he will order the marshals to provide special protection for me in and around the courthouse.
I think Marcus has things fairly well under control, and I certainly don’t think the courthouse area is where Quintana will come after me, but I don’t tell this to Harrison. “Thank you, Your Honor, I would appreciate whatever protection you can arrange.”
I want the media, and maybe even the jury, to see that the court thinks I am in danger. This will tell them very clearly that there are killers involved in this case other than my client.
Dylan is smart enough to pick up on this. “Your Honor, I certainly want to ensure Mr. Carpenter’s safety…”
I turn to Judge Harrison and interrupt, pointing to Dylan. “Is he a heck of a guy or what?”
Dylan stares a dagger at me and finishes his sentence. “… but I am concerned that this can be played to the defense’s advantage.” He goes on to explain how, accurately summarizing my reasons for wanting the protection in the first place.
Harrison takes this under consideration, then decides to order the extra protection, with a directive that it be as unobtrusive as possible. He also orders me not to mention it outside of these chambers. Unless the media are extra aware, my advantage has effectively been negated. Point to Dylan.
I’m sure it’s the first of many points that Dylan will make today. He calls State Police Detective Hector Alvarez, who led the group of four detectives who first arrived at Kenny Schilling’s house that day. He was in command until Captain Dessens was called to take charge of the explosive confrontation.
Alvarez describes a very nervous Kenny refusing to let the officers in. When they became more insistent and threatened to enter forcibly, Kenny brandished a handgun and fired a shot to fend them off. They then took out their own weapons, retreated, and called for backup support. As told, the jury could not help but think that Kenny’s actions demonstrated a clear consciousness of guilt.
Kenny has been steadfast in claiming that the officers took out their weapons first, but in cross-examination I am unable to get Alvarez to agree with that. The closest I can come is to get him to admit that his men were surrounding the house and he could not see a number of them. He claims that they would not draw their weapons without being so ordered, but they were not in his line of sight at the time.
“Detective, were any of your men shot or wounded?”
“No.”
“But a shot was fired by Mr. Schilling?”
“Yes,” he says emphatically.
“So he missed?”
“Fortunately.”
“Did you retrieve the bullet?”
He shakes his head. “No. We couldn’t find it.”
“Might he have fired into the air?” I ask.
“It’s possible.”
“As if he was trying to scare you away but not hurt you?”
Dylan objects that Alvarez couldn’t know Kenny’s motivation for firing, and Harrison sustains. I move on.
“Detective, is it possible that Mr. Schilling didn’t believe that you were police officers?”
“I verbally identified us as such and held up my badge to the peephole in the door.”
“Are you sure he was looking through it? Can you tell from the outside?” I know from examining it that it’s impossible, so I’m hoping to trap him.
“I believe he was. I can’t be sure,” he says, avoiding the trap.
“Were any of your men in uniform?”
“No.”
“So it’s possible he thought you were lying? That you were not police, but rather intruders that might cause him physical harm?”
“That doesn’t make sense,” he says.
“What if he had just received a major emotional jolt, one that made him fearful, panicked, before you arrived? A jolt in which he, just for argument’s sake, found his friend murdered in a closet with a bullet in his chest? Might that have caused him to worry about your men coming at him with guns?”
“I believe he knew we were the police, and that’s why he didn’t want to let us in.” He shakes his head firmly. “Mr. Schilling’s actions were not those of an innocent person.”
“Lieutenant, does the name Luther Kent mean anything to you?”
Alvarez reacts, stiffening slightly. “Yes.”
“Please tell the jury how you came to be aware of Mr. Kent.”
In a softer voice he describes a night four years ago when he and his partner came upon Mr. Kent on a street. They approached him, since he resembled the sketch of a man wanted as a serial rapist in that neighborhood. Kent panicked and ran, and in the resulting chase he was shot and killed by Alvarez’s partner.
“Was