Michael Benson's True Crime Bundle (97 page)

Janet didn’t remember which hand Rachel had the knife in or how she was holding it, but she
did see
the knife. It was a kitchen knife, black handle, silver blade. She and Jilica were still inside the van.

And the tussle?

“Sarah was trying to defend herself. She grabbed Rachel by the hair.” The witness waved her own hands on either side of her head to demonstrate flailing. Janet admitted that because she was on the passenger side, and the fight was on the driver’s side, “there was not much I could see.”

The fight lasted about five seconds. It ended when Rachel “just walked away.” Then Janet got out of the van. Rachel headed toward Javier’s house.

When they first pulled up, Janet noticed there were also two guys at the scene, standing on the grass. She didn’t recognize them. She later learned that one of them was Javier, of whom she’d heard, but she
still
didn’t know who the other guy was.

When Janet got out of the van, she had no idea that Sarah had been stabbed. Her focus was on Rachel. Janet recalled saying: “We’re not Mexican. Why don’t you start with me?” Rachel just said she was done, and faced Janet. She still had the knife in her hand. Janet took off her flip-flops and held them in her hand. At first, Janet hit Rachel only to get the knife out of her hand, but Rachel held tight. Rachel kept saying she was done, so Janet turned and got back in the van. Then she heard Jilica say Sarah got stabbed.

Janet was allowed to return to her seat on the witness stand.

“And what did you do when you heard that?”

“I got out of the car and went to see if it was true.”

“What did you see?”

Janet started and stopped speaking a couple of times as her emotions took control. Finally she managed to say, “Sarah was on the road, foaming….” She couldn’t say the rest, and gestured with her hand to her mouth.

ASA Dicus took a sympathetic tone. He noted that Janet had described Sarah as “family,” so seeing her in distress like that might have been heart-wrenching.

Janet nodded that this was true.

“What did you do when you saw Sarah in the road foaming like that?”

“I approached Rachel again and said, ‘Are you serious? You stabbed her!’ I was yelling,” Janet said, glancing at the defense table with fresh fury.

Rachel focused her attention on the prosecutor. She took quick glances at the witness stand, didn’t like what she saw, and quickly looked away.

“What was the defendant’s reaction?”

“She said she didn’t care,” Janet said, now glaring at Rachel. “She started laughing and she walked toward Javier’s house.”

Janet was wild with fury that night. She ran up behind Rachel, grabbed her by the hair, and pulled till she fell. Rachel was still holding the knife. Janet hit her, screaming, “You stabbed her! I can’t believe you did it!” She yelled that again and again.

“Did the defendant do anything to defend herself?”

Janet said Rachel managed to kick her one time, kicked upward while she was lying on the ground. In retaliation Janet dragged her by the hair across Javier’s front yard, punching and scratching her.

“What did Rachel do with the knife?”

“She didn’t do nothing with it.”

“Nothing? She didn’t stab at you?”

“No, sir,” Janet said.

Jilica finally pulled Janet off Rachel. Who could tell how long it lasted? Longer than five seconds!

Now free of Janet’s grasp, Rachel continued toward Javier’s house with the knife still in her hand. Janet said her attention was divided at this point because of concern over Sarah’s injury. The next time she looked at Rachel, the blonde was “in front of Javier’s house, throwing something at his house.”

Janet couldn’t see what Rachel threw. After that, Rachel sat in front of Javier’s house, no knife. Police arrived, and Janet ID’d Rachel.

Wesley Dicus finished with a line of questioning designed to combat a claim of self-defense, reestablishing that Rachel was the only one on that street carrying a deadly weapon—or any weapon at all, for that matter—if you didn’t count flip-flops.

“No further questions, Your Honor,” Dicus said, and sat down.

“Mr. Hebert?” Judge Bulone said.

“Thank you, Your Honor,” Jay Hebert said, rising. “Good afternoon, Ms. Camacho.”

“Good afternoon.”

Hebert asked if it was Janet’s testimony that at the time of the incident, her brother was dating Sarah. Janet said that it was not. Her testimony was that she didn’t know. Were they friends with benefits? Janet didn’t know that, either.

