing anyone else while you were in Maine?"

Gayle nods "I was also seeing her two friends, Alice and Camryn daily."

This is a surprise to me and turning in my seat they both shrug "Did you get permission from them to discuss their treatment?"

Gayle nods again "Neither of them saw me more than a dozen times; they needed someone out of the loop to talk to about their feelings of guilt and responsibility they felt."

Al and Cam both lean forwards, squeezing my shoulders lightly and putting my hands over theirs I tug their fingers till they are resting their heads on my shoulders "Love you guys."

They both laugh very low and nod their chins brushing against my cheeks "We love you too."

"No further questions." Charlotte sits down and Johnson gets up with a smirk.

"Are you licenced to practice in Maine?"

Gayle rolls her eyes very dramatically "I'm licenced to practice in any of the 52 states of this country."

"During your treatment of Sarah did you at any stage become concerned she would harm herself?"

Gayle shakes her head "No. Even in the early days when she was struggling to accept what had happened to her she was logical and said she would never use what she called the 'cowards way out'. One of her statements during all her sessions was that she was stronger than taking her own life to escape, knowing the damage it would do to her friends and family."

"Do you have any concerns about her mental state now?"

Gayle shakes her head again "No I don't."

"Did the State of California approach you in regards to her firearms licence?"

"They did."

"And what was your recommendation?"

"I recommended that they grant the licence to her as she'd been through intense assessments prior to her licence being reissued to her in New York."

"Yet they ignored your recommendation?"

Gayle shrugs "It seems they did."

"No further questions your honour."

Charlotte stands up once more "Just to clarify, the State of California denied Mrs Tellers request to move her firearms licence across state lines but she is still licenced within the State of New York to carry."

My head shoots up in surprise; I had thought that California denying my request was the equivalent of New York cancelling my licence as I had moved states. Jax chuckles beside me "Guess you can go play with some guns later."

Gayle returns to her seat and Charlotte stands up "My next witness is Dr Connor."

The ER doctor from York takes the stand, a bundle of pages in his hand, and is sworn in while I casually look around the room, with Craig's family denied access for the last day the only person on the defence side of the room is Katrina's husband. Even Nathan is absent and I make a mental note to ask Charlotte what happened to him.

"Dr Connor, you were on duty the day Sarah came into the ER?"

He leans forwards towards the microphone "I was."

"Can you tell me what happened that day?"

"Certainly." He glances down at the pages and reads through some of the information before looking back up. "1140am a female came into the ER, announced that she'd been abducted and held hostage and then collapsed. At first the nurse thought perhaps she was intoxicated or under the influence of narcotics, but it became apparent very quickly that that was not the case."

"How?"

"Her body condition, the open wounds that we could see, the visible infection and her general appearance. We admitted her immediately and began fluids to rehydrate her, due to the level of malnourishment we had to take it very slowly so her body wouldn't shut down."

"Can you explain that a bit more please?"

"Sure. Sarah is 5 foot 7, a normal weight range for someone of that height is anywhere from 115 to 160 pounds depending on bone structure. When she was admitted she weighed less than 60 pounds. If we'd hurried her hydration we ran the risk of her body shutting down due to the pressure we were putting on her organs to function. As it was she was already running the risk of her kidneys and liver shutting down, her bowel function was nothing due to the lack of food she was being given."

Charlotte nods "And the list of injuries. In layman's terms please."

Dr Connor leans back in his chair "Apart from being severely underweight and dehydrated she was suffering from infections to both wrists, one ankle, a grossly infected arm which was bordering on developing into sepsis; blood poisoning, which at her body condition would have killed her. She had multiple bruises and scratches to her arms, legs and torso. The rape kit we ran came back with evidence of severe tearing to her vaginal walls and deep bruises to the surrounding tissue. She had a tear that required 4 stitches on the inside of her left thigh. She also needed 14 stitches to a gash on her left calf. Each of her ribs where visible through her skin, two of them were cracked, one was broken. She had a hairline fracture to her right arm and her shoulder at some point during her captivity had been strained to almost the point of dislocation, some of the ligaments in her shoulder where stretched to the point that they required surgery to rectify the damage to them. All of her fingers on her left hand were broken, some in multiple places, one of the breaks had started to heal and had to be rebroken during the same surgery to repair her shoulder."

