Head Shot (29 page)
Authors: Burl Barer
The answer Murdach sought, and the one Dr. Lloyd would potentially provide, was that the chief prosecutor of Pierce County, William Griffies, manipulated the entire process, including the removal of Lloyd, an immediate reversal in diagnosis, and a three-day discharge making sure the brothers would be tried “as one.”
“I'm going to object,” said Hultman. “I don't think that's a germane issue in this case.” The trial, should Judge Steiner overrule the objection, could take a sudden digression, diverting the jury from first-degree aggravated murder to suspicious and/or spurious allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.
Judge Steiner thought it over, then turned to Dr. Lloyd. “Can you answer the question âWhy were you taken off the case?' from personal knowledge?” As all Lloyd had was conjecture and opinion, his testimony came to an abrupt conclusion. Dr. Proctor was waiting in the wings, as was Mr. Alfred Donaldson. Donaldson's testimony would be brief compared to Proctor's; Murdach called him to the stand first.
“I was on my way to purchase a ticket for the Rush concert,” testified Donaldson. “This person walked up toward me, muttering total nothingness, very confused as to who he was and where he was. Fifteen minutes later, I ran into him again. He was asking how to find a ticket or something. The ticket office was right in front of him. About forty-five minutes later, he was out leaning against the fence, screaming at the top of his lungs. He was very incoherent. He was talking to himself, spouting off things, screaming, yelling about things that were not in existence around him.”
Murdach showed Donaldson a Missing Persons poster featuring John Achord. According to Donaldson, when he saw the poster two days after the concert, he called the Tacoma Police Department. If Donaldson's portrayal of Achord was believable, then Paul St. Pierre's feeling threatened, and acting in what he saw as self-defense, was certainly favorable toward his client.
Dr. Charles Proctor, the clinical psychologist employed at Western State Hospital who participated in the short examination and evaluation of Paul St. Pierre, was quickly sworn in.
“Had you met with him prior to that evaluation when you saw him at Western State Hospital?” Murdach asked.
Proctor replied that he had never seen Paul St. Pierre except one time before writing the report. He further confirmed that the removal of Dr. Lloyd was “unusual”; the evaluation session lasted only forty-five minutes; no tests were conducted; St. Pierre was diagnosed as having mental illness and was deemed competent to stand trial.
John Ladenburg had a few questions for Dr. Proctor, and posed them politely. First, he established that when Dr. Lloyd examined Paul St. Pierre, the patient was not on any antipsychotic medication. When Dr. Proctor and Dr. Allison saw him for those forty-five minutes, St. Pierre was medicated. “You see him when he's on the medication that is supposed to reduce that psychosis. Is it surprising then that you don't see the psychosis?”
Proctor acknowledged that the effect of the medication was a reasonable explanation for Paul St. Pierre not manifesting the same behavioral symptoms as he did when examined by Dr. Lloyd. Ladenburg then made sure that the jury knew that the medical definition of competency is different from the legal definition of the same word. “Did you ever do any testing whatsoever to determine whether or not he met the legal definition of diminished capacity or of complete capacity? Did you do any questioning or testing as to that idea at all?”
“I wasn't asked for that,” said Dr. Proctor. “I would have to have been given the legal mental-capacity requirement, the specific intent requirement in order to answer that question. I wasn't asked to do any tests, so I didn't do any.” Proctor made it clear that his evaluation was not conducted with the question of legal competency in mind.
Hultman's cross-examination was surprisingly brief, during which he asked the doctor to explain the term “defense mechanism of projection,” a phrase first brought to the jury's attention by the earlier testimony of Dr. Tappin.
“The term projection refers to the person saying to himself, âOther people must be like me, I am a tough character, and so other people are tough characters, and I've got to protect myself from them.' Most paranoid personalities exhibit the tendency to âhit them back' first in a defensive sense. They are ready to protect themselves before a real threat even exists.”
