Jenna’s posture stiffens. “It’s awful.”
“Of course,” he says. “But memory can be tricky when emotions are running high.”
“I remember what I saw.”
“I’m sure you do. But you testified she seemed off about twenty to thirty minutes after you arrived. You didn’t check the time?”
“No.”
“So your estimate is based upon a guess?”
Jenna nods. “I suppose so.”
“And the party was active. Crowded. People moving around. Music playing?”
“Yes.”
He cocks his head. “Would it be fair to say the environment was… distracting?”
“It was a party.”
“So there were things you could have missed?”
“I was paying attention to her.”
“But not the entire night. Not every second.”
“No,” Jenna says. “Not every second.”
“And when she said she wasdizzyortired—did you hear those exact words? Or is that how you interpreted her behavior?”
Jenna hesitates. “She used the worddizzy. She didn’t say tired out loud, I don’t think. But she looked it.”
“Right. So that part was your interpretation.”
“I know what I saw,” she says, a little harder now.
Jon David gives a soft, understanding nod. “I’m sure you believe that. But even honest memories can shift over time, especially when we want to protect someone we care about.”
He pauses for a moment. “No further questions.”
He returns to his seat. His silence afterward is louder than the words. I watch him, jaw set. He’s not attacking directly. Not yet. Just pulling threads. Enough to make the jury doubt the certainty they should have for a conviction.
And it could be working.
For now.
The bailiff calls my next witness.
A man in his fifties rises. He walks with the quiet assurance of someone used to being listened to. His posture is straight, his expression focused. When he reaches the stand, he adjusts the microphone with practiced ease.
I step forward. “Please state your name for the record.”
“Dr. Joseph Emerson.”
“And your profession?”
“I’m a board-certified medical toxicologist with twenty-three years of clinical and forensic experience. I’m the director of the toxicology department at Tulane University Hospital.”