"There were multiple tests carried out on her while she was a patient, can you give us a brief run down on some of them?"

Dr Connor leans forward again "There was a lot of them, all the tests run are in the report submitted, obviously the results are confidential. We ran tests for all sexually transmitted diseases and a majority of infections she could have picked up."

"Did you do an HIV test?"

Nodding he glances over at me "Of course."

"Was there a DNA sample collected from the rape kit?"

Dr Connor nods again "We gathered DNA from the rape kit, also from underneath her fingernails."

"And was that run through the database?"

"I don't know."

"But there is no doubt in your mind that whoever matched the DNA under her fingernails was the one who held her captive?"

Dr Connor nods again "The DNA from her nails matched the samples gathered from the rape kit so yes, there is no doubt in my mind whoever matched that sample is the person who abducted and tortured her."

Johnson stands up but stays behind his desk "How confident are you that your samples were not cross contaminated?"

The doctor snorts "The way the samples are collected there is no chance of any cross contamination, and all hospital staff have their DNA on file."

Charlotte stands up and at this point I'm confused, she never mentioned anyone else that was acting as a witness.

"My final witness is Officer Brady from the Maine State Police." The man I hadn't noticed in the back of the courtroom works his way to the front of the room, his suit far too well tailored for him to be from the tiny town of York that I'd seen once as we were leaving.

Charlotte waits while he's sworn in and settles into the chair before picking up couple of pages, handing the first page to him "That's your statement about the state that Craig Turner was in when he was arrested?"

The officer nods "It is."

"Can you read it for us?"

"Sure. Suspect was arrested while walking into the location of alleged captivity. Suspect was showing signs of having fought someone recently; he had deep scratches on one hand and his cheek. The knuckles on his right hand were bruised and there was dried blood under three of his fingernails. Other than that the suspect was in good physical condition."

"Were samples of the blood taken for analysis?"

Officer Brady nods "They were."

"And a sample of his DNA was taken as well?"

"It was, as is standard procedure in cases such as this."

"Did either of the samples match anything?"

"They both did."

"Which sample matched to what?"

Officer Brady leans forwards, his eyes drifting to mine slowly "The blood under the nails of the suspect matched the victim with an 87% accuracy. The sample we took of Mr Turner's blood was run through our DNA profile and matched two samples in the system."

"Where did those samples originate from?"

"One was from the blood collected from under the nails of Mrs Teller. The other match was to the one collected during the rape kit."

"So the defendants DNA was under Mrs Teller's nails, and in the swabs?"

The officer nods again "They were."

"No further questions."

Johnson stands up before Charlotte can even sit down "Officer Brady, the samples collected from Mrs Teller's nails, is there any way of knowing how long they had been there?"

The officer shakes his head and starts to speak but the sentence is cut off when Johnson sits down with a loud "Nothing further."

Charlotte sighs, standing up "You were saying something? There is no way of knowing how long the blood had been there?"

Brady nods "There isn't, but the victim had been in captivity for over 7 weeks, at that stage had the blood under her fingernails when she was abducted it would not have been viable for a DNA profile, likewise the semen samples that were collected would not have still been present after 7 weeks."

"And you are confident in your assessment of this?"

"I am. After 7 weeks the DNA left behind in the blood or semen would have been far too deteriorated to give a valid sample."

"How can you be sure?" Charlotte presses.

"Blood is a living thing, when you take it out of a body away from the pumping of a heart it starts to decompose. Likewise, semen contains sperm which is a living thing, which will live for a maximum of 5 days inside a human body. The semen samples taken from Mrs Teller contained live sperm which is how we were able to get a match with 99.9% probability to the defendant."