“As we have said,” summarized Carl Hultman, “they project that kind of aggressive, hostile attitude into the other person, and believe it's coming from the other person, when it's really their feelings toward that person?” Dr. Proctor agreed with Hultman's analysis, and validated that definition of “the defense mechanism of projection.”
Proctor stepped down, and David Murdach asked that the jury step out. The next witness, Gerri Woolf, was also important to Ladenburg and disturbing to Hultman. Woolf was from the Adult Probation and Parole Office. A previous “client” of hers, following his arrests for assault, was Andrew Webb.
“What we want to get to,” explained Ladenburg, “is Officer Woolf's almost prophetic prediction about the future behavior of Andrew Webb.” This prediction arose from the four-page presentence report prepared by Woolf, following Webb's conviction in the three assault cases.
“Another issue, too,” Ladenburg added, “is that Andrew Webb obviously lied to his probation officer during the course of that report. He held back all information about his involvement in other criminal activity. These murders occurred during a time when he was in contact with Ms. Woolf, and misleading the court.”
Officer Woolf's testimony would establish Andrew Webb as a violent, dangerous liar. Judge Steiner wanted to know how Murdach and Ladenburg planned to get this information before the jury. “Because Andrew Webb is not on the stand,” he inquired, “are you going to ask her about his believability or credibility based on the statements he made to her, whether or not those were lies?”
“Right,” replied Ladenburg.
“Wrong,” objected Hultman. “That's not the way opinion evidence is admitted in this state. Specific instances of fabrication are specifically not admissible in this state. There's no rule of evidence that would permit that admission.”
Judge Steiner, however, saw the dog-door-sized loophole through which Murdach and Ladenburg were pushing their argument. If this evidence concerned Andrew Webb's motive or intent in hiding the material facts, then it was admissible. “Is that where we are going here?”
That was exactly where the defense was going. Ladenburg explained, “Mr. Webb admitted having assaulted the victim, and admitted that he slapped the victim, but denied sticking the rifle barrel into Shane's mouth. That incident was witnessed by a police officer. Webb later denied that to the police, and lied to the police. I think that's important to show he was not truthful in his first case and that he lied.” Ladenburg offered Officer Bahr's police report to Steiner as validation of Webb's dishonesty.
“In addition,” continued Ladenburg, “Mr. Webb denied all use of drugs and narcotics to Officer Woolf. On the date of Achord's murder, prior to his interview with Officer Woolf, Andrew Webb states that he was using LSD. If Mr. Webb would take the stand, I would ask him, âDid you tell your probation officer that you didn't use drugs during this period?' He would say yes or no. Then I would be able to show Gerri Woolf and say that he lied about that. He did tell his probation officer he was using drugs, and in fact, he told the police during the statement that he was using LSD.”
The judge could see the relationship to the present incident, and the loophole became larger. “In addition to that,” Ladenburg said, “the history of Andrew Webb is extremely violent. I think we have the right to portray him as he actually is, and to show how spontaneous his violence is and how heinous the acts are.”
Steiner thought it over, and despite the possibility of some “shaky ground,” he decided to permit Officer Woolf to testify about Andrew Webb's truthfulness or lying, based upon her investigation, “particularly those that are related to this crime,” he said. “I think the question is whether she can, on the basis of her investigation, render an opinion about whether or not he was truthful with her. I think that's a valid question. Bring in the jury.”
“ âYou motherfucker,' ” said Officer Woolf, reading aloud from the police report, “ âtell me where the guns are or I'll blow your fucking head off.' ” She confirmed that Andrew Webb denied, despite the eyewitness account of Officer Bahr, that this incident ever took place. She also told jurors that the court sentenced Webb on the assault charges after Damon Wells was killed, but before Andrew Webb was arrested for murder.
“You may step down,” said Steiner to Woolf, then turned toward the waiting witness, Dr. Juan Cordova, a physician and surgeon specializing in pathology. In the previous twenty-five years, Cordova had performed up to 800 autopsies on behalf of the Pierce County coroner. He had also conducted autopsies for hospitals when a patient died while a resident.
