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AT THIS POINT, Judge Moore spoke to the six men and six women of the jury. “Do you need to take a break? Okay then, please continue, Mr. Parisi.”
“Thank you, Your Honor,” Parisi said. He flicked his eyes over to the defense table, saw that Mickey Sherman was whispering to his client, his back turned away from the proceedings, a dismissive gesture meant to show that Parisi’s opening hadn’t disturbed the defense in the least.
Smart move. Parisi knew he would’ve done the same thing.
“I’ve told you that the Del Norte was coming into dock when Mr. Brinkley shot Andrea and Tony Canello. The docking operation was noisy, much louder than two shots from a gun.
“But a couple of people understood what had happened.
“Mr. Per Conrad was working on the Del Norte as an engineer that day. He was a family man, with a wife and four beautiful kids, and he was about two years away from retirement. He saw Alfred Brinkley with his gun in hand and he saw the fallen bodies of Andrea and Tony Canello bleeding out on the deck.
“Mr. Conrad moved to disarm Mr. Brinkley, who took aim and shot Mr. Conrad between the eyes.
“Mr. Lester Ng was an insurance broker in Larkspur, coming into San Francisco to make a business call. He, too, was a family man, a former U.S. Air Force pilot. And he, too, tried to wrest Mr. Brinkley’s gun away from him. He was shot in the head. Mr. Brinkley’s gun was the last thing Mr. Ng saw in his life.
“Both men were selfless. They were heroes. And they died because of it.
“And still Mr. Brinkley was not finished.”
Parisi walked over to the jury box, put his hands on the rail, looked at each of the jurors as he spoke.
“Mr. Brinkley was standing beside a woman this community holds in high regard, Dr. Claire Washburn, San Francisco’s chief medical examiner. Dr. Washburn was terrified, but she had the presence of mind to say to Mr. Brinkley, ‘Okay, son . . . give me the gun.’
“Instead, Mr. Brinkley gave her a bullet in the chest. And when Dr. Washburn’s teenage son, Willie, went to her assistance, Mr. Brinkley shot at him, too.
“Luckily, the boat bumped the pier at that moment, and Mr. Brinkley’s sixth and final shot missed its mark. And because that shot went wild, two brave people, Claire and Willie Washburn, survived, and Dr. Washburn will be a witness in this trial.”
Parisi paused, letting the horror of the shooting imprint on the jurors’ minds before he spoke again.
“There’s no question that everything I’ve told you actually happened.
“There’s no question that without regard to sex, age, race, or reason, Alfred Brinkley shot and killed four people he didn’t know, and attempted to kill two others.
“Mr. Jack Rooney, who will also be a witness in this trial, videotaped the shootings, which we will show you. And Mr. Brinkley confessed to these brutal killings, and we’ll show you his taped confession, too.
“There is no DNA in this case. No blood-spatter evidence and no partial palm prints or any of the kind of forensic evidence that you see every night on TV crime shows. That’s because this case is not a ‘whodunit.’
“We know who did it. He’s sitting right there.”
Parisi pointed to the man in the blue suit. Brinkley’s head had sunk down on his shoulders so that his neck seemed to have retracted. His dulled eyes stared straight ahead. The man looked so medicated, Parisi wondered how much of this Brinkley even heard or understood.
“The defense is going to try to convince you that Mr. Brinkley is psychotic and therefore not responsible for his actions,” Parisi said, walking back to the lectern. “Defense medical experts may have the nerve to stand up here and tell you that the defendant needs ‘treatment,’ not punishment.
“No problem. We have great doctors treating all our death-row inmates.
“Acting insane does not exempt you from the rule of law. And it doesn’t mean that you don’t understand that killing people is wrong.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Alfred Brinkley brought a loaded gun onto the ferry. He targeted his victims with intent and deadly aim. He murdered four of them. And then he ran from the scene of his crime.
“Because Alfred Brinkley knew that what he’d done was wrong.
“The People will prove to you that Mr. Brinkley was legally sane when he committed four acts of murder and two acts of attempted murder. And we will ask you to find him ‘guilty’ on all counts.
“We thank you for your attention. I’m sorry I made some of you cry, but these murders are a tragedy.”
Chapter 65
YUKI WATCHED MICKEY SHERMAN STAND UP from the defense table and confidently cross the courtroom floor to the podium.
