PART 35 (32 page)

Ellis was silent, letting the effect sink in. He walked back to the jury-box center. Juror number five, the young Vietnam veteran, stared at Alvarado. The foreman just looked ahead, his jaw set.

“Hernandez ran to his apartment,” Ellis continued. “Alvarado, still carrying the patrolman's gun, ran across the roof and down the stairs of building number One sixty-one. When he got to the ground floor, he went to the rear of the building, where he dropped the gun near the bottom of the stairs, then he went out the back entrance, and hid in the rear yard for some time. Later he made his way back through the building onto Stanton Street and escaped in the crowd.”

Sandro envisioned the rear yards, through which he had walked directly to Suffolk Street several times.

Ellis moved back to the foreman. “Snider found his partner, Patrolman Lauria, lying in a pool of his own blood.” He hesitated, letting the blood soak in. Juror number four, the mild-looking shoe salesman who had marched to Washington, stared at Alvarado.

“Patrolman Snider immediately summoned help.” Only the eyes of the jurors moved as they followed Ellis.

“Within a very short time, an ambulance arrived, and detectives were swarming all over the place. They removed the body to the fifth-floor landing to get it out of the rain. The detectives carefully removed the stolen property from the roof. A short time thereafter, a doctor pronounced the patrolman dead.

“Now the evidence will show that the detectives began an investigation of these tragic events. Their attention was called to the double-parked car on Stanton Street. One of the detectives, as a result of conversation with people in the vicinity, went to the apartment of Hernandez. Hernandez was questioned. You will hear the various and conflicting stories he gave in connection with the double-parked car. Hernandez was then taken to the Seventh Precinct where he was questioned further. And you will hear all the details of this questioning.

“No one saw the patrolman shot. Hernandez himself supplied the details that I am reciting to you about the circumstances of this crime. As a result of Hernandez's information, Alvarado was apprehended outside his apartment in Brooklyn about one
A.M.
the next morning.

“Alvarado was brought to the station house, and he, in turn, was questioned. And he supplied the main details about the events on the roof. You will hear testimony as to how he described the manner in which he shot and killed Patrolman Lauria.

“The evidence will show that Patrolman Lauria's gun was found at about ten to four that same afternoon, where Alvarado had dropped it.

“On the morning of July fourth, an autopsy was performed on the body of Patrolman Lauria, and you will hear the assistant medical examiner who performed the autopsy disclose that Patrolman Lauria died as a result of five bullet wounds that entered his back.

“The defendants were booked on the morning of July fourth, and were subsequently indicted for murder in the first degree and burglary in the third degree. The defendants have pleaded not guilty, thereby creating an issue for you, as judges of the facts, to decide.

“Now, before I conclude my statement, there is one thing I want to make crystal clear, and that is the theory of the people's case. These two defendants, while perpetrating a burglary, while in possession of stolen goods, by the actions of Alvarado, shot and killed Patrolman Lauria. This is what is known as felony murder. The people contend this murder took place during the perpetration of a burglary and that both defendants are equally guilty, regardless of which of them fired the fatal shots. I ask you only to listen to the judge when he lays down the law on this point at the proper time.

“I ask you, in the interests of justice, to keep your minds open until you have heard all the evidence in the case and have had the law explained to you by the court. After that, and in the interests of justice again, I will ask you to find both of these defendants guilty of murder in the first degree and burglary in the third degree. I thank you.”

Ellis turned, wrinkled his face toward the judge, and sat at his table. He stared at the papers in front of him.

“The defendant Hernandez,” announced Siakos, standing to face the judge, “waives his right to make an opening statement, Your Honor.”

“Very well. Counselor?” The judge looked toward Sam Bemer.

Sam nodded, rose, and walked toward the jury box. He turned toward the judge. “May it please Your Honor, Mr. Ellis, Mr. foreman, gentlemen and ladies. The opening, this preview, as you have been informed by Mr. Ellis, is in no way evidence. It is merely a synopsis of what is to come, and it is our task to show that the people's proof is wanting in many respects, even as outlined by Mr. Ellis.

