Flesh Collectors (24 page)

It was the ultimate question, wasn’t it? Who was more responsible for the death of Jennifer Robinson? Of course, the judge wasn’t tipping whether that would make any difference in his mind. For all the lawyers knew, it might not make any difference, anyway, if the judge was inclined to rule that the responsibility for the murder should be equally shared.

“Well, I would submit to the court,” said Killam, “the rules of evidence are relaxed; and this opinion is one that he is eminently qualified to make as a detective. And it’s inhibiting our right to present mitigating testimony if we’re not allowed to ask that question.”

“Well, let me think about it a little bit,” the judge answered thoughtfully.

Molchan got his last two cents in.

“Our basic [point is] to base it on an ultimate issue for a jury to resolve.”

After the state rested, the defense had its chance to plead for Jon Lawrence’s life. Just as they were about to do that, they got a break. The judge ruled that, although it would, absolutely without question, be inadmissible in the guilt phase, he would allow primary investigators to opine in this penalty phase “on who was the dominant person.”

The judge was taking a courageous stance. He told the hushed courtroom that he could find “no cases on point,” that is, precedent for his action, but that he would err on the side of caution in the context of a penalty phase where the “normal scopes and the rules of evidence are relaxed somewhat.”

“It’s our position that you are asking a layman to give opinions as to the ultimate issue, which is a jury question. I understand the court’s ruling. And what the state would ask is that if we find authority, that we be permitted to revisit this issue with the court,” asked Molchan.

The judge said they could and reiterated how he struggled with the issue and decided to err “on the side of liberality.” Killam stated his position in black and white. “And it’s not a layperson that we submit here. We have an expert detective with years of experience and schools involving interviewing techniques, and personalities, and that type of thing. I’m not talking about pulling somebody off the street with no law enforcement experience and asking for that type of opinion. I think to say that he’s a layperson is not exactly correct.”

It was decidedly unusual for a defense attorney to be arguing the merits of an officer’s expertise. They were usually trying to discredit an officer to help their client. Ironically, this was a case where building a detective’s credentials up could only help the defense.

Molchan wouldn’t give up. He hated the idea of his own witness being used against him, not to mention that it was possible Hand’s testimony could establish mitigation. Molchan argued again that it was lay testimony. The judge agreed but said that after “thinking about it hard,” the best decision was to admit the testimony.

The judge then took the time to discuss jury instructions and other legal matters for a short while, then adjourned until the next day’s testimony.

“Call Detective Todd Hand to the stand,” Killam began. Hand came forward, took the oath and took a seat. Killam quickly got Hand to launch into a sampling of his experience.

“I’ve been to several training schools as to interview and interrogation,” Hand testified. “[An interview involves psychology because] when you interview anyone, be it a suspect or a witness or a victim, you have to try to identify where they are coming from, their position, and be able to anticipate what they may say, what they may not say in reference to your investigation.”

“And is it helpful to have an opinion about a personality type that you are interviewing?”

“Yes.”

“And in very basic terms, do you believe that we have alpha males and beta males?”

“Yes.”

“Would you consider Jeremiah Rodgers to be an alpha male?”

“It all depends in what context,” Hand warily answered.

He was there to tell the truth, but not to go out of his way to help Killam.

“In relation to Jonathan Lawrence, would you consider [Jon] to be beta and Jeremiah to be alpha?”

“I don’t know.”

“You spent a lot of time taking statements from Rodgers?”

“Yes.”

“Jonathan Lawrence, you spent a lot of time taking statements from him?”

“Yes.”

“And based upon the time that you spent taking statements from him and being in their presence, you were unable to form an opinion as to who was the dominant person between the two of them?”

There it was! Hand could appreciate the irony. Everything he accumulated about personality and motive during his investigation, everything he knew to help explain why these characters did what they did, Killam was about to use it to try and save Jon Lawrence’s life. And Hand had no choice but to answer truthfully.

“Well, I have an opinion on it, if that’s what you want to hear.”

No matter how it went, Killam had won his opportunity to present this evidence to the jury.

