Chapter 27
Arraignment
Matt and Erica sat in the courtroom of the 195th District Court at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas waiting for Rich’s arraignment. Bruce Pierson sat at the defense table with Rich while Frank Baldwin and another ADA sat at the prosecution table. There were several arraignments on the docket, and Baldwin was handling them all for the Dallas District Attorney’s office. The court considered two of them before they finally called Rich’s case.
“The State of Texas vs. Richard Coleman,” the judge announced.
Pierson, Rich, and Baldwin all rose. “Frank Baldwin for the State, Your Honor.”
“Bruce Pierson for the defendant, Your Honor.”
The judge studied his docket sheet for a moment and then said, “All right. Mr. Coleman, you are charged with participation in the murder of one Martha Collins. How do you plead?”
“Not guilty, Your Honor,” Rich said earnestly.
The judge gave Rich a hard look and then said, “Does the state have a bail recommendation?”
“Yes, Your Honor. As you know, this is an unusual case in that Mr. Coleman has written a book about this murder. In his book there is a lot of talk about fleeing the jurisdiction and hiding out in South America. Mr. Coleman is a wealthy man and there is a substantial flight risk. The state opposes bond.”
The judge nodded. “Mr. Pierson? What say you?”
“Your Honor. This is a frivolous indictment. This crime took place more than twenty-five years ago and Erica Coleman has already been tried for the crime and found to be innocent by reason of temporary insanity. I know the state supposedly has some new DNA evidence that puts Mr. Coleman at the crime scene, but that doesn’t necessarily prove anything.”
The judge nodded. “Yes, I’m a little skeptical of the state’s case myself, but I’m not inclined to dismiss it quite yet. What do you have to say about bond?”
“Well, Mr. Coleman has no priors, he’s an attorney who has practiced law for thirty years, he has a family here and owns real property in Dallas County. And as to his book, although flight was discussed by Erica Coleman and she did flee the jurisdiction, the record will show that Mr. Coleman tracked her down and brought her back before the trial was concluded. We don’t believe there is any flight risk and ask that Mr. Coleman be released on his own recognizance.”
The judge sighed. “Well, I don’t think we are going to do that, but I believe bail should be allowed. Bail is set at two million dollars. The prisoner will be remanded into the custody of the county sheriff until such time that bond has been posted.”
“Thank you, Your Honor,” Pierson said.
Rich was taken back into his holding cell and Pierson left the courtroom. Erica and Matt were outside and intercepted him as he was leaving.
“Do you have bail arranged?” Matt asked.
“Yes, we should have your dad out in an hour or so. If you can wait it shouldn’t be long.”
“I’ll wait,” Erica said. “Matt, you can go back to the office.”
“Just hang out in the jail waiting room,” Pierson said. “He’ll be coming out there.”
Erica nodded and Pierson left.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”
“No, it will just be a waste of your time. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay,” Matt said, hugging his mother.
“Call me if anything comes up.”
“I will. Get out of here.”
Matt reluctantly left and headed back to the office. When he got there his secretary, Melissa Curry, intercepted him as he was walking by her desk and advised him that she’d been successful at getting him a setting on his motion for rehearing in the Sharp case and it was to be held in ten days. She handed him a notice of setting to sign. When he got back to his office he put the hearing date and time on his calendar and programmed it to remind him three days before the hearing.
Now it was just a matter of waiting, something Matt was used to doing, having spent over a year in prison. But he knew there was only sixty days left until all the discovery in the case had to be done, so he decided to work on Cindy’s defense while he waited. In that regard he needed to talk to Walter Savage. Savage was one of several who had a strong motive to kill Lucius Jones, and Matt needed to know if he had an alibi. He put a call into him and was surprised when his secretary scheduled an appointment for ten the following morning and indicated that Savage was anxious to meet him. Matt thought this was a bad sign, as it indicated Savage had nothing to hide. The following morning Savage confirmed that feeling.
“I was picking up my daughter from school. My ex-wife and I have joint custody. She got out at three thirty, and we went to dinner at Wendy’s afterward.”
“Which Wendy’s?” Matt asked.
“The one in Plano on Fifteenth Street.”
“So, a long way from downtown Dallas.”
“Oh, yes. Twenty miles at least.”
“What did you do after dinner?”
“I took her to my apartment. My girlfriend was with me, so you can verify everything with her.”
Matt took down the girlfriend’s information. “So, that doesn’t put you completely in the clear. You could have hired someone to kill Jones.”
Savage shook his head. “Okay, I’ll admit I was pissed off the way Lucius split up the company. He took advantage of me and cost me a lot of money, but frankly I was glad to get rid of the delinquent accounts. Foreclosures are never very pleasant and the government makes you go through so many hoops now before you can foreclose, it’s ridiculous.”
“What did he do exactly that upset you?” Matt asked.
“We were supposed to sit down and divide up all of our customers in an equitable fashion. Then each of us would contact the accounts we were going to maintain and get their okay on the transfers to the new entities that we were each establishing.”
“So, did you do that?”
“Yes, that went fine until I went to call my accounts and found out that Lucius had already contacted them and told them I wouldn’t help them with any of their troublesome loans.”
“What do you mean, ‘wouldn’t help them’?”
“Well, in other words, he was offering to do whatever it took to cure any paperwork deficiencies they might have with their accounts, whereas I would do whatever I legally could to help them resolve those issues but nothing more.”
“So, this turned out to be a problem?”
Savage laughed. “Oh, yeah. About thirty percent of the accounts I was supposed to get refused to come with me. So, effectively I lost a third of my business.”
“And how does that translate into annual sales?”
“Two hundred grand a year, easy,” Savage replied.
“Ouch!”
“Right. Tell me about it.”
“So, the thought of killing Jones didn’t cross your mind?”
“No. But the thought of suing the bastard certainly did.”
“That would be consistent with what I have been told about you.”
“So, you believe me?”
“Yes, as much as I’d like you as a suspect, I can’t really see it.”
“Thank you.”
“So, when I called your secretary she said you were anxious to see me.”
“Yes, I wanted to offer my services in prosecuting your case against RMS.”
“Really? That’s an attractive offer, but with Lucius dead, why would you still want to help?”
“Because if RMS is perceived to be in trouble I may get some of my customers back.”
“And some of Jones’s, too, perhaps.”
“That, too,” Savage agreed with a grin.
“Well, any help you can give us behind the scenes will be appreciated; however, I won’t be putting you on the stand. That could backfire on us.”
“So, what do you need to know?”
“Actually, our biggest problem in this wrongful death case is the fact that Cindy Sharp is a person of in
terest in Lucius’s murder. So, what we really need is to find out who actually killed Lucius.”
Matt went over all the suspects they had identified so far and filled Savage in on what they knew about each of them.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Samantha was involved. I can’t see her actually killing Lucius, but I doubt she’d have any qualms about hiring someone else to do it.”
“How well do you know her?”
“Not that well. My ex-wife and I met with Lucius and Samantha socially from time to time, but my wife and Samantha never got along. They weren’t friends.”
“So, did Lucius have any friends that he was close to?”
“Not too many. In fact, the only one that comes to mind is Rick Shafer.”
“Yes, someone else mentioned him. So, they were close friends?”
“Yes, they hung out together a lot and, more importantly, their wives were friends.”
“So I should talk to Rick, then. He’d probably know if there was anybody out there who had threatened Lucius.”
“Yes, he’d probably be the only one that Lucius would talk to about that type of thing.”
Matt thanked Savage for talking with him and went back to the office. He told Melissa to find Rick Shafer and see if they could meet up sometime. She said she’d get right on it. Just as he hung up the phone, it rang again.
“Matt Coleman.”
“Matt,” Erica said. “I just wanted you to know your father and I are home.”
“Oh. Great. No problem with the bond?”
