“Are there ways to determine which blow resulted in death?”
“Not reliably, not in this case. The body was too severely damaged. I did detect evidence of heart failure-but he had been beaten so severely that he had two cracked ribs. He’d been subjected to intense electric shock. Any of those things could have been lethal. It’s really just a matter of which one kicked in first.”
“And you can’t say for certain which did?”
“Not reliably.” She glanced at Christina. “And I feel certain the defense counsel wouldn’t want me to speculate. Bear in mind-contrary to what some people believe, the human body’s physiological and muscle systems do not immediately shut down at death.”
“But you can reliably say that the beating caused the death.”
“Absolutely. That was evident.”
Christina could see that Wilson had prepared carefully for this testimony. She also appeared to have anticipated Christina’s planned line of attack; she was very carefully delineating what she could be certain about and what she couldn’t. While at the same time making sure she gave Drabble what he needed to get a conviction.
“Dr. Wilson,” Drabble continued, “the defendant has raised some questions regarding when death occurred. Is it possible for a medical examiner to make a determination as to the time of death?”
“Yes, it is. There are several methods of doing it. Liver mortis-which is the discoloration of the skin to a pinkish color caused by the settling of blood cells in the small vessels of dependent skin and tissues-does not begin until one to two hours after death, and rigor mortis-the progressive stiffening of the body caused by chemical changes in the muscle tissues-does not begin until two to four hours after death. Since only a short period of time had passed, neither of those were very useful. Fortunately, there are other indicators of the stage of decomposition-body temperature, analysis of the stomach contents, and so forth. Immediately following death, the human body begins to decompose. The rate of decomposition is steady, predictable, and measurable, and barring extraordinary circumstances, will provide a reliable measure for at least the first two hours after death.”
Drabble nodded. “I see. Did you reach any conclusions regarding time of death in this case?”
“Absolutely.”
“So the time of death would be…”
“Eleven p.m. Eleven-fifteen at the latest.”
Drabble nodded thoughtfully. “The defendant has suggested that the beating took place at another location at around 9 P.M.-just after Tony Barovick left the club-and was over by 9:30.”
“No. Not possible. The beating might have begun then, but the killing stroke-the death of Tony Barovick-came later.” She was adamant, and with good reason, Christina knew. Johnny was with fraternity brothers who could alibi him from about 9:30 to 10:45. Wilson was placing the murder at a time when Johnny was alone, before he rejoined his friends at Remote Control.
Christina watched carefully as several of the jurors shifted around in their chairs. They’d been hoping medical science could tell them with certainty who was lying. And that was what they were getting now-or so they thought.
“And you’re sure of this?”
“Beyond a doubt. To a medical certainty.”
“Thank you, Doctor. Your witness, Ms. McCall.”
Christina slowly made her way to the podium. She hated experts. Cross was bad enough with normal people-it was all but unbearable with someone who was only on the stand because it was an accepted fact that she knew more about the matter at hand than you did.
“First, Dr. Wilson, I’d like to talk about the cause of death.”
“Very well,” she said, all forthright and chipper. Christina knew that wouldn’t last long.
“I appreciate your honesty in telling the jury that you really don’t have the slightest idea what the cause of death was. Very forthcoming of you.”
“Ye-ess,” Wilson said, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“I was troubled, though, by your assertion that the death must’ve come as a result of the beating by Johnny Christensen and Brett Mathers. Since you don’t know what the cause of death was, how can you pretend to know who caused it?”
“I believe he has admitted beating the boy-”
“Yes, but not to killing him.”
“And I saw the results of the beating. Given the severe trauma of the body, it would be ridiculous to suggest that anything else could’ve caused the death.”
Was that a challenge, Doctor? “My point is that you don’t know exactly what Johnny did. The killing stroke-to use your own words-could have come from another person.”
Wilson shook her head. “Even if it was his fraternity friend-”
“But what if it was another person altogether? A third person.”
“I’ve heard no evidence of a third person.”
“But you can’t rule out the possibility.”
“When we have two self-confessed perpetrators who conducted an extensive torture and beating, it seems absurd-”
“Dr. Wilson, could Tony Barovick have been strangled?”
Christina’s sudden switch threw the coroner off balance. “Uh-strangled?”
“Sure. You said he died of oxygen deprivation to the brain. You hypothesized that a jaw or neck injury might’ve caused asphyxiation. Wouldn’t a simpler explanation be that someone strangled him?”
Wilson hesitated. “I haven’t heard anything about any strangling…”
“And that’s the problem, isn’t it? You don’t want to attribute the death to strangulation-because Johnny never confessed to any strangling. You want to attribute death to one of the things he did confess to. But that doesn’t make it the cause of death. Especially if a third person was involved.”
Wilson was beginning to squirm. “I think it’s pointless to speculate when we know the victim endured a hideous assault.”
“You’ve read the transcript of Johnny Christensen’s so-called confession, haven’t you?”
“Of course.”
“So let me ask you, Doctor-is it possible that a person could have endured all that Johnny described and still live?”
“Oh, anything’s possible, but-”
“In fact, judging from Johnny’s description, the beating-although horrible, to be sure-did not involve anything that would absolutely, positively cause death, right?”
“I assume the defendant downplayed the intensity-”
“Well, now assume he told the absolute to-the-letter truth. Despite the severity of the injuries, those wounds were not necessarily fatal, right?”
“I agree that survival was possible. But given that he didn’t-survive, that is-and that we know this horrible assault occurred, to speculate about third parties and intervening causes is just indulging in fantasy.”
“Were there contusions on Tony Barovick’s neck?”
Again, the switch caught her flat-footed-which, of course, was exactly what Christina wanted. “It’s true, there were abrasions on the anterior neck, but-”
“And streaking arethema on the lateral aspect of zone one?”
Wilson did a double take. “Ye-esss…”
“And the cartilaginous tracheal rings were crushed?”
Wilson sighed. “Been doing some reading, Ms. McCall?”
“I try to stay informed. All of those factors are possible indicators of strangulation, aren’t they?”
“True. But just the same,” Wilson continued, “with a body so severely tortured and mutilated, those injuries could have been caused by any number of things.”
“Including strangulation by a third person?”
Wilson’s frustration was mounting. “This whole speculation about a third person is useless.”
“Useless to the prosecution, yes. You don’t want to suggest strangulation as a possible cause of death, because in his confession Johnny didn’t say anything about strangulation. You want to pin it on something he confessed to doing.”
“No, that isn’t-”
“Nonetheless, simple strangulation, subsequent in time to the beating, is a possible cause of death. Correct?”
Wilson took a deep breath. “As I testified, the time of death was shortly before the body was found. There wasn’t time-”