Hebert drew Janet’s attention to a deposition she gave in December 2009, on the first floor of this same courthouse. Janet said she remembered giving the deposition, but she didn’t look sure. Hebert reminded her that, at that time, a court reporter was present, and she had sworn to tell the truth. She was asked at that time if Joshua was dating Sarah, and she said no.

Did she recall saying that? Yes, she said—but she still didn’t sound convinced.

Hebert wanted to know what everyone was smoking and drinking that night. Janet said she wasn’t smoking or drinking. She didn’t see Joshua smoke or drink, either.

Hebert asked again if Janet’s kids were home “the whole time,” and Janet said they were. She was aware of the drama between Sarah and Rachel, that there was a “lot of commotion” going back and forth, a lot of cell phone activity, social networking. She was less aware, however, of drama between Joshua, Sarah, and Erin. She’d heard of it, but she hadn’t seen any of it.

“You testified at some point in time that you went outside and saw Rachel Wade’s car parked in the street with its lights off. Is that correct?”

“With the lights dimmed,” Janet corrected. “It was not totally off. There’s a button where you turn it and the little lights come on, turn it again and the big headlights come on. It was not the big lights. It was the small lights.”

Hebert asked if Janet recognized that vehicle as belonging to Rachel Wade, and Janet said she did not. She only recognized Rachel after Jeremy turned on his high beams so she could see into the car. Hebert asked how long the car was there. Janet didn’t know. It was there when she first came out of her house. When her company came, she went outside and got in his car.

Hebert pointed out to the witness that it was her testimony that the car at the end of the block had flashed its lights at her. Janet corrected him. Rachel flashed her lights
back
“after I did it,” Janet testified.

Jilica was on the other side of the street in a car pointing in the opposite direction. Janet got out of the car and began to walk toward Rachel. Sarah was still inside the house, with Janet’s brother and her kids.

“There was a lot of
texting
going on during this, wasn’t there?”

“Yes.”

Sarah had a curfew, eleven o’clock. Sarah had made an earlier comment about her parents wanting her home.

Hebert asked a good question: If Sarah had to be home by eleven o’clock because that was her curfew, why, in fact, didn’t she go home? Why did she agree to give the other girls a ride to McDonald’s?

Janet said it was because “I had asked her.”

“Were you aware that Rachel and Sarah had talked in the past about fighting?”

Janet thought about that for a moment and said, no, she didn’t know that. She didn’t know in advance that there was going to be a fight.

Hebert tried again: “During the days and weeks and months leading up to the incident, Rachel and Sarah had discussed fighting each other. Wasn’t that correct?”

This time Janet said yes, but her face was uncertain. She was shaking her head from side to side.

“And up until that time, you had never paid much attention to that kind of talk because there hadn’t been any action taken. Isn’t that right?”

“It was always name-calling and threats. That’s about it,” Janet agreed.

Hebert tried to paint a picture of the inside of that minivan as it headed to get fast food.

Was Jilica sitting behind Sarah or her? Janet didn’t remember.

Janet added, to the defense attorney’s delight, that the minivan never did head toward McDonald’s. They had barely pulled out of Janet’s driveway when Rachel called, and Sarah put her on the speaker.

“So the phone call during which Rachel supposedly said, ‘I’m going to stab you and your Mexican boy friend’ occurred before you ever saw Ashley Lovelady. Is that correct?” Hebert inquired.

“Yes,” Janet said.

“So you are in the van when a phone call comes in, allegedly from Rachel Wade’s phone, and you allegedly hear Rachel Wade’s voice.”

Janet said that was true.

Other than that one oft-quoted statement, did Janet remember
anything else
that was said during that conversation?

Janet recalled hearing “I’m going to kick your ass,” stuff like that—but only that one comment stuck out in her mind. After the threat from Rachel, Sarah decided to go look for Rachel at her house, and they drove past Sarah’s house. Rachel wasn’t there.

Hebert wanted to make sure the jury understood. Sarah was looking for Rachel. Janet agreed that was true.

Even as Sarah searched, the phone call with Rachel continued. Rachel said she was at Sarah’s house, and Sarah now knew that wasn’t true.

“‘Where you at? Where you at?’” Janet quoted Sarah as saying.

“And yet no one in that van called the cops?” Hebert asked. Janet didn’t bother to answer.

