Page 51 of Shadow of Justice
“This witness can’t authenticate these photographs. She didn’t personally know Ellie Luke. She isn’t claiming to be the photographer.”
“She can testify that these photographs are the same ones she found in that box in her father’s drawer,” I said.
“Overruled,” Saul said.
I admitted the photographs and displayed them on the overhead. The ones of Ellie Luke in her own bedroom were, of course, the most disturbing. She clearly had no idea she was being photographed. In one, she sat in nothing but her bra and panties rubbing lotion on her elbow. In the final one, she was naked, looking at herself in the mirror.
“Hayden,” I said. “Do you recognize the item marked as Exhibit 16?”
“Yes. It’s an earring. I found it in the box.”
I admitted the earring. The one Dr. Palmieri had already testified was a mate to the one found near Ellie’s body.
Then there was the lock of hair and the underwear. Hayden was strong, assured, confident as each item was admitted into evidence.
“What did you do next, Hayden?”
“I threw up,” she said. “I was so upset. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“No. Not at first.”
“Did you ask your father about the box?”
“No.”
“What did you do with the box?”
“I took it. I just … God. I knew it was bad. I knew I had to tell someone. I knew I had to get in touch with the police. My dad wasn’t coming home until the next day so I knew if I didn’t do something then and there … if he knew I saw what I saw … I was afraid he’d throw it all away or hide it where I couldn’t find it. I knew …”
“Knew what?”
“I recognized that earring. I saw Aunt Ellie wearing it in the photographs at my grandparents’. One of the articles I found online said they’d found it next to her body. Just the one. I was so confused. But I don’t know. I justfeltit all.
“Every online theory about her murder, they thought it had to be someone she knew who killed her because …”
“Objection,” Cutler said. “Again, this is hearsay testimony. The witness is trying to testify about what some random person said on the internet.”
“Once again, this goes to the witness’s state of mind,” I said.
“I’ll allow it to a point. The witness may answer in terms of what this information caused her to do. Not about random theories on the internet,” Judge Saul said.
“They’re not random,” Hayden said, earning her a stern look from Judge Saul.
“Hayden, what did you think the items in the box meant?” I asked.
“He knew her. My dad knew her. The police said she was followed home from the lady she worked for. And all these things in that box. How else could he have gotten them? I just knew in my gut that I wouldn’t get a straight answer. That this was important. That the police needed to see it.
“My dad had kept everything from me. My whole family had. And here was this thing … things. Things that shouldn’t be in the house. I didn’t trust my parents anymore. I’m sorry. I just felt so lost and alone. So I took that box and I ran with it. I was going to go to the police. But I saw you and Sheriff Cruz sitting and eating lunch outside the building. So I came up to you and Sheriff Cruz took me over to the Sheriff’s Department. I gave the box to him.”
“Have you spoken to your father? Your mother?”
“I tried to explain everything to my mom. She showed up at my friend’s house where I was staying after I turned over the box. She blew up at me. My parents threw me out of the house. They think … they think I’m making this all up. How could I do that? How could I make up something like that? I wasn’t alive when this all happened?”
I had one more photograph I wanted the jury to see. “Hayden, do you recognize this photograph?”
“Yes,” she said, a silent tear falling. I knew what the jury was thinking. She looked so much like her sister. They could be twins.