Chapter 16

“Yes. I’d like your opinion,” Killam answered earnestly.

“My opinion is in a public forum, I believe, perhaps here, you’ll find Jeremiah Rodgers to be the alpha male that you are talking about, gregarious, outgoing, social. In this type of situation, you would find Mr. Lawrence as a quiet, introverted type of individual in an openly public area.”

“Well, are you telling me they are different when they are in private, or do you have an opinion on that?”

“My opinion is yes, they are different.”

“And how different are they?”

“I believe the biggest difference is in Mr. Lawrence. I think the more I talk to him face-to-face, or one-on-one or two-on-one, he began to open up to me and talk more loud and freely and more relaxed than he did in public when I would confront him, let’s say at his residence or in the presence of other people.”

“How long did it take you to build the rapport with Jonathan?”

“In hours? Probably two or three.”

“What about Mr. Rodgers?”

“One or two. After he was arrested; we’re talking postarrest.”

Then Killam went for the jugular to prove his point.

“Is it not true, Mr. Hand, that you told me that you felt like there was an alter ego inside of Jonathan Lawrence that Jeremiah Rodgers took advantage of?”

“Yes,” Hand acknowledged reluctantly.

“Do you believe that he shot her in the back of the head?”

“Meaning Jeremiah Rodgers?”

“No, Jonathan. Is the evidence unrefuted that Jeremiah Rodgers is the shooter in this case?”

“I believe so.”

It was an absolutely brilliant piece of cross-examination. He had established for the first time in court that Jonathan Lawrence had not shot Jennifer Robinson. Victor Killam now had Lawrence holding steady. No longer was he free-falling through the Florida criminal-justice system. He now actually had a chance to make it out alive. Clearly, Killam had established mitigation. He had given the jury an excuse not to send Jon Lawrence to the death chamber, and the excuse was this: someone else had pulled the trigger.

What would they do?

As for John Molchan, he was in a strange situation. Usually on cross-examination, the witness is not very cooperative because it is the defense’s witness. But Hand, of course, was different. Molchan knew he could count on Hand not only to be truthful, of course, but to try and help bolster the prosecution’s case.

Molchan’s cross-examination of Hand elicited testimony that Lawrence initially denied knowing the victim, that in public settings Lawrence was going to be a much more introverted individual, and that Rodgers is a much more extroverted individual.

“You also have an opinion about when they are together?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t it true that basically when they combined together, they were working together? Or there was a relationship of some sort that they worked together?”

“I believe that they, when they are in each other’s company, they have, I don’t want to say equal relationship as far as his calling the shots or whatever, but I believe that Jon Lawrence is much more open and outgoing in front of Jeremiah because of their friendship. Which is only natural.”

On redirect, Killam asked Hand, “We were talking [at deposition] about basically the whole chain of events that resulted in this situation that we have before us today: the shooting, the other killing. Didn’t you have an opinion that [Lawrence] was following the directions of Mr. Rodgers?”

“I think possibly to a certain extent he may have been, yes,” Hand equivocated.

“And did you not make a statement to me that you felt like there was an alter ego in Jonathan Lawrence? I was seated here [during the deposition] and we were looking at each other dead in the eye and you said that.”

“I recall that in detail, but …”

“Thank you.”

And the defense ended its redirect. Once again, it was the prosecution’s turn.

Molchan got Hand to state that Lawrence was not cooperative, that he had a mind of his own and knew what he was doing. Before arresting Lawrence, Hand stated, “He continuously lied.” After the arrest, he only “somewhat” cooperated.

“Now, Investigator Hand, you were getting ready to say something to the jury and you had a ‘but.’ Can you explain your thought process on that, your comment to Mr. Killam?”

“I believe that was a reference to Mr. Lawrence’s alter ego. And naturally I’m not a psychologist or sociologist or anything like that, but from my judgment—”

“Then he is not qualified to answer a question,” Killam interrupted.

“Overruled,” the judge snapped; Killam couldn’t have his cake and eat it too. He couldn’t question Hand as an expert and then discredit him as not qualified.

