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Stacey Gle
Beside Yuki, Nicky Gaines, with his perpetual adenoidal wheeze, breathed noisily as the jurors entered the small courtroom from a side door and settled into their seats in the jury box.
Judge Duffy greeted the jurors, explained that today both sides would summarize their cases and that afterward, the jury could begin its deliberations.
Duffy took a long pull of soda right out of the can, then asked, “Ms. Castellano, are the People ready to proceed?”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
Taking her notes from the table, Yuki walked to the lectern in the center of the oak-lined courtroom. She smiled at the twelve jurors and two alternates she’d come to know by their tics, grimaces, laughter, and eye-rolling over the past six weeks, said, “Morning, everyone,” then, pointing to the defendant, spoke from her heart.
“Stacey Gle
“She killed her father, who adored her. She did her level best to kill her mother and thought she had. She bludgeoned her parents without mercy because she wanted to collect their life-insurance payout of a million dollars.
“She did it for the money.”
Yuki went over the timeline she’d established during the trial – the tollbooth attendant’s testimony and that of the Gle
Last, she asked the jury to recall the testimonies of Inspector Paul Chi, a decorated Homicide investigator with the SFPD, and Ly
“Inspector Chi and EMS Sergeant Ly
“Rose Gle
“You know that Inspector Chi had a video camera with him when he was called to the scene of a homicide that morning. When he realized that Mrs. Gle
“Rose Gle
“Nicky, please roll it.”
Chapter 14
A VIDEOTAPE OF the dimly lit murder scene appeared on the screen to the side of the judge’s bench closest to the jury.
The camera’s eye focused on a bedroom dominated by a king-size bed. The linens were in disarray and dark with drying blood. A man’s twisted body was on the far side of the bed, his face turned away from the camera, blood and brains spattering the headboard, deep wounds visible on his scalp and throat.
A woman’s ghostly hand lifted from the bed and motioned the viewer to come closer. The sound of labored breathing intensified as the camera neared the bed.
It was shocking and horrifying to see that although her jaw was clearly smashed and one eye was gone, Rose Gle
“I’m Inspector Paul Chi,” said a man’s voice off camera. “An ambulance is on the way, Mrs. Gle
Amazingly, the woman’s chin moved slowly downward and then back.
“Is your name Rose Gle
The woman nodded again.
“Is Ronald Reagan president of the United States?”
Rose Gle
“Rose, do you know who did this to you and your husband?”
The woman’s breathing became more ragged, but she tilted her chin down and then up, nodding.
“Was your attacker a stranger?” Chi asked her.
Rose Gle
“Was your attacker a family member?”
She nodded yes.
Suddenly, police radios crackled and a gurney rolled noisily into the room, blocking the camera’s view. Then the scene cleared once more.
A paramedic, her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, said in a raspy smoker’s voice, “Holy Mother of God. She’s alive.”
The paramedic, who had testified before this jury, was Ly
Rose Gle
The sound of footsteps overrode the questioning as Colomello was joined by two other paramedics. They talked about emergency treatment, brought out an oxygen tank, and inserted a ca
Paul Chi’s voice continued, saying calmly to the paramedics, “I just need another second.” Then he spoke to the victim. “Rose. Rose. Was your attacker your daughter, Stacey?”
The woman’s head nodded affirmatively.
“Rose, are you saying that your daughter, Stacey, did this to you?”
The woman hissed, “Yesssssss.”
It was a terrible sound, the air escaping her lungs, as if the woman was using her last breath to tell Chi who’d killed her.
And then, on Colomello’s count, the paramedics lifted Rose Gle
Inside the courtroom, the screen went dark and the lights came on. The jurors had seen the video before, but since this tape was Yuki’s pièce de résistance, she could only hope that the blunt shock of seeing it again would reinforce its power.
Yuki cleared her throat, said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Rose Gle
“At no time during this trial did Rose Gle
“And why can’t she remember? Because her daughter bashed her head in with a crowbar, causing trauma to the extent that her doctors had never seen anyone with such severe injuries survive.
“But Rose Gle
“The defendant did this to her, Ladies and Gentlemen.
“The People ask you to find Stacey Gle
As Yuki took her seat, she felt a lot of things, all of them good: the warm glow of accomplishment, Nicky’s hand patting her shoulder, and her mother’s presence surrounding her like a full-body hug.
“Good job, Yuki-eh,” her mother said. “You make sram dunk.”