Chapter 17 - THE CHRISTMAS TRIAL
The criminal trial began ten months after the Christmas dinner.
The courtroom was filled every day.
David sat between his attorneys.
Sylvia sat at a separate table because their defenses conflicted.
Vaughn, Keller, and Cross faced separate proceedings.
Dr. Keene testified first.
He admitted creating false psychiatric reports.
He described David’s instructions.
“Make Anna look unreliable before the child is born.”
David’s attorney attacked Keene’s credibility.
The prosecutor agreed Keene was dishonest.
Then she displayed the payments proving who hired him.
Rachel testified next.
She described the dinner.
Her recording played for the jury.
Sylvia’s voice filled the courtroom.
SERVANTS DON’T SIT WITH FAMILY.
Then came the sound of the push.
My request for an ambulance.
David’s threat.
The call to my father.
Several jurors looked toward David.
He kept his eyes on the table.
Sheriff Keller testified under a cooperation agreement.
He admitted David warned him before Christmas.
He admitted telling officers not to arrest David.
He also admitted ignoring Marissa’s complaint years earlier.
The prosecutor asked why.
“David knew about my son.”
“He threatened to reopen the drunk-driving case.”
Keller had not protected David because of friendship.
He had protected him because David controlled him.
Sylvia testified against her son.
She portrayed herself as an elderly mother manipulated by an ambitious attorney.
The prosecutor played her own recorded interview.
I GAVE HIM A METHOD.
Her defense collapsed.
When I took the stand, Clara remained with my father outside the courtroom.
The prosecutor asked me to describe Christmas morning.
I spoke about the oven.
The swollen feet.
The chair I was not allowed to use.
The push.
The broken phone.
I did not exaggerate.
The truth required no decoration.
David’s attorney approached.
“Mrs. Hale, you concealed your father’s identity from your husband.”
“Yes.”
“Does that demonstrate dishonesty?”
“It demonstrates privacy.”
“You allowed him to believe you were an orphan.”
“I allowed him to believe I had no available family.”
“That belief affected his actions.”
“No.”
“His character affected his actions.”
The attorney asked whether I wanted David punished because he insulted me.
“I want the court to judge what he did.”
“Is that not punishment?”
“It is accountability.”
Then he asked whether my father had influenced witnesses.
“I cannot speak for every witness.”
“But I can speak for the recordings.”
“They were made before anyone knew who my father was.”
The jury heard the final audio from Keene’s office.
David’s voice said:
“If she loses the baby, we lose the leverage.”
For the first time during the trial, I looked directly at him.
May you like
He looked away.
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