Charlotte sits back down again after excusing him from the stand and the judge looks up "Councillors, approach the bench please."

Both of the lawyers head up to the bench and the judge speaks quietly, both of them nodding before returning to their seats. The judge looks over to the jury "We're going to have closing arguments and then we'll break for lunch and you can start discussing the verdict. Fell free at any time to request any of the evidence submitted a transcript of the trial will be in the jury room for you."

The foreman nods and they all turn their attention to the two lawyers again. Charlotte looks over at Johnson who stays in his seat for a few seconds before standing up "My client is innocent of the charges he is accused of. He was out of the country at the time and the only reason I can come up with for him not being here for this is that he's aware of the amount of evidence that points to him being guilty and chose the route of being a fugitive rather than imprisoned for something he didn't do."

Charlotte stands up as Johnson sits down "I believe over the past 3 days between witness statements and the evidence submitted we have proven without the shadow of a doubt that the defendant is guilty of all the crimes he is charged with." Charlotte sits down after her simple sentence and turns her attention to the judge who dismisses the court, ordering everyone back in 90 minutes after lunch. The jury retires to the deliberation room.

Charlotte turns around again "What are we doing for lunch today?"

I shrug my fingernail in my mouth. Jax reaches up and gently pulls the offending digit away from my lips, resting the other hand over my other hand before it can make it towards my mouth.

"I don't think Sarah really wants to go anywhere?" Jax looks at me as he speaks and I nod silently.

Charlotte jumps to her feet "I'll just go see if one of the rooms is empty. Be back in a tick."

She darts out of the room before anyone can say anything and Derek picks up his phone, the call to Joe to go and pick up some food doesn't take long and as he hangs up Charlotte comes back in "Room 4 down the hall is empty. I've put the reserved sign out and there are no reporters here at the moment."

Jax leads me down the hall while I blindly follow him, my brain working through what will happen if the jury returns the wrong verdict. Jax pulls me to the back corner of the room and finally grabs my attention by kissing me hard.

Blinking out of the stupor I was in I look up at him "Hmm?"

"You back with me now?"

I shake my head and burrow into his chest "No; not really."

He chuckles slightly "Well you need to listen. Johnson was shit, if he's the best defence lawyer in the state I'd hate to see the worst. His case was dead in the water before he even finished the first day. Charlotte is convinced that the jury won't take more than a couple of hours."

I nod, my nose brushing his chest "But what happens if they find him innocent. Then I go down as being a liar."

Jax lifts one of his hands to my chin forcing me to look up at him, his eyes burning bright blue "If they find him innocent babe then they're all fucken idiots. We know you, we know you would never lie about something like this but most of all we all know that he's guilty."

I can't nod with the tight grip he has on my chin but after a second of staring into my eyes he lets go "You good now?" I nod and he smiles slightly "Gonna eat something?" Shaking my head he frowns but leads me to the table.

Charlotte comes around the table and sits beside me, patting my hand lightly as she picks up her legal pad "I'm pretty sure that all the verdicts will come back guilty."

"Pretty?" Happy leans forwards "How could they find him innocent of anything?"

Charlotte shrugs casually "Anything is possible regardless of how slam dunk we think the evidence is."

Donna frowns "So what could he possibly get off on?"

"The kidnapping isn't a certain as Sarah went willingly as confirmed by her own testimony. We did submit photos from the toll booths of Craig and Sarah driving into Maine and then Craig going through to Vermont. There's no evidence of him coming back into Maine which could count against us. The rape charges will stick like glue due to the DNA evidence on both of them. The abuse is the same."

Juice looks over "But surely they wouldn't find him guilty of that stuff and none of the kidnapping?"

Charlotte shrugs again "It depends entirely on if they believe without a shadow of a doubt that he did everything."

Derek opens the door carrying two huge bags, dropping them into the middle of the table he chuckles when Opie practically dives on them, pulling out a sandwich and smiling "These are awesome."