“We are going to show you that at the time this alleged burglary on Stanton Street was committed, neither Ramon Hernandez nor Luis Alvarado was on those premises or even near them.

“We will show that Luis Alvarado, the man Mr. Luca and I have been assigned by the State of New York to defend, was a very considerable distance away from Stanton Street at the time the burglary and shooting were perpetrated.

“We are going to prove that any admissions Luis Alvarado allegedly made were coerced out of him by the police, that he was supplied and fed certain details by the police, who, in their haste to solve this crime, put a patch-quilt story together and fastened the blame on the wrong men.

“All we ask is that you pay strict attention to the evidence. We ask you to keep your eyes and ears and minds open. When the case is finally submitted to you, we shall have an opportunity to speak to you again.”

Sam turned and walked back to the counsel table. “Okay?” he whispered to Sandro as he sat.

“Sure.”

“Your first witness, please,” requested the judge, looking down toward Ellis. He was facing forward now, impassive, stolid, ready for action. There was no sign of a twinkle in his eyes.

Sam Bemer rose again. The judge looked at him. “Your Honor, I respectfully move that any and all persons who shall be witnesses for either side during this trial be excluded from the courtroom during the entire trial.”

“I have no objection, Your Honor,” said Ellis, half-rising.

The judge nodded. “Very well. I direct the clerk of the court to enter an order of exclusion of all witnesses,” said the judge. “Post a notice on the door.”

“The people's first witness is James Loughlin,” said Ellis. A court officer opened a door in the side of the courtroom near where the spectators sat. It led to the witness room. The witness room is used exclusively for the people's witnesses. It has chairs and a table, and even an extension of the district attorney's telephone. Defense witnesses are relegated to the public corridors outside the courtroom, where they huddle on windowsills or against the walls. Sometimes they wait in other courtrooms, spectators at other trials. Ellis moved two large diagrams from beneath his table, careful to keep them facing away from the jurors.

Loughlin, a tall man with glasses, walked onto the witness stand, raised his right hand, and was sworn. He testified that he was a civil engineer employed by the district attorney's office. He went to the scenes of crime to measure and thereafter draw scale-model diagrams of the physical layout to aid the jury. He said he had gone to 153 Stanton Street and took measurements there. Ellis showed Loughlin the two diagrams. Loughlin identified them as diagrams of the scene as he saw it on July 10th, 1967. One diagram depicted the rooftop of 153 and several adjoining rooftops, as well as the street in front. The other showed the hallway where Lauria's gun was found and the backyards. Ellis introduced the diagrams into evidence without objection from defense counsel. They were marked people's exhibits I and 2. Loughlin described the scene on the diagrams and his markings. They were drawn on a scale of one-quarter inch to the foot. Ellis turned the witness over to the defense.

Siakos rose and said he had no questions.

“We don't want anything from this witness, do we?” Sam whispered, leaning toward Sandro.

“Why not get the exact dimensions for the roofs and yards instead of making the jury figure one foot to a quarter inch. Distance is important for the identification,” Sandro replied.

“That's good. You take him; he's an easy witness. And while you have him up there, get him to identify your pictures of the scene. The more he identifies, the less trouble we'll have getting them in later.”

“Mr. Bemer?” Judge Porta looked to Sam.

“Mr. Luca will question the witness,” Sam announced, half-rising.

“Very well.” The judge swiveled toward the witness and jury.

Sandro walked to the far end of the jury box. He asked Loughlin to give the measurements of the roofs in feet, and to indicate the physical features of the roof of 153. Ninety-nine feet, Loughlin said, separated the eastern edge of the roof of 153 from the stairway of 161, the building in which Ellis had said the gun was found. Loughlin described how the roof of 153 was separated from the adjoining roof—the brick wall at the front, seven feet high, the airshaft at the center, creating a space nine feet wide, and the four-foot wall stretching back from there.

