Chapter 17
I Rest My Case
"Your Honor, as our final witness, I wish to call Fred Amherst to the stand," Samantha said.
Mr. Amherst walked to the stand, was sworn in and nervously sat down in the witness box. It was obvious that he had never been in a courtroom before.
"Mr. Amherst, you are a security guard at Canada's AdventureLand are you not?"
"Yes sir, I mean ma'am, I am" Amherst said in a quiet voice with his hands quivering.
"Mr. Amherst, there's nothing to be afraid about. Your only duty here today is to tell the truth. If you do that, everything will be fine," Samantha said. Her assurance seemed to perk up Mr. Amherst's spirits as he sat up in the chair, looking slightly more confident.
"Now Mr. Amherst," Samantha continued, "did you see anyone near the Colossus on the night before the murder?"
"Yes ma'am I did."
"Who did you see?"
"I saw that man," Amherst replied as he pointed to the accused, "coming down the platform of the ride as I was doing my evening rounds."
"Let the record show that the witness has identified the accused," Samantha said. "At about what time was that?"
"That would have been just after midnight."
"Did you or to your knowledge any of the other security guards see anyone else in the park after 11:00 PM on the night before the murder."
"We most certainly did not. No one arrived at the park until the morning staff started showing up at around 8 AM," Amherst explained.
"Thank you Mr. Amherst. See I told you there was nothing to worry about- yet at least," Samantha said as Elijah chuckled to himself. "No further questions."
"Do you wish to cross-examine this witness Mr. Deville?"
"Yes Your Honor," Elijah said
"Mr. Amherst, before I begin, I want to commend you on your bravery in coming into court today. I understand that this is your first time sitting in the witness box, and so far you've done very well. By the way, you shouldn't be afraid of me either. All I want you to do is tell the truth as you know it." Mr. Amherst nodded his head in agreement as Elijah asked his first question.
"When does your shift start?"
"I work Monday's to Thursday's from 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM." Amherst said.
"So, about two hours into your shift that night, you said you saw my client coming down the platform of the Colossus. Did he tell you what he was doing up there?"
"Yes he did. He said that he had heard sounds coming from somewhere underneath the track up near the platform. He told me that he didn't know exactly what the sounds were, but when he approached the platform, the sounds had stopped. He said that he went up to the platform to investigate but saw nothing," Amherst explained.
"Did you investigate my client's claims?"
"Yes sir I did. With Mr. Ravenwood following closely behind, we both climbed the stairs leading to the platform to see if anyone was there? When we got to the top, I shined my flashlight all over the platform, underneath the track and into the large pit below. I saw nothing. I told Mr. Ravenwood that he must have heard the wind rustling the trees because nobody was there. We then both went down the stairs, I said goodnight to Mr. Ravenwood, and he left the park."
"You're sure you saw him leave?"
"I'm positive. My rounds take me towards the front of the park after passing the Colossus, and I personally saw Mr. Ravenwood walking towards his car."
"About the Colossus itself, there is a large pit with tons of foliage around it, I guess to give riders the added excitement of thinking they were going to crash before the track whooshes them past and onto the next portion of the ride. Are those bushes large enough for someone to hide in undetected?"
"The bushes are very thick and the flashlight doesn't go all the way through them, so it is possible but rather unlikely that someone could hide there," Amherst explained.
"Why is it improbable Mr. Amherst?" Elijah asked.
"Because the pit underneath the Colossus is a very steep hill. Several times people were injured going down into the pit trying to plant the foliage, so stairs were going to be installed, although at that point in time, none were. Someone would have to have very good balance in order to remain undetected hiding in those bushes for a long period of time."
"Last thing Mr. Amherst," Elijah said. "Was my client's physical appearance unusual in any way when you saw him that night?"
"I don't know what you mean?" Amherst replied.
"Was he dirty?"
"No, not that I noticed."
"Thank you Mr. Amherst, you've been most helpful. I have no further questions," Elijah said as he sat down.
"Your Honor," Samantha said, "at this time the crown rests its case."
Elijah upon hearing this statement immediately got up to set a motion before the court. "Your Honor, at this time I would like the court to dismiss all charges against my client for it is our assertion that the crown has not met its burden of proof. The only evidence that they presented is the fact that my client had an argument with Scott Taylor the night before the murder, was seen near the ride after midnight, and that an acetylene torch was found in the trunk of his car. All of this evidence is circumstantial at best, laughable at worst. The fact is that there were no fingerprints found on said torch, yet it was found in the trunk of my client's car. Common sense would tell us that if Mr. Ravenwood had the foresight to wipe his fingerprints off of the torch he would have also gotten rid of the weapon long before the police would have searched his car. Add to that the fact that nobody actually saw my client torch the ride and you have more than enough reasons to dismiss this case."
Samantha got up to rebut the motion but was immediately gestured to sit down by Justice Richardson.
