AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I see,” said Yuki. “But since this was a presumed triple homicide, why were detectives from Narcotics interrogating the subject?”
“Mr. Kordell was pulled in for running from a crack house with a gun in his hand. We’ve run into Mr. Kordell before. At first, we figured him to be a witness.”
“While you’ve run into Mr. Kordell before, you never arrested him, correct?”
“Correct.”
“And he’s never before been suspected in a crime, isn’t that true?”
“Yes.”
“So what was the context for previously running into Mr. Kordell?”
“He was a hanger-on in the neighborhood. We’d do a bust and sometimes he’d be on the scene.”
“OK. And so you’ve never known him to be violent, have you?”
“Well, he was violent when he took out three men.”
“You don’t have any proof that he shot anyone, do you, Inspector?”
“He had the murder weapon in his possession.”
“And did you test Mr. Kordell’s hands or clothing for gunpowder residue that would show that he’d actually discharged that weapon?”
“No, we did not.”
“And that’s because you knew you wouldn’t find any gunpowder residue, isn’t that right, Inspector?”
“The interview was going well. We were involved in getting answers and we were confident that we would turn up a witness to the shooting.”
Yuki was sweating under her black suit, but she thought she was giving Stan Whitney better than she was taking. She stood at a distance from the witness stand and asked, “The fact is, you didn’t turn up any witnesses to the shooting of those three men, did you?”
“No.”
“And Mr. Kordell maintained for more than fifteen straight hours that he didn’t shoot anyone, didn’t he?”
“I suppose. Yes.”
“But you didn’t accept that.”
“It seemed clear to me that he did it.”
“It’s not clear to me, Inspector. You didn’t have a witness. You didn’t have a gunshot residue test. You had no forensic evidence, and for almost sixteen hours, you didn’t have a confession, either. Isn’t that right?”
“Right.”
Yuki said, “One of the functions of a police officer is to elicit an incriminating response, isn’t that right, Inspector Whitney? Yes or no?”
“Yes.”
“And isn’t it true that a teenager, especially one with mental challenges, would try to please the authority in the room who told him he could go home? Isn’t that exactly what you told him, Inspector? Isn’t that how you obtained Mr. Kordell’s false confession?”
Parisi stood up and said, “Objection. Which of those questions does Ms. Castellano want the witness to answer?”
“I withdraw the questions, Your Honor.”
There was a low rumble in the room: people in the gallery whispering to their neighbors. The jury looked at the judge.