Sandro walked to the counsel table and zipped open a large leather portfolio in which he had Jerry Ball's photographs. One by one, he handed Loughlin seven photographs of the roof, the rear of the building, the front of the building. Loughlin studied his notes and acknowledged each to be a fair representation of the buildings he had inspected.

“Will you be much longer, Mr. Luca?” the judge inquired.

“I have several more photographs, Your Honor.”

“I think, then, that we'll recess for lunch. Members of the jury, do not discuss this case amongst yourselves or with anyone else.” The judge rose and retired to the robing chambers. The jury filed out. The defendants were accompanied by court officers back to the bullpen.

“And so it begins,” said Sam, as he and Sandro gathered their papers.

“Sam, you have your notes. Didn't Ellis say that Alvarado hid in the rear yard? Then went back through the building and got lost in the crowd on Stanton Street?”

“That's what he said, all right,” said Sam. “Here it is, right here.” He pointed to his notes.

“Look at this picture, Sam. One of the ones I introduced through Loughlin.” Sam took the picture in his hands. He sat on the edge of the counsel table.

“I'm glad you told me about putting the pictures in through Loughlin. Look, from this angle you can see straight through from behind One fifty-three to Suffolk Street. No fences, no obstructions, nothing.”

“That's right. A straight alley right behind the buildings.” Sam nodded. “Why would anybody hide when he could walk out the back way?” He smiled, slapping Sandro's back. “Now let's eat. My treat today. Tomorrow, we'll eat fancy. It's your treat.”

After lunch, the clerk polled the jury, saw that all lawyers were present, and sent word to the judge. The judge entered and assumed his bench.

“Have you any further questions?” the judge inquired, looking steadily down at Sandro. He was barely tolerant of the length of the cross-examination. Usually lawyers accepted Loughlin's diagrams and measurements without question.

“Yes, Your Honor.” Sandro rose and walked up to people's exhibit 2.

“Mr. Loughlin, when looking across these yards, does this space behind the buildings extend unobstructed all the way to Suffolk Street?” Sandro pointed to the diagram.

“I don't know.”

Sandro handed Loughlin defendant's exhibit C in evidence.

“Now, Mr. Loughlin, you identified defendant's exhibit C as a fair representation of the back of the building, including the rear yards, did you not? And that was as of July tenth, 1967. Approximately one week after the shooting?”

“Yes.” Loughlin was obviously uncomfortable testifying about things not drawn to a scale of a quarter of an inch.

“Now, sir, I ask you to look at defendant's exhibit C. From behind building number One fifty-three, which you see there, is there any structure or obstruction all the way through to where you see cars parked, in the background of that picture?”

“No.”

“And, sir, do you know what street or thoroughfare that is where the cars are parked?”

“That's west.” He consulted his notes. “That should be Suffolk Street.”

“So that there is no obstruction from the rear of One fifty-three Stanton Street to Suffolk Street?”

“Well, I don't know when the picture was taken. I have nothing in my notes to show that when I was there I could see to Suffolk Street.” Loughlin was easing away from the answers Sandro wanted.

“Is there anything in your notes indicating there were any obstructions when you were there on July tenth, 1967, seven days after this event?”

“I have nothing in my notes. I don't recollect any obstruction there.”

“I have no further questions, Your Honor.”

Ellis looked at Sandro, then Loughlin. “I have no further questions.”

Ellis next called for Henry Thomas. Thomas was with the police department's photographic unit. He testified that he visited 153 Stanton Street on the very afternoon of the crime, about four o'clock. He testified that he had photographed the Soto apartment in its ransacked condition; the roof with the stolen articles still on the wall where they had been found by Patrolman Snider; the street with the double-parked car still in place; and the interior of 161 Stanton Street. Ellis offered the photos into evidence.

“Show them to counsel,” said the judge.

The defense attorneys studied Ellis's eight-by-ten pictures and asked permission to approach the bench so the jury couldn't hear. Sam objected to a picture of a revolver under a stairway on the grounds that no evidence relating to a revolver had yet been offered, nor to whom it had belonged, nor when it had been found or by whom or under what circumstances. The judge nodded and excluded that photo.