Looking up I stifle a giggle at Opie's mouth which is already bulging even while everyone else is still sorting through the bags. The tuna salad sandwich is pushed to Charlotte who thanks Derek for remembering which he waves his hand at in dismissal.

Jax pulls two sandwiches towards himself, nudging one towards me but I shake my head "I'm not hungry baby."

Sighing again he nods and hands me a bottle of juice "At least drink something then. I don't want you passing out on me."

Poking my tongue out at him I comply, sipping on the orange sugary drink while everyone else eats.

The bailiff appears in the door after 75 minutes announcing that while we're still on lunch the jury has come to a verdict which will be read when everyone is back in the court room.

Charlotte nods and waits till the door closes "That's slightly unusual."

"What is?" Cam says, dropping the last bite of her sandwich into her mouth.

"For a jury to deliberate while on lunch." Charlotte replies, absently packing her papers back into her briefcase. "But this whole trial has been a little odd."

"How?" This time it's Al that's asking the question and even though she's the one that asked everyone is nodding.

"Trial in absentia isn't something that's done very often. Also, that the defendant requested no time between verdict and sentence if found guilty."

"How did he do that if he hasn't been seen?" Jax says with a glance at me.

"It was done while he was still incarcerated. The motion was to include time already served, both were granted."

"So the sentence will be done today as well?" I'd been expecting to have a long delay between verdict and sentence.

Charlotte nods, snapping her briefcase closed "Precisely."

The rest of our time passes fairly slowly, each tick of the clock behind me makes my nerves become a little more frayed. Jax sets his hand on my shoulder and I jump a little "Babe relax. It's time to go back in."

I nod, dropping my half-drunk juice into the rubbish as we cross the remarkably still empty hall into the court room.

5 minutes later I'm leaning back against the seat with a stunned expression on my face. The jury had come back and announced they'd found him guilty of everything. Looking up at the judge I see she's concentrating on a page with the charges and when she finally sets her pen down she fixes her attention on Johnson.

"The defendant's motion to sentence today still stands, even with him absent from the courtroom so my sentences are as follows." She clears her throat and picks up the page "On the charge of unlawful imprisonment in the first degree I am sentencing him to the maximum sentence I can which is four years with no chance of early release. On each of the charges of rape in the first degree I sentence him to 10 years. Assault in the first degree, the sentence is 5 years per charge. The kidnapping charge which goes along with the unlawful imprisonment I am sentencing Mr Turner to 25 years with no chance of early release. Each of these sentences will be served consecutively at Rikers Island."

Johnson nods and the judge continues "A warrant for his arrest will be issued by the end of the day and if it is found that any of the defendant's family has been assisting him in remaining hidden they will face charges of aiding and abetting. Please pass that information on to them?" Johnson nods and the judge smiles "Case closed."

Johnson completely surprises me just after the judge and jury have left the room by smiling a very small smile at me, the spark in his eyes telling me that he knew he'd thrown the trial, and it was his plan. Jax nods his head once towards the silent defence lawyer as he leaves the room and I turn look at Charlotte "What does all that mean? I got lost."

She smiles hugely at me "It means that when he's found he'll be sent to Rikers, the absolutely minimum time he will spend there is 29 years, and that would only be if they overturned the rape and assault charges. The likelihood is that he'll have to serve at least ½ of each of those sentences as well so when he's found he'll be incarcerated for 40 years. And that doesn't include the fact he'll probably be charged with failing to appear."

I lean back into Jax's arm faintly aware of Derek and Charlotte still talking. Jax turns his head towards me and kisses my hair "It's over babe."

AN: Sorry if this seems really weird, this whole trial. I have never been in a court room, never been charged with anything and all the sentences I'm using I got from the web. Johnson was meant to be the best defence lawyer and he was, but he knew that Craig was guilty from the day he was hired and in the man I created in my mind he didn't want Craig on the street, but had to be seen as defending him. Seeing Craig's parents were no longer there to witness it he didn't feel the need to even pretend he cared anymore.