"Mr. Deville, all of the reasons you have presented to me in order to prove your point are the reasons that I am going to deny your motion to dismiss. This case is circumstantial, but the circumstances do point to the accused. I do believe that the crown has proved its prima facie case and therefore believe that this trial should continue. I should warn the jury however, that this finding should not by any means lead you to render a guilty verdict in this case. As you may or may not know, it is very rare for trials in Canada to get this far and the crown fail to provide the court with a prima facie case. Prima facie means first appearance or first glance. It was my determination that at first glance it would appear that the crown has proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. You may or may not agree with my decision. What I will say though is that this determination can change during the remainder of the trial. Tomorrow you will hear from the defense as they will try to rebut the case put on by the crown. Listen carefully to the witnesses that are presented so that you can faithfully execute your duty to provide a fair and just verdict in this trial.
With the crown's case being finished, this court will stand adjourned until 9:00 AM tomorrow morning in this courtroom, when the court will hear the case for the defense," Justice Richardson stated.
As the court adjourned, all of the parties quickly left the courtroom so that the next case could begin promptly. Outside in the hallway, both Elijah and Elliot sat down on a bench while Becca went down the hall to make a phone call.
"What just happened in there Elijah? I thought you were going to prove my innocence!" Elliot said.
"That was not our goal today Elliot, I told you that before. Our goal today was to poke holes in the crown's case against you and I believe I did that."
"Yeah but the judge already thinks I'm guilty, I mean you heard what she said in there."
"It seems to me all you heard was the first sentence, and closed your ears to the rest. She told the jury that it is rare that a case gets dismissed after the crown presents its case. If you want to know how rare, in the 15 years that I have been defending cases, I've only had one dismissed after the crown's case was presented, and that was only because the key witness was impeached on the stand. Just wait until we pre
sent our case tomorrow and then make your judgment. You may not have noticed, but all of the holes that I was poking in their case, I was doing for a reason for it will set up our defense. You wait and see. You'll feel much better after tomorrow," Elijah said as he leaned back, closed his eyes and rested his brain for a few moments.
Elliot did not feel relieved by that statement. He told his wife that he wanted to go out for what could be his last big dinner as a free man.
"Is that true Mr. Deville, is my husband going to go to jail?" Pamela Ravenwood asked.
"You better believe he is ma'am," Samantha said, interrupting the conversation. Mrs. Ravenwood's emotions quickly got the best of her and she ran off crying. Elliot, none too pleased at Samantha's remarks ran off to console his wife. Elijah on the other hand, grabbed Samantha by the arm and quickly dragged her down the hall into a private room. As they entered the room, Elijah let go of Samantha's arm and she fell into the table. He then slammed the door and began yelling so loud that the spectators on the other end of the hall could hear him.
"Don't you ever do that again!" Elijah yelled, his face completely red and his eyes looking as if they were going to pop out of his head.
"Calm down Professor, you're going to have a heart attack," Samantha said rubbing her now hurting left arm.
"It is not your job to provide wives of the accused with your assessment of an ongoing trial!" Elijah screamed. "It is not even your job to provide me with your assessment of how a trial is going! It is your job to serve the best interests of the crown and to prosecute your case. Today you were 1 for 2, and in my books that is a complete failure. You're lucky you were one of my former students or I would be reporting you to the Law Society for conduct not becoming of an attorney!" As Elijah continued yelling, Samantha began to tear up. Elijah, sensing that he had knocked some sense into her, lowered his voice and continued his speech. "Do you understand now? This is not a game. Sure, lawyers are measured by the amount of cases they win, but it's people's lives that we're dealing with here. If the accused is guilty then prove it, and they'll go to jail. Your goal shouldn't be to see if you can out duel the opposing defense attorney, your goal should be to prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt. Sometimes you'll do that and gain a guilty verdict and sometimes you won't. As long as you can say at the end of the trial that you tried your best, that's all that matters, win or lose."
"You're right Professor," Samantha said as she dried her eyes. "Please tell Mrs. Ravenwood that I am extremely sorry for my comments and that it won't happen again."
"I am not in the business of apologizing on other people's behalf. If you're truly sorry you'll tell her yourself."
Elijah, having said his piece, opened the door and both of them walked out.
"Don't worry, I didn't beat her," Elijah said, with the onlookers not looking as amused with his comments as he was. Before Elijah could stick his foot any further in his mouth, Becca came running awkwardly up the hall with a huge smile on her face.
"You'll never believe it!" Becca said, gasping for air. "Cameron has got something for us!"
"He has! That is excellent news!" Elijah said as he went to pick up Becca, before realizing that that might not be the best of ideas. Instead he decided to hug her, and then they ran to the elevator.
"He'll be waiting for us at the office," Becca said as she weaved around the people standing in the halls.
Elijah quickly motioned for Elliot and his wife to rush to the elevator as he got there and pushed the button. "Then we'd better hurry," Elijah said responding to Becca, "for we haven't a moment to lose."
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