“That’s a lie. I’m a businessman. Just because I work in Las Vegas doesn’t make me a gangster.”
“What is the name of your company?”
“American Investments.”
“Hasn’t American Investments been the target of a federal grand jury looking into money laundering?”
“That was a mistake. Nothing came of that.”
“Is that because Myron Lemke, the government’s star witness, was murdered before he could testify?”
“Objection,” Delilah said. “Hearsay, irrelevant, and it violates the evidentiary rules on prior bad acts admissibility.”
“I’m going to sustain the objection. Move on, Mr. Swoboda.”
“Have you ever been convicted of a crime?”
“Yeah, years ago.”
“What was the crime?”
“Assault.”
“Were you ever convicted of theft?”
“That was a mistake. I thought I had money in my checking account and…”
“The jury didn’t agree with your defense, did it?” Swoboda asked.
“No,” Coleman answered reluctantly.
“Mr. Coleman, you testified that Mr. Maxfield attacked you at the Oregon Academy swimming pool?”
“Yeah, from behind.”
“At the time that he confronted you, were you holding Casey Van Meter’s wrist and calling her a bitch?”
“I don’t remember that.”
“You don’t remember attacking Ms. Van Meter?”
“No. We were talking.”
Delilah sighed inwardly but showed the jury none of what she was feeling. She’d needed Coleman to prove that Maxfield tried to knife Ashley at Sunny Rest and that point had been made. Fortunately, the jurors didn’t have to like Coleman to believe him.
“You’re saying that Mr. Maxfield attacked you from behind for no reason in front of scores of witnesses?”
“The guy’s a psycho. He didn’t need a reason.”
“Mr. Coleman, your wife is going to testify later in this case. Do you still contend that you were not assaulting her when Mr. Maxfield came to her rescue?”
“She’s had a serious head injury. I don’t think her memory is too good.”
“We are prepared to call several former students who were in the pool that day. Do you still want to maintain this fiction?”
“Call anyone you want. I don’t know what they’ll say. We may have been arguing. Casey could get upset over nothing.”
“What were you arguing about?”
“The divorce. I was trying to make her see reason.”
“That’s because Ms. Van Meter was rich and you couldn’t get your hands on her money if she divorced you?”
“No. I didn’t care about the money. I love her.”
“That’s why you didn’t go see her at any time while she was wasting away at the nursing home?”
“I already told you about that. It was too much for me to see her like that.”
“Yes, we can all see how sensitive you are,” Swoboda said.
“Objection,” Delilah said.
“Sustained,” Judge Shimazu answered.
Swoboda turned his back on Coleman and took a few steps down the jury box.
“So it was love, not Ms. Van Meter’s money, that caused you to seek an appointment as the guardian of her forty million dollars?”
Several jurors reacted when they heard the sum. Coleman didn’t answer. Swoboda turned back toward him.
“How long did you know Ms. Van Meter before you married?”
“Three days,” Coleman mumbled.
“I didn’t hear that, Mr. Coleman,” Swoboda said.
“Three days.”
“Gee, it must have been love at first sight.”
“Yeah.”
“And where did you meet?”
“The casino at the Mirage.”
“And in what church were you married?”
“It wasn’t a church.”
“Oh. Then where did you get hitched?”
“The, uh, Chapel of True Love.”
“I see. What time of day or night were the nuptials?”
“Four in the morning, I think.”
“Mr. Coleman, if Casey Van Meter died before coming out of her coma, you would have inherited millions of dollars, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t know the exact amount.”
“In fact, since no one knew that Ashley Spencer was Ms. Van Meter’s daughter until recently, you would have inherited everything that Ms. Van Meter had, because she had no will and you were her husband.”
“What’s your question?” Coleman asked.
“My question? Okay, I’ll ask one. You had a good reason to want Casey Van Meter dead, didn’t you?”
“No. I love her.”
“More than forty million dollars?”
“Asked and answered,” Delilah cut in.
“Overruled,” the judge said. “Do you understand the question, Mr. Coleman?”
“No.”
“Miles Van Meter was trying to be appointed as Ms. Van Meter’s guardian, wasn’t he?” Swoboda asked.
“Yes.”
“He had made it clear that he wanted to end his sister’s suffering, had he not?”
“I heard something about that.”
“That would have let you inherit her money, right?”
“I guess.”
“You knew that Ashley Spencer was trying to be appointed Ms. Van Meter’s guardian, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“She wanted to keep her mother alive, didn’t she?”
“Yes.”
“Which would mean that you wouldn’t get any money.”
“So?”
“With Ashley dead, either you or Miles Van Meter would have been appointed as guardian, right?”
“Yes.”
“Either way, Ms. Van Meter would have been taken off life support and you would have inherited Ms. Van Meter’s millions. Only Ashley stood in your way. That gave you a pretty good motive to stab her to death in the nursing-home parking lot, didn’t it?”
“I told you, he tried to kill her,” Coleman said, pointing at Maxfield.
“Your Honor, I’d like to put a diagram of the Sunny Rest nursing home on the easel.”
“Go ahead, Mr. Swoboda.”
Maxfield’s attorney placed a large piece of poster board on an easel that sat next to the witness box. The off-white rectangle had been filled in with a diagram of the Sunny Rest parking lot. The main building was at the top. Below it were two parallel lines that designated the road that separated the building from the parking lot. Each parking space was designated by a blue square. At the bottom were two more parallel lines that represented another road. Swoboda held a red Magic Marker over a square in the second row from the building that was two in from the left side of the lot.
“This is where you were parked, isn’t it?” the lawyer asked.
“Looks right,” Coleman answered.
Swoboda wrote COLEMAN in the parking space. Then he moved the marker down two rows and over to the second square from the right to a box that was three rows from the bottom of the diagram.
“And this is where Miss Spencer parked?”
“Yeah.”
Swoboda wrote SPENCER in the box.
“You testified that you saw Miss Spencer come out of Sunny Rest and walk to her car?”
“It was more like running.”
“Okay. Where was she when you got out of your car?”
“About a row from hers.”
“What route did you take to get to Miss Spencer?”
“Uh, I went straight up to her row and across.”
“So you were moving from left to right when you reached her row?”
“Yeah.”
“Were there cars on either side of Miss Spencer’s car?”
“I’m not certain.”
Swoboda went back to counsel table and picked up a photograph. He handed it to Coleman.
“This was taken by the police shortly after Miss Spencer was attacked. It shows her car?”
“Yeah.”
“And there is a van closest to you on one side and another car on the other side of Miss Spencer’s car?”
“Yes.”
“I move to admit Defense Exhibit 79, Your Honor,” Swoboda said.
“No objection,” Delilah said.