“But circumstantial evidence can be far more powerful than eyewitness testimony. The most common way to illustrate this is the snowfall example. If you go to sleep at night and the ground is not snow covered, and you wake up in the morning and it is, you know circumstantially that it snowed that night. You weren’t an eyewitness to the event, but you know it well beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The same thing can be true of crimes. Eyewitnesses, in the excitement of the moment, can make mistakes. Facts do not make mistakes.
“So we will present you with facts that prove conclusively that Richard Evans went out on his boat one night with his fiancée, Stacy Harriman. Those facts will prove that he crushed her skull and threw her body overboard, then attempted to kill himself by taking a bottle of sleeping pills. Her blood was on the floor and the railing of the boat, and her body washed up on shore three weeks later. She was telling us her story even in death, and we must in turn bring her justice.
“The defense will paint a different picture, but instead of facts, they will use fantasy and wild theories. They will base their defense on a magical dog, and unseen villains who came out of the water like pirates, armed with clubs and sleeping pills.
“None of it will make sense, and it could not be expected to, because it will be up against the facts. So if there is one thing I ask of you, it is to listen only to those facts. And if you do, your conclusion will be obvious.”
As is customary, Judge Gordon gives me the option of presenting my opening statement now or at the beginning of our defense case. I would only defer it in the face of an inept statement by the prosecution, which isn’t the situation here. Hawpe was effective in connecting with the jury, and he made points that cannot go unchallenged.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you are not the first jury of twelve citizens to consider the case against Richard Evans. Another group of people, just like yourselves, sat in this very courtroom and did the same. And they voted to convict Mr. Evans of the murder of Stacy Harriman.
“Yet we’re back here, going through this process again, and there is a very simple reason why. Because in that trial the prosecution presented a series of facts to that jury, a number of which have turned out not to be true. I’m not saying they did so deliberately; in fact, I’m quite sure they did not. But they were wrong, and their facts were wrong, and they will admit to that. So when Mr. Hawpe stands and tells you that he is going to present you with facts, please remember that they are his new version of the facts. And once again, they are wrong.
“Richard Evans is not a murderer-not even close. The prosecution will not be able to tell you about a single violent act he has ever committed in his entire life, and believe me, they have searched for them. He had no reason to hurt Stacy Harriman; they were going to be married. If he had wanted to end the relationship-and he did not-he could have just broken off the engagement. He had no motive for murder, and you will not hear any from the prosecution during this trial.
“Nor did he have a reason to attempt suicide. He worked for the United States government for fourteen years, protecting our shores, and he was promoted four times. He had a great many friends, a loving family, and a bright future in front of him. To anyone who knew Richard Evans, suicide was inconceivable.
“Yet he sits before you today, an innocent man in the middle of an extended, horrifying nightmare. It is a nightmare that you can end by recognizing an obvious truth: Richard Evans has done nothing wrong. He himself has been the victim of a terrible crime, and basic justice deserves that he be set free to live his life.
“Thank you.”
I turn back and sit down, noticing that Karen is giving me the thumbs-up from the front row. Richard whispers to me, “Good job,” but I’m not comfortable with what I said, because I’m not comfortable with our case. All we have is reasonable doubt, and “reasonable” is certainly in the eyes of the beholder. And these jurors seemed to want to behold Hawpe a lot more than they did me.
Hawpe’s first witness is Coast Guard Captain Ron Ferrara. He was in charge of the cutter that boarded Richard’s boat that night, and Hawpe will use him to set the scene, and other witnesses will provide background to it. But it is the scene itself that is probably the most incriminating factor against Richard.
“We received the warning at approximately twenty-two fourteen,” says Ferrara, using military time and demonstrating that he does not have a great understanding of the word “approximately.”
“And then you passed it on to the private and commercial boats in the area?” Hawpe asks.
Captain Ferrara shakes his head. “No, those warnings are sent out over the alert frequency from land-based positions. Our responsibility is to make sure that the boats leave the area and assist those in difficulty.”
“How bad was the approaching storm?”
“It was a significant system, but survivable. We’ve experienced far worse.”
Hawpe takes him through the process by which Ferrara determined that Richard’s was the only boat not to heed the warnings, and then did not answer Ferrara’s radio call. When Ferrara could not see any activity on the boat, he made the decision to board it.
“Please describe what you found when you boarded.”
He paints a picture of a placid scene, normal except for the lack of passengers. It was when one of his men went down below that Richard was discovered, lying on the floor, a small amount of blood oozing from his head.
“Was there anything on the floor near Mr. Evans?” Hawpe asks.
Ferrara nods. “There was. An empty bottle of pills.”
Ferrara then goes on to describe the emergency medical attention that Richard received. A decision was made to evacuate him by helicopter-risky because of the approaching storm. But it was accomplished, and then the boat was brought back to port to be examined, though at that point no one knew about Stacy Harriman’s disappearance.
“At what point did you consider this to be a crime scene?” Hawpe asks.
“From the moment I saw Mr. Evans.”
Hawpe turns the witness over to me. There will not be much I can do with him; both his actions that night and his testimony today were straightforward and basically correct. But I consider it important to make points with every witness; the jury has to know that there are two sides to this fight.
“Captain Ferrara, when did you learn of the possibility that there had been someone else on the boat with Mr. Evans that night?”
“I read about it in the papers; I think it was two days later.”
“So you found Mr. Evans lying unconscious, with an empty pill bottle nearby and a wound on his head?”
“That’s correct.”
“And you testified that you immediately considered this a crime scene?”
“I did.”
“Suicide being the crime?”
“Yes.”
“Would another possibility have been that Mr. Evans had a heart attack and had just taken pills, perhaps nitroglycerine, to counteract it?”
“I never considered that.”
“Was there a label on the pill bottle so that you could determine what was taken?”
“No, there was not.”
“Any way for you to have known how many pills had been in there?”
“No.”
I hand Ferrara a transcript of his radio conversation with Coast Guard command on shore. “Please read the passage where you say that you are treating the boat as a crime scene.”
He looks at it but knows the answer. “I did not mention that.”
“You didn’t think it was important?”
“I considered Mr. Evans’s health to be my first priority.”
“And mentioning that this might be a crime scene would in some way jeopardize his health?”
He doesn’t have an effective answer for that, so I move on. “Please read the passage where you instruct the people on shore to have forensics ready to check out the boat.”
“I did not so instruct them.”