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The judge asked Switzer if he wanted to cross-examine his witness, and Switzer cut his losses and said “no.” However, as he had reserved the right to cross-examine Barbara Sullivan, he asked for her to be called to the stand.
CHAPTER 40
FOR THE SECOND time this week, Yuki watched as Barbara Sullivan was wheeled into the courtroom, her leg still extended straight out and encased in plaster. There was a thick bandage over where her eyelid had been sutured closed. She wore a long over-blouse, a dark purple tunic with sleeves that covered her wrists so that almost none of her skin showed, and black pants, one leg slashed along the side seam to accommodate her cast.
Barbara was wheeled over to the witness stand but remained in her chair. She swore on the Bible to tell the truth.
Switzer addressed Barbara Sullivan kindly, asked how she was feeling and said he hoped she’d be walking soon. Then he began his cross-examination of his client’s wife, victim, and the person who could put Lewis Sullivan in jail for life.
Yuki had spent an hour with Barbara preparing her for today’s testimony and she had seemed vague about the beatings. There was nothing Yuki could do but watch, listen, and hope that Barbara would stay focused.
Now, Switzer was asking her, “You like what is termed rough sex, isn’t that right, Barbara?”
“There’s fantasy and there’s over the line.”
“Which is this?”
Defense counsel read a journal entry by Barbara in which she wrote, “I had another rape dream. I couldn’t see the man’s face as he was hurting me. He said he knew that I liked my hair pulled hard. I woke up in a sweat.”
Switzer showed the small black canvas-covered book to Barbara and asked, “Did you write this?”
Barbara said, “I don’t remember. That’s my dream diary.”
“If not you, who would write in your dream diary?”
Barbara said, “I don’t remember if I wrote it, but if I did, it was about a dream. It says that, doesn’t it?”
“How about this? Is this your handwriting?”
Switzer showed Barbara an enlarged photo of the basement wall taken after the time Barbara was tied down and tortured. The photo clearly showed the words in slanted block lettering, ‘I love you,’ written in blood. Switzer said, “Looks like the handwritten entry in your journal.”
Yuki stood. “Objection, your honor. Handwriting is an unreliable indicator when used to match with other samples. This is especially true when one sample is written with a pen on paper and the other, written on wallpaper with a finger dipped in blood. I move to exclude.”
The judge said, “So ordered.”
Switzer shrugged off the objection and continued his cross-examination. “You’re comfortable in the role of victim, isn’t that right, Barbara? Wouldn’t you say that you actually crave victimhood?”
Yuki objected on the grounds that counsel was leading the witness. Badgering her, too.
The judge sustained the objection and cautioned Switzer not to put his thoughts into the witness’s mouth.
Smooth as ever, Switzer stepped over to his table, looked at a note and returned with an object in hand.
“If it pleases your honor, the defense wishes to introduce this bread knife into evidence as Exhibit X.”
Yuki recognized the bread knife recovered from the Sullivans’ basement. It had been processed by the crime lab, had Barbara’s blood and fingerprints on the handle. Lewis Sullivan’s prints were also on the knife.
Switzer said, “This is your bread knife, isn’t it?”
“It looks like one of our kitchen knives.”
Switzer said, “So, it would be yours, isn’t that right?”
Barbara said, “That looks like our knife, but I’m not sure. I have brain damage. From what he did.”
Switzer said, “Thank you, Mrs. Sullivan,” and to the judge, “We have nothing further for the witness.”
Yuki thought, this cross-examination has been a big nothing for the defense, but the jury has had another look at Barbara, who looked pitiful. Still, Switzer had drilled down on Sullivan’s defense.My wife made me do it.