“No. The bondsman took care of everything. I only had to wait a little over an hour.”
“How’s Dad?”
“He’s shaken up a bit, but that’s to be expected. Knowing him he’ll be back to work tomorrow.”
“Okay. Well, tell him there’s no rush for him to come back to work. We have everything under control.”
“Okay. I will.”
Matt hung up and a moment later Melissa came on the intercom. “I talked to Mr. Shafer, and he said he could come to our office tomorrow morning or he could meet you for happy hour at Benihana on Banner Drive.”
“Happy hour sounds good, say five fifteen p.m.”
“I’ll tell him.”
Matt was pleased that he’d been able to link up with Shafer so quickly. He guessed Shafer was as anxious as anyone to find out who killed his best friend. When the staff left the building at five he locked up and headed over to Benihana. When he got there the parking lot was full, so he had to park in the hotel parking lot across the street. Shafer was short but had an athletic build. He’d already downed a Coors Light and was working on his second one. Matt sat down next to him at the bar and ordered a bourbon and Coke. After Matt had his drink they went to a booth where they could talk privately.
“I am sorry for your loss,” Matt said. “I understand Lucius Jones and you were good friends.”
“Yes, since high school. I couldn’t believe it when I heard on TV about his murder.”
“So, when was the last time you saw Lucius?” Matt asked.
“Oh, just a few days ago. We usually hang out on the weekends. Lucius was pretty busy during the week running his business.”
“Did he mention that he was having problems with anyone?”
“No, other than his ex-partner, Walter Savage.”
“What did he have to say about Mr. Savage?”
“He said Mr. Savage was threatening to take him to court if he didn’t quit contacting his clients and interfering with his business.”
“How well do you know Savage?”
“Quite well, actually.”
“So, do you think Savage had anything to do with the murder?”
“No. Probably not.”
“How about Samantha? I understand she and your wife are good friends.”
“They are.”
“Has she mentioned anyone who might have wanted Lucius dead?”
Shafer laughed grimly. “You mean other than Samantha?”
“Right.”
“Well, there was Lucius’s mistress, Pamela Sands.”
“Pamela Sands?” Matt repeated, writing down the name.
“Right.”
“So, why would his mistress want him dead?”
Shafer sighed. “I don’t know that she did, but the way Lucius was murdered with a letter opener to the neck just sounded like Pam.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, killing someone with a letter opener sounds like a crime of passion. They were arguing, things got out of hand, and she picked up the first thing she saw that would work for a weapon.”
“Huh. That’s a good point,” Matt said. “That reasoning could work for Samantha, too.”
“Not really. Samantha is cool and calculating. If she wanted Lucius dead it would probably look like an accident.”
Matt laughed. “You should have been a detective.”
“No, no. I just know both women. Pam is very emotional and spontaneous. I’ve seen her pick up a frying pan and throw it at Lucius. She’s Italian.”
“Well, I’ll have to track down Pam and talk to her. Do you know where she lives?”
“Yes. In the condo that Lucius bought for her.”
Matt laughed and took down Pam’s address and telephone number.
“So, what about Lucius’s business partners?”
“You mean his network of parasites?”
“I guess you could call them that.”
“Well, Lucius was smart and always maintained a fifty-one percent ownership so that he could maintain control over them. I’m not sure what happened to them if he were to die. There could have been buy-sell agreements or key man insurance policies that might be motive for murder, but I wasn’t privy to that kind of information.”
“Well, I guess I’ll have to check each one of them out.”
“You probably should.”
Matt thanked Shafer and then headed to his car. He called Candy and told her he was through with his meeting and she suggested he come to her place for dinner. She said there was someone there she wanted him to meet. He said he’d be there in half an hour. When he arrived Candy met him at the front door and escorted him into the den. A beautiful woman with a dark complexion and dazzling brown eyes was sitting on the leather sofa talking to Sharon. She looked up and smiled when Matt and Candy walked in.
“Matt. This is Mia Meyers.”
