If You Really Loved Me (50 page)

No promises. No deals. Newell would not budge. He had to digest the information that Coston had just spent two hours telling him. "Don't do anything," Newell warned Coston. "Don't actively change your plans. Call me tomorrow at two
P.M
."

Robinson and Newell had just been handed a most valuable gift.
He
didn't know it, but Coston had just blown the defense case out of the water, without ever testifying.

Dan Coston had copies of everything. And through discovery, Gary Pohlson had a right to see what evidence the DA's office had against his client, David Brown. Coston turned over the picture of David's familiar emerald-cut diamond ring, and David's note that accompanied it:

David wrote instructions to Coston's relative about what she was to say when she took the ring to be appraised: "This is her Dad's—she wants to have one made just like it or similar. Please tell me how much it will cost?"

The ring was appraised at $40,500. David Brown's down payment on freedom. The million-dollar contract was dated May 4, 1990, written in David Brown's own hand.

To Dan Willard Coston,

As per your request, here is what I've agreed to provide:

$40,500.—paid on demand to date.

$949,500.—to be paid on demand after completion of all current criminal trials. This balance is to be provided directly to Dan Willard Coston or his designated agent on his demand with the understanding that I must be free from jail and charges before the funds can be accessed.

I do hereby promise to provide Coston with the balance of $949,500. due him on his demand in U.S. Currency/Legal Tender. This is a requirement imposed on him and agreed to by me as there is no alternative for services or inconveniences imposed on him by O.C. Judicial practices.

This is no confession on my part to any illegal practice nor is it an accusation to recipient for illegal practices, it is simply an agreement to reimburse recipient for services and inconveniences imposed on him.

I swear to the above on this date:

May 4, 1990
DAB

An identical contract, save for the dollar amount, was written to Billy Calixo: $2,600 already paid, $97,400 when David was free.

* * *

David Brown had hired a competent, ethical, honorable pair of attorneys. He had tried to circumvent them with his own devious plans. He could not hand his life over to anyone; he needed to be in control. Unfortunately for the defense, Pohlson and Schwartzberg did not seek discovery on Dan Coston's double-agent role until after Gary Pohlson made his opening statement. When Pohlson found out what David had done, he never considered calling Dan Coston.

Coston kept the ring.

41

T
he three days of jury selection were fun. But the tone of the trial changed dramatically as Jeoff Robinson rose to make his opening statement. He would tell the jury what he was going to prove to them. And then he would present witnesses to substantiate his opening statement. At the end of what threatened to be a long, long trial, he would remind them of the facts.

Robinson had been waiting for this moment for almost two years. He had gone over each minute aspect of the case many times. There was so much that had to be woven together, all the frayed ends of the sad lives of four people: Linda, David, Cinnamon, and Patti. Robinson scarcely glanced at his notes as he spoke steadily for more than two hours; this story was caught in his memory, probably irrevocably.

The easel behind Robinson held four large blowups— photographs of the principals: David Brown on top, and below him his daughter and the sisters he married. The prosecution had been careful to present photos that showed them as they were in the spring of 1985. This was important —because the jury was about to relive the last five years.

Robinson's opening statement was not filled with dramatic gestures; there was no need. The facts themselves offered more than enough pathos and drama.

"No more laughs now," Robinson began. "We will be a lot more serious than last week. This will be kind of like a road map or a jigsaw puzzle. This was basically how you treat this opening statement. Once you've seen the whole picture, you'll have some idea where the pieces fit.

"The story I'm about to tell you is a modern-day tragedy. Sit back, be comfortable. I'm going to take you back to March nineteenth, 1985. This will take time."

And then, in a remarkably concise, step-by-step way, Robinson began to relate to the jurors a horrific sequence of events. "The first police officer responds to 'a woman shot' at approximately three
A.M
., a call to respond to Ocean Breeze Drive in Garden Grove. . . ."

How many, many times had Robinson, Newell, and McLean gone over this scenario? For them, it was like, "Once upon a time, there were three bears. ..." Had David Brown himself ever thought about the inconsistencies in his stories or his reprehensible behavior? Did he now recognize the glaring flaws as Robinson related his complicated, tangled history? Perhaps not. He listened nervously, his eyes darting, as Robinson revealed him to the light.

Robinson's memory and sense of story were incredible. He moved through 1985, 1986, 1987. "David Brown is extremely bright," he said. "He is gifted. He is no dummy. He is adept at being manipulative and devious. He sometimes lacks common sense, but he has an uncanny ability to get other people to do his bidding."

Robinson gave the jury two simple motives that David Brown had to kill his wife, Linda:

"One—to have Patti instead of Linda.

"Two—to have a whole lot of money.

". . : David denies sex with Patti. 'We only hold each other to ease the pain.'"

Robinson knew full well that Patti and Cinnamon would not be great witnesses, and he prepared the jury. "Patti has . . . not a great background. Not extremely bright—nor is Cinnamon. