“The last thing we want is to end the day with Bruce Colton on the stand,” I said. “Even if I tightly control the questions, he’s not going to come off as sympathetic to the jury. I don’t want them going home thinking about him and how he taught his son to shoot a gun.”
“Well, if that’s what happens, you’ll at least be starting off tomorrow with a bang — no pun intended,” McEvoy said. “I mean, Brenda will be very sympathetic, right?”
“She will,” I said. “But it’s better to end each day with a bang. Jurors go home thinking about the last thing they heard. And they’re going to assign some blame to Bruce.”
“That’s for sure,” Lorna chimed in. “So I think you stretch out Clarke and then you go to Brenda and run with her to the bell. Tomorrow you flip the Coltons. You go with Bruce first and get it out of the way while the jury is still waking up in their seats. Then Trisha, and you start building back the sympathy.”
I nodded. Lorna was not a jury consultant by training, but she always seemed to have her finger on the pulse of the jurors, how they were viewing a trial and receiving the testimony as it progressed. Sometimes I was so deeply entrenched in keeping momentum and focusing on the witness in front of me that I didn’t take that pulse. That was why I always wanted Lorna in the courtroom when I had a jury case.
“A lot will depend on how much the Mason boys want to do with Clarke,” I said. “They can probably guess how I’m going to lay out our case. I think Marcus will take Clarke, and he might try to stall things with his cross and not let me get to Brenda.”
“How much can he do with Clarke?” Lorna asked. “It’s the investigation. He’s only objected twice so far and both were bullshit.”
“Yeah, well, that’s going to change now,” I said. “When I get to the Clair of it all, he’ll be jumping up like it’s musical chairs.”
I wasn’t far off on that prediction. When the trial reconvened after the break and Douglas Clarke returned to the witness stand, I went right to the post-arrest part of his investigation.
“Detective, did you move on to other cases after Aaron Colton was safely taken into custody?” I asked.
“No, not at all,” Clarke said.
“Do you mean there were other suspects?”
“No, from the witnesses, we knew we had a lone shooter. But we needed to gather all the evidence and understand what had happened and why.”
“And did you make a final determination on what had happened and why?”
Marcus Mason stood and objected.
“Your Honor, the criminal case is still being litigated,” he said. “There can be no final determination until the prosecution of Aaron Colton is concluded.”
“I’m going to sustain that,” the judge said.
I could have argued the ruling but I knew Mason’s objection could not stop me from getting what I wanted from Clarke.
“Detective,” I said. “Why was it important for you to determine what exactly happened and why?”
“Well, the suspect was a juvenile,” Clarke said. “I knew from working juvenile cases in the past that the district attorney’s office was going to need all the physical and psychological evidence available in order to decide how to proceed with the case.”
From the lectern I looked down at Marcus Mason, waiting for him to object. He remained still and quiet.
“What was the key piece of evidence you recovered in your effort to understand what had happened and why?” I then asked.
“Without a doubt,” Clarke said, “it was—”
“Objection,” Mason said. “What Detective Clarke thinks was the key piece of evidence is irrelevant, Judge.”
“Overruled,” Ruhlin said. “You may answer, Detective Clarke.”
When a judge does not explain why an objection is overruled, it is usually because the objection is so specious as to be unworthy of further discussion.
“I considered Aaron Colton’s laptop computer to be very significant in terms of understanding what had happened,” Clarke said.
“What did you find on the laptop, Detective?” I asked.
“That Aaron Colton spent several hours a day on an app that contained an AI companion.”
“Just for the record, when you say ‘AI’ in your testimony, you mean artificial intelligence, correct?”
“Yes, correct.”
“What was the name of the app he was spending so much time on?”
“The app was called Clair two-point-two. But he customized the AI companion and named it Wren. There’s an option that allows you to build your own avatar and name it.”
“And this was the avatar you saw on Aaron’s laptop screen when you broke into his room and arrested him?”
“Yes, it was.”
“When you say he spent several hours a day on this app, do you mean he was talking with Wren?”
“Yes, they conversed throughout the time he was online. We also learned that he and Wren had communicated by text on his cell phone.”
“A moment, Your Honor.”
I opened a folder I had taken to the lectern with me. It was thick with paper-clipped sections of printed pages. I took the first four and asked the judge if I could approach the witness with a document. Ruhlin approved and I gave one copy to the clerk to give to the judge, one copy to the Masons, and one copy to the detective. I returned to the lectern, holding the last copy.
“Detective, take a moment to review those three pages to see if you recognize the conversation that is transcribed,” I said.
Marcus Mason immediately stood and objected, holding the paper-clipped packet out to his side with two fingers as if he were holding a rat by its tail.
“Your Honor, what is the foundation for this?” he asked. “This was not in any discovery materials submitted by the plaintiffs.”
“Mr. Haller?” Ruhlin asked, one eyebrow raised above her glasses. “Was this included in plaintiffs’ discovery material?”
“No, Your Honor, it was not,” I said. “This is a transcript of the last conversation Aaron Colton had with Wren, his AI companion. And perhaps the greater question for the court is why it was not in the defendant’s discovery material, since the transcript came from their digital archives and the court was very clear in approving the discovery request from the plaintiffs for all materials related to Aaron Colton.”
Ruhlin sent a furtive glance to the jury box, which told me she did not want this issue aired in front of the jurors.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” she said, “I hate to take a break so soon after we just had a break, but I need to confer with the attorneys in chambers. Please stretch your legs but don’t go too far. I’m hoping this won’t take long. Deputy Marshal Chacon will round you up when we are ready to proceed again. Stay close.”
Two minutes later we were seated in front of the judge’s desk. She held the transcript in her hand and looked perturbed.
“Mr. Haller,” she said. “This... document is not marked as evidence by the police department or the district attorney’s office, so I assume that it did not come from them. You just said in front of the jury that it did not come to you in discovery from the defendant in this case either. Where did you get this, sir?”