David Murdach asked Dr. Cordova if he performed an autopsy on the recovered head of John Achord. “I examined the head,” Cordova explained, “but there was not an autopsy conducted on the head itself.”
After a few preliminary foundation questions, Murdach told Dr. Cordova that there was a debate as to whether John Achord's death resulted from the gunshot wound or the stab wounds. “Based on your examination of the head, and Mr. Achord's shirt, do you have any opinion as to what caused death, or are you able to tell?”
“Well, the examination of the head didn't help me. There is a large pool of blood. There's a head wound with a bullet. There is no blood on the shirt even after the stabbing, so my assumption isâmy conclusion is, that the wound to the head was fatal, as far as bleeding out.”
On cross-examination, Carl Hultman asked why there was a difference between the witness's conclusion and that of Dr. Lacsina's, also a respected and qualified pathologist. “I have the right to disagree with his statement,” commented Dr. Cordova politely, “because it depends on the amount of blood in the person.” A discussion of wounds, hemorrhaging, and the influence of the body's position on blood seepage, whether the body was faceup or facedown, occupied many more minutes of testimony. Hultman kept trying to maneuver Cordova into revising his conclusion; all such efforts proved ineffectual and were punctuated by numerous objections from almost everyone except the jurors and spectators. Dr. Cordova was finally allowed to step down, and Judge Steiner informed the jury that they would get a four-day break.
“What we have decided to do,” said the judge, “is not have you come in tomorrow or Friday.” The witnesses originally scheduled for Thursday and Friday would be moved to Monday, and the entire trial would wrap up with less strain upon the already weary jurors.
“I wish I had been in the courtroom that next Monday,” Andrew Webb's ex-wife lamented several years later. “I never knew about the mental tests, diagnoses, explanations, or anything about why my husband was the way he was. Of course, I had been so brainwashed that I thought I was nuts and he was fine. He's a violent murderer, a wife strangler, and ... Oh, yeah: there's a rumor that he and Paul St. Pierre might have been one of the Green River Killers.”
This allegation, buttressed by nothing more substantial than speculation and coincidence, offended even Marty Webb. “I thought it was a horrible thing to say about a member of the family,” she said. “This was no secret, whispered rumor. It was blabbed all over to family and friends. Personally, I think it's a bunch of crap. But as for Paul St. Pierre being a likely suspect, I wouldn't be surprised.”
“I always thought it was likely that Paul St. Pierre could have been one of the Green River Killers,” said Gail Webb. “Paul had a motorcycle, and he used to cruise that Sea-Tac strip all the time. Plus, he had the military training that was part of the profile, and that Green River area was where Paul and Andrew used to hang out, drop acid, get drunk, and that sort of thing. When Paul was arrested, the killings stopped. That might only be a coincidence, but it makes me wonder. One thing I know for sure is that both Andrew and Paul enjoyed hitting and punching people. They liked the way it felt to hit someone. They used to go out to bars looking on purpose to get into a fight so they could beat up someone. They were both really into violence. That's a documented fact.”
Knowledge of Andrew Webb's undisputed and fully documented history of violent break-ins, beatings, threats, and irrational life-threatening behavior was something attorneys Ladenburg and Murdach considered imperative to the jury's deliberations. They should have known that Andrew Webb, despite his “Head of the Class” academic achievements in Tacoma's public schools, was seriously severed from acceptable civilized behavior.
“From the neck up, Uncle Andrew was cut off from reality,” said his nephew, Travis. “I don't know if the jury heard about the talking dead beaver skulls and the invisible Vikings, but I'm sure that when Mr. Comte testified about how screwy and unreliable Andrew is, he told about when Grandma parked the car on his head.”
“The back tire ran over his head,” testified Michael Comte. “Actually, one of the tires went over his face, breaking a bone in the jaw. That was not the only head injury he sustained in his childhood. At age seven he came home from school and complained to his parents that his head hurt. Apparently, he experienced a concussion with subsequent memory loss.”
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