“Sustained. Move on, Mr. Cutler.”
Cutler smirked as he took his place behind the lectern. “Doctor. These items you analyzed this year, you don’t know where they came from, do you?”
“They came from the Maumee County Sheriff’s Department. I believe I’ve already testified about chain of custody.”
“Sure,” he said. “But you don’t know where they came from before that, isn’t that right?”
“I’m not privy to that. I was asked to analyze them. I did. My findings are in my report and I’ve already testified about them.”
“Got it,” he said. “And in your findings, you can’t say who had access to them before they came into the Sheriff’s Department’s possession.”
“I cannot.”
“You didn’t find anything in your analysis of the earring, the underwear, the lock of hair that would connect them to anyone other than Ellie Luke, isn’t that right?”
“That’s correct.”
“No fingerprints. No DNA. No blood. Nothing like that on those items?”
“That isn’t what I said. I said the hairs found in the underwear belonged to Ellie Luke. We made that determination from extracted DNA from the roots of those hairs.”
“But you found no DNA belonging to anyone other than Ellie, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“Thank you. I’m finished with this witness.”
“Ms. Brent?” the judge said.
He’d done all he could do. Lois Palmieri had tied the most damning items from Jamie Simmons’s treasure box to Ellie Luke’s dead body. It would be up to Hayden to convince the jury who had possession of them all these years. If she could get through it. If she could stand up to Bennett Cutler, this case would be all but over.
“I have no further questions,” I said.
“You may step down, Dr. Palmieri,” the judge said. “Ms. Brent?”
“The state calls Hayden Simmons to the stand.”
17
Before she even climbed into the witness box, I had to believe Bennett Cutler realized the problem he would have with Hayden Simmons. She was nineteen years old. She could have passed for about twelve that day. Thin, pretty, trembling as she raised her right hand and swore to tell the truth, Hayden had to be immediately reminded to speak up. She folded her hands in her lap to keep them from shaking. She fixed her gaze on me. She sat as straight in her seat as she could.
“Ms. Simmons,” I started after letting her introduce herself to the jury. “How are you related to the defendant in this case?”
“He’s my father,” she said, her voice gaining a bit of volume. Look at me, I thought, hoping she could read my mind. Look only at me. Don’t look at your father.
“How are you related to the victim in this case?”
“My mother is Erin Luke. She was Ellie Luke’s younger sister. Ellie Luke is my aunt.”
“Did you ever meet her?”
“No, ma’am. Ellie died almost three years before I was born.”
I wanted Hayden to be able to tell her story in as conversational a tone as possible. Cutler would give me leeway to a point. Part of me wanted to push him. Let Hayden get used to the sound of his voice. The combative tone he’d take when objecting. She wasn’t my client. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t protect her.
“Hayden, when did you first learn your aunt had been murdered?”
“Objection,” Cutler said, as I expected. “The state has yet to prove Ellie Luke was murdered.”