“Anyway,” Hand continued, “I said something about an alter ego on Jon Lawrence’s part, and I believe that he does have an alter ego when he is with Mr. Rodgers. And I believe that the night that Justin Livingston was murdered, and also Jennifer Robinson, I believe that Jon becomes the person that he wanted to be, he always wanted to be and couldn’t be in society. And I believe that he becomes very demanding and forceful and violent. And I think that the evidence speaks for itself.”

Killam rose.

“Judge, at this time I move the court for a mistrial based upon his testimony.”

Killam had fought long and hard and had successfully convinced the court to allow Hand to opine regarding the personalities of Lawrence and Rodgers and how those personalities interacted with each other. Then, after the defense had opened the door to this subject and elicited the testimony it desired on it, they tried to close the door. That could have unfairly left the jury with a misleading impression of the detective’s opinion. That is, if the judge agreed with Killam.

“Denied. [Detective Hand], you may step down.”

It was during the penalty phase that Jon Lawrence’s hallucinations started happening. Victor Killam warned the court that Lawrence was having visual and auditory hallucinations. The judge did nothing other than recessing the penalty phase hearing for fifteen minutes. He did not ask Lawrence about the nature of those hallucinations. Later, Killam told the court that Lawrence was having more hallucinations.

During the second hallucination, the court decided to question Jon Lawrence directly. Excusing the jury, the judge questioned Lawrence, who described being in the field where the murder of Jennifer Robinson occurred. “I don’t want to be out there,” Lawrence told the court, minus the jury.

The court chose to characterize his hallucination as really “flashbacks, remembering what happened.” When pressed, however, Lawrence said the voice on “the tape that I kept hearing in my head” sounded like that of his dead brother, the one who shot himself with the shotgun during the party.

“But you are not hearing other peoples’ voices or things that are not replaying?” asked the judge. Lawrence, obviously troubled, merely replied, “I can’t really explain it.” When pressed again by the court: “Is it a replay of what happened? Is that what is troubling you, or are you hearing other voices?”

Again Lawrence responded ambiguously.

“I don’t know for sure.”

The judge could have halted the trial if he felt Jon Lawrence was actually hearing voices and therefore was incapable of understanding the charges against him. But he didn’t feel that way, and so the case went on. During the penalty phase of Jon Lawrence’s trial, every psychologist who testified, or whose report the court considered, noted that he was seriously mentally ill. Dr. Claude Douglas, who performed a 1996 exam to determine if Lawrence qualified for Social Security benefits because of his disability, said:

“The records [from the Florida State Hospital] were quite consistent with what my clinical impressions were when I evaluated [him] back in 1996: That we had a very impaired gentleman.… But we have a person who has a significantly impaired sense of reality; impaired in his ability to relate to others; impairment in thoughts and emotions; inability to cope with life’s stressors; prone to psychosis and hallucinations.… He started experiencing auditory hallucinations at [the time of his younger brother’s death], and also command hallucinations that he should commit suicide.

“He has been given every diagnosis in the book that I can find of all the evaluations, including schizoaffective diagnosis, major depression, and bipolar, manic depressive.

“[He had] four or five readmissions to the Crisis Stabilization Unit at Chattahoochee because of suicide attempts and withdraw. And there’s also multiple documentation about auditory hallucinations, and would just withdraw, and inability to cope.… He will show no emotion whatsoever. And it is like there is nobody home.”

Added Douglas:

“I saw no indication in any of the records or history that he initiates anything.… I saw no indication in the extensive records that would indicate that he would be a leader.… [I] n being withdrawn he becomes needy. In becoming needy he becomes vulnerable.”

Among the police records of evidence against Jon Lawrence were two letters they had confiscated from him during their search of his home after Jennifer Robinson’s death. In the first, Lawrence wrote:

“You can get free sleeping pills when the nurse goes by. Yep, the 18
^th
is coming up soon, there’s a hole over the doors, a good place for hiding them. The next shower I’ll write a new letter.”