Hebert said, “Sarah wanted to end it that night, didn’t she? She wanted to end the drama, and she was looking for Rachel.”

Janet started in again about going to Sarah’s house and seeing Rachel wasn’t there, so Hebert nudged her narrative forward in time: “Okay, okay, you’ve been to Sarah’s house and now you’re back on your street and you run into Ashley Lovelady, right?”

Right. Ashley offered without prompting that she’d seen Rachel at Javier’s house.

Hebert, unhappy, wanted to make sure he had it straight: At no time did Janet ask Ashley where Rachel was, right? And if someone said she had, they were not telling the truth, right? They were
lying,
right?

Janet begrudgingly said yes, but she looked like she wanted to smack Hebert with her flip-flops when she said it.

“How fast was the van moving when it pulled onto Javier’s street?”

Janet said Sarah was driving the same as when she left Janet’s house.

Hebert wondered how familiar Janet was with the neighborhood, and the witness replied not very. Hebert asked if it was true that Janet only lived a block from Javier’s house. Janet said she didn’t know where Javier lived. Hebert decided a glance at the aerial photo might help. It didn’t. Janet wasn’t in the mood to be helpful. As Hebert put the large photo away, Janet took the opportunity to shoot Rachel another hateful stare.

Janet testified that Sarah still had Rachel on speakerphone during the ride to Javier’s.

Hebert asked, “Is it your testimony that Sarah and Rachel were on the phone right up until the moment the van arrived at Javier’s?”

Janet thought about that and backed off her earlier statement. At some point the phone conversation had broken off, but she wasn’t sure when.

“Didn’t Sarah say she wanted to kick Rachel’s ass?”

Janet agreed that among the cussing and yelling back and forth, Sarah had threatened to kick Rachel’s ass.

The defense attorney now spoke slowly and dramatically, an important point was being made:
“And you were going to have Sarah’s back, weren’t you?”

The question made Janet’s temper flare. She closed her eyes, lowered her head, and took a deep breath before responding: “Um, depending on which way you’re trying to say it. I was there because I knew nothing was going to happen. I didn’t think nothing was going to happen. I mean, she didn’t come to my house or in front of my house because I was there. So I figured if I was there with Sarah the whole time, nothing was going to happen.”

“That’s because Rachel was scared of you,” Hebert said. “You had threatened Rachel before, hadn’t you, ma’am?”

Janet didn’t recall. What she did recall was she had a problem with Rachel because she didn’t want her with her brother. She was a bad influence. Up until this point, Janet had been making solid eye contact with the attorney as she answered questions. However, she gave this response with eyes lowered, almost as if she were reading the response from an invisible card. “That was it. I didn’t know her like that. I just didn’t want her with my brother.”

“You told her to ‘stay the ‘eff’ away from my brother,’ didn’t you, ma’am?”

“I don’t recall that, either.”

Hebert returned to the scene at Javier’s house. Janet agreed that the minivan pulled up quickly, but not that Sarah got out quickly. Sarah slowly turned off her car and opened her door. Rachel was already around the corner. From the moment they pulled up, Janet could clearly see Rachel.

“You made eye contact with her?”

Janet wasn’t ready to go that far. She saw Rachel, and she was sure Rachel saw her. Janet definitely saw the knife in Rachel’s hand. Sarah had barely gotten her feet on the ground when Rachel was on her and the tussle began.

Hebert found a copy of the diagram she’d drawn for Detective Lynch. Janet had placed an X marking the spot where the tussle had occurred. He showed the diagram to the witness and asked if she remembered it. She said no.

He pointed out that she had signed it. She said okay. As it turned out, the X was not on the driver’s side of the van at all, but near the passenger-side front of the van.

“Are you telling me that I said the fight took place in front of Sarah’s van?” Janet asked.

“This is your drawing. I’m just asking you if you remember drawing this.”

“No,” Janet said, answering with a small smile. “That’s not what happened. The fight never occurred in front of Sarah’s van.”

“So what you are saying is that when you drew this, and you were under oath, you were not being truthful.”

“No, I’m saying that that drawing is messed up.”

Judge Bulone interrupted and asked the witness if she recalled making the drawing at her deposition. She nodded pleasantly. “Oh yeah, I drew—but the fight never happened in front of Sarah’s van.”