Mia didn’t extend her hand, so Matt nodded. “Hi. Mia.”
“Mia just signed on last week, and it turns out Lucius Jones used to hire her to accompany his banking and mortgage lender clients when they were in town.”
“Really? That’s a nice coincidence. You don’t happen to know anybody who wanted him dead?” Matt asked jokingly.
Mia shook her head. “No. His clients seemed pretty happy. They did a lot of partying and were usually in a good mood.”
Matt sighed. “Too bad. I could use a good lead right now.”
“Actually, I’m booked later this month with one of his business partners. Is there anything you need to know?”
“Who is your client?” Matt asked.
“Brett Smith. He owns a company called Prime Holdings, I think he calls it. They buy foreclosed properties.”
“Right. I’ve heard about that company.”
“So, what do you need to know?”
“As much about his business as possible and, of course, see if he has any theories about who killed Lucius Jones and why.”
Mia smiled. “No problem. Give me your cell number and I’ll call you after the date.”
Matt told her his number and then thanked her. He didn’t expect her spying to lead to anything earth shattering, but she could probably learn a lot more than he could if he went to Smith directly. Men had a way of opening up to pretty women, particularly if they’d had a few drinks and were hoping to get laid.
“Dinner’s ready,” Gina yelled from the kitchen.
Matt smiled and got up eagerly. “I’m
starving. I was so busy I skipped lunch.”
“Matt. You can’t be missing meals. It’s not good for you,” Candy scolded.
Matt shrugged as he headed for the dining room. “I know. I don’t usually do that, but everything’s been so crazy lately.”
Candy came up from behind him and began massaging his shoulders. “Oh, my God. You’re so tight. After dinner we can sit in the hot tub and relax.”
“Ohhh. Now, that sounds good,” Matt replied.
They all streamed into the dining room and sat down. The table was already set, and there were several bottles of wine and steaming baskets of french bread. Gina walked in with a big salad and set it down on the table. Jenni came in next with a big bowl of pasta and a plate of Italian sausage. Before long everyone was enjoying the meal, talking, and drinking wine.
“So, how is your father holding up?” Candy asked.
Matt shrugged. “Ah. He’s okay. It’s my mother that I’m worried about. She’s been very depressed.”
“Well, that’s to be expected, don’t you think?” Sharon asked.
“Sure, but when she was on trial for murder she got so depressed she talked my father into agreeing to commit suicide.”
“Oh, my God!” Gina exclaimed. “You don’t think she’d do something like that now, do you?”
“I don’t know,” Matt replied. “With my mother you never know what she’s thinking. My dad’s watching her pretty closely and Ryan and I are watching Dad. If we get a hint of anything extreme like that going on we’ll . . . I don’t know . . . do something to prevent it.”
“Well, the situation is different now. Your parents are much older and more mature,” Jenni observed.
“True. I’m worried about my father being convicted more than anything else. With the DNA evidence putting him at the murder scene I’m afraid it’s going to be hard to convince a jury he didn’t do it.”
“But nobody saw him do it,” Candy argued.
“True. But he’s an attorney, and juries hate attorneys. You know that.”
Candy sighed. “That’s true. I am so sorry, Matt.”
“And I know what it’s like to be in prison,” Matt said, tears welling in his eyes. “I was in federal prison and that was no picnic. But they’ll send my father to Huntsville. Do you know what a hellhole that is?”
Jenni began to weep. Matt looked at her and swallowed hard. “I’m sorry. Let’s change the subject,” Matt suggested, forcing a smile. “This sausage is awesome!”
After dinner the party moved to the hot tub. Matt soon forgot his despair when he found himself surrounded by Candy, Sharon, Jenni, Gina, and Mia. Candy and Sharon were topless, but Jenni, Gina, and Mia hadn’t bothered with clothing at all. A combination of steamy water, pampering hands, and extreme visual stimulation did wonders for the stiffness in Matt’s back. His only regret was that Ryan hadn’t been there to share in his good fortune.