Maggie left us reluctantly. She was concerned that I would make a misstep in court without her there watching over me as my second. I assured her that I could handle the direct examination of a medical examiner and would call her if I ran into trouble. Little did I know how important this witness’s testimony would come to be.
The afternoon session got off to a late start while we waited ten minutes for a juror who did not return from lunch on time. Once the panel was assembled and returned to court, Judge Breitman lectured the jurors again on timeliness and ordered them to eat as a group for the remainder of the trial. She also ordered the courtroom deputy to escort them to lunch. This way no one would stray from the pack and no one would be late.
Finished with the lunch business, the judge gruffly ordered me to call my next witness. I nodded to Bosch and he headed to the witness room to retrieve David Eisenbach.
The judge grew impatient as we waited but it took Eisenbach a few minutes longer than most witnesses to make his way into the courtroom and to the witness stand. Eisenbach was seventy-nine years old and walked with a cane. He also carried a pillow with a handle on it, as if he were going to a USC football game at the Coliseum. After being sworn in he placed the pillow on the hard wood of the witness chair and then sat down.
“Dr. Eisenbach,” I began, “can you tell the jury what you do for a living?”
“Currently I am semiretired and derive an income from being an autopsy consultant. A gun for hire, you lawyers like to call it. I review autopsies for a living and then tell lawyers and juries what the medical examiner did right and did wrong.”
“And before you were semiretired, what did you do?”
“I was assistant medical examiner for the county of Los Angeles. Had that job for thirty years.”
“As such you conducted autopsies?”
“Yes, sir, I did. In thirty years I conducted over twenty thousand autopsies. That’s a lot of dead people.”
“That is a lot, Dr. Eisenbach. Do you remember them all?”
“Of course not. I remember a handful off the top of my head. The rest of them I would need my notes to remember.”
After receiving permission from the judge I approached the witness stand and put down a forty-page document.
“I draw your attention to the document I have placed before you. Can you identify it?”
“Yes, it’s an autopsy protocol dated February eighteenth, nineteen eighty-six. The deceased is listed as Melissa Theresa Landy. My name is also on it. It is one of mine.”
“Meaning you conducted the autopsy?”
“Yes, that is what I said.”
I followed this with a series of questions that established the autopsy procedures and the general health of the victim prior to death. Royce objected several times to what he termed leading questions. Few of these were sustained by the judge but that was not the point. Royce had adopted the tactic of attempting to get me out of rhythm by incessantly interrupting, whether such interruptions were valid or not.
Working around these interruptions, Eisenbach was able to testify that Melissa Landy was in perfect health until the moment of her violent death. He said she had not been sexually attacked in any determinable way. He said there was no indication of prior sexual activity-she was a virgin. He said the cause of her death was asphyxiation. He said the evidence of crushed bones in her neck and throat indicated she had been choked by a powerful force-a man’s single hand.
Using a laser pointer to mark locations on photographs of the body taken at autopsy, Eisenbach identified a bruise pattern on the victim’s neck that was indicative of a one-handed choke hold. With the laser point he delineated a thumb mark on the right side of the girl’s neck and the larger, four-finger mark on the left side.
“Doctor, did you make a determination of which hand the killer used to choke the victim to death?”
“Yes, it was quite simple to determine the killer had used the right hand to choke this girl to death.”
“Just one hand?”
“That is correct.”
“Was there any determination of how this was done? Had the girl been suspended while she was choked?”
“No, the injuries, particularly the crushed bones, indicated that the killer put his hand on her neck and pressed her against a surface that offered resistance.”
“Could that have been the seat of a vehicle?”
“Yes.”
“How about a man’s leg?”
Royce objected, saying the question called for pure speculation. The judge agreed and told me to move on.
“Doctor, you mentioned twenty thousand autopsies. I assume that many of these were homicides involving asphyxiation. Was it unusual to come across a case where only one hand was used to choke a victim to death?”
Royce objected again, this time saying the question asked for an answer outside the witness’s expertise. But the judge went my way.
“The man has conducted twenty thousand autopsies,” she said. “I’m inclined to think that gives him a lot of expertise. I’m going to allow the question.”
“You can answer, Doctor,” I said. “Was this unusual?”
“Not necessarily. Many homicides occur during struggles and other circumstances. I’ve seen it before. If one hand is otherwise occupied, the other must suffice. We are talking about a twelve-year-old girl who weighed ninety-one pounds. She could have been subdued with one hand if the killer needed the left hand for something else.”
“Would driving a vehicle fall into that category?”
“Objection,” Royce said. “Same argument.”
“And same ruling,” Breitman said. “You may answer, Doctor.”
“Yes,” Eisenbach said. “If one hand was being used to maintain control of a vehicle the other hand could be used to choke the victim. That is one possibility.”
At this point I believed I had gotten all that there was to get from Eisenbach. I ended direct examination and handed the witness over to Royce. Unfortunately for me, Eisenbach was a witness who had something for everybody. And Royce went after it.
“ ‘One possibility,’ is that what you called it, Dr. Eisenbach?”
“Excuse me?”
“You said the scenario Mr. Haller described-one hand on the wheel, one hand on the neck-was one possibility. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that is a possibility.”
“But you weren’t there, so you can’t know for sure. Isn’t that right, Doctor?”
“Yes, that is right.”
“You said one possibility. What are some of the other possibilities?”
“Well… I wouldn’t know. I was responding to the question from the prosecutor.”
“How about a cigarette?”
“What?”
“Could the killer have been holding a cigarette in his left hand while he choked the girl with his right?”
“Yes, I suppose so. Yes.”
“And how about his penis?”
“His…”
“His penis, Doctor. Could the killer have choked this girl with his right hand while holding his penis with his left?”
“I would have to… yes, that is a possibility, too.”
“He could have been masturbating with one hand while he choked her with the other, correct, Doctor?”
“Anything is possible but there is no indication in the autopsy report that supports this.”
“What about what is not in the file, Doctor?”
“I’m not aware of anything.”
“Is this what you meant about being a hired gun, Doctor? You take the prosecution’s side no matter what the facts are?”
“I don’t always work for prosecutors.”
“I’m happy for you.”
I stood up.
“Your Honor, he’s badgering the witness with-”
“Mr. Royce,” the judge said. “Please keep it civil. And on point.”
“Yes, Your Honor. Doctor, of the twenty thousand autopsies you have performed, how many of them were on victims of sexually motivated violence?”