Landreth: “Did you tell this individual that you were a police officer?”
Bosch: “No, I did not.”
Landreth: “But isn’t it true that you did not dissuade him from his belief that he was indeed talking to a sworn law enforcement officer?”
Bosch: “No, not true. He didn’t think I was a police officer because I never told him I was. I had no badge, no gun, and I didn’t say I was a cop.”
The strategy grew tiresome for everyone in the courtroom, especially Judge Sackville, who had allotted only the morning’s hours for the hearing. He was soon ruling on objections before Haller could completely articulate them. He repeatedly ordered Landreth to move along and finally told the prosecutor that he was wasting the court’s valuable time.
Landreth finally ended his cross and Bosch was able to step down and take a seat at the defense table next to Haller. Sitting there gave Bosch an uneasy feeling. He felt like he was on the wrong side of the room, as though he were driving a car with the steering wheel on the right.
Haller didn’t notice his discomfort. He drummed his fingers on the table as he contemplated his next move. The judge finally prompted him.
“Mr. Haller, do you have another witness?”
Haller leaned toward Bosch and whispered in his ear.
“Let’s roll the dice here, see if we can’t get them to step into the bear trap.”
He then stood up and addressed the court.
“No other witnesses, Your Honor. The defense is ready to argue the matter.”
As Haller sat back down, Sackville turned his attention to Landreth.
“Does the state wish to call witnesses?” he asked.
Landreth stood.
“The state calls Sheriff’s Detective Lazlo Cornell.”
Cornell rose from his position at the prosecution table and walked to the witness stand. After being sworn in by the clerk, he began his testimony, with Landreth leading him through the steps of his own investigation of the Alexandra Parks murder.
Bosch leaned back at one point and glanced at his daughter. He nodded and she nodded back. He then glanced from Maddie to Mendenhall and they caught eyes. A small smile played on the Internal Affairs detective’s face. Earlier, in the hallway outside the courtroom, Bosch had introduced Mendenhall to his daughter as the woman who had saved his life twice. It had embarrassed Mendenhall and maybe Maddie, but Harry was happy that he had made the introduction in the way he had.
Landreth used Cornell to hammer down the horror of the murder of Alexandra Parks and the painstaking detail of the crime scene investigation and subsequent autopsy. This eventually led to specific testimony detailing the collection of semen from locations on and inside the body and Cornell’s professional opinion that the DNA material had been deposited during a brutal sexual assault and not planted.
Harrick remained in the courtroom through all of this testimony, his chin up and resolute, holding strong for his wife. His demeanor left no doubt that he believed he was sitting only twelve feet from his wife’s killer. The machinations of the defense were just that to him. An attempt to manipulate the truth. He remained in solidarity with the official line.
Landreth concluded Cornell’s testimony with a softball roundup question about his final conclusions.
“I believe at this time and based on my lengthy experience investigating rape-murders that Ms. Parks was indeed raped and that the semen found on her thigh, on the sheets, and in her vagina was deposited by her attacker during the assault. It was not planted. It was not brought to the scene. I find that to be preposterous.”
Landreth turned the questioning over to Haller.
“Detective Cornell, did any of the investigators or forensics people recover a condom at the crime scene?”
Cornell seemed to scoff at the question.
“No,” he said. “There was a substantial amount of semen collected and no indication that a condom was used in this crime. The semen collected from the body and the sheets was indicative of no condom. It was the killer’s mistake.”
“The killer’s mistake,” Haller repeated. “This is a killer who you say carefully stalked his victim, correct?”
“That is correct.”
“And carefully planned this murder, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Knew that the victim did not own a dog despite the sign at the front of her house, right?”
“We think so.”
“And broke in through a rear window while the victim slept, correct?”
“Correct.”
“So it’s your testimony based on your experience and knowledge of this case that the killer did all of these things, carefully selected and stalked this victim, then meticulously planned and carried out this murder, but then just forgot to bring a condom?”
“It’s possible that he brought a condom but didn’t use it. It is quite possible that in the frenzy of the attack, he forgot to use it.”
“The frenzy? So now you are saying it was a frenzied attack? I thought you testified that it was a carefully planned attack.”
“All I know is that it was one of the most brutal I’ve seen in fourteen years with the Homicide Unit. The brutality indicated a loss of control during the assault.”
The judge stepped in at that point and called for the midmorning break. He told all participants in the hearing to be back in place in fifteen minutes, then jumped up from the bench and disappeared through the door to his chambers.
54
As soon as the courtroom was back in session and Cornell returned to the witness stand, Haller moved in for the kill.
“Were the bathrooms in that house checked, Detective Cornell?” he asked. “The sink traps, I mean, or the toilets to see if the killer had flushed a condom?”
“No,” Cornell said, a tone of annoyance in his voice. “First of all, that’s TV. If somebody flushes a condom, that thing is gone. But there was no need. The suspect’s semen was all over the crime scene and the victim. We weren’t looking for a condom.”
“I stand corrected, then,” Haller said. “This semen that you said was all over the place, what did you do with it?”
“It was collected by forensics and then submitted to the Sheriff’s Department’s lab for analysis. From there it was submitted to the California Department of Justice for comparison to the state’s DNA data bank.”
“And that’s how it was matched up with Mr. Foster, correct?”
“That is correct.”
“So you just mentioned analysis. What kind of analysis are we talking about?”
“DNA is extracted from the submitted material. They analyze proteins, blood groupings, chromosome characteristics, several different factors. All of these characteristics or markers are what is put into the data bank.”
Haller picked up a file and for the first time stood up and went to the lectern between the prosecution and defense tables. The teeth of the bear trap had just clamped on Cornell’s leg, only he didn’t know it yet.
“Detective Cornell,” Haller said, “did your lab’s analysis include checking the DNA material you submitted from this case for CTE?”
Cornell grinned like he was putting up with this annoying little tilt at a windmill from Haller.
“No,” he said.
“Do you know what CTE is, Detective?” Haller asked.
“Condom Trace Evidence.”
“So why didn’t the lab check for CTE?”
“Checking for CTE is not part of the standard protocol for DNA analysis. It’s an extra. If you want that, then it needs to be submitted to an outside lab.”