Page 51 of The Best Lawyer
“No,” she said, becoming increasingly irritated.
“Your so-called eyewitness. Let’s talk about what Jenna Rodney saw. She told you she saw Mrs. Loomis standing over her husband, right?”
“That’s right.”
“What is your understanding of Mr. Loomis’s actual time of death?”
“The ME is better able to testify as to those facts,” she said.
“But you relied on the ME’s conclusions to form probable cause, right?”
“I did. Yes. In part.”
“In part. You stated in your report that you believe Mr. Loomis died between three and five a.m. Correct?”
“That’s an approximation,” she said.
“He was already dead at 5:52 a.m. when Jenna Rodney arrived though, right?”
“Yes.”
“And she said Katy Loomis was standing over him, right?”
“Yes!”
“But he likely died at least an hour before that, didn’t he? Because when he was initially examined at seven a.m. the ME concluded he’d been dead at least two hours already, if not more.”
“What is your point?”
I smiled. “So based on Jenna Rodney’s testimony, Katy Loomis would have had to be standing over her husband’s body for almost an hour before Jenna Rodney arrived.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she said. “Katy could have done anything within that time frame. We’ll never know. She was alone with him until Jenna Rodney arrived.”
“Could have done anything,” I said. “You testified that Mr. Loomis’s blood was everywhere, correct? On the bed, spilled down to the carpet on his side of the bed.”
“Yes.”
“But there were no bloody footprints anywhere in the room? No evidence that Katy Loomis walked around after Tom died.”
“There were no bloody footprints found. That’s correct. But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t walking around. Just because she doesn’t appear to have stepped in her husband’s blood doesn’t mean she never moved after she stabbed him. No one could know that unless they actually saw her.”
“Actually saw her,” I said. “No one actually saw her do anything, isn’t that right?”
“Ms. Rodney did. She saw her standing over her husband’s body with a knife.”
“She didn’t see her stab him, correct?”
“That’s correct.”
“In fact,” I said. “Nothing Jenna Rodney saw in itself amounted to a crime, did it?”
“What? Are you serious?”
“Please answer the question,” I said.
“No. I suppose standing over the body of the man you just murdered isn’t a crime by itself. You got me there.”
I walked into that one. But Sharon DePaul’s flippant attitude wouldn’t do her any favors with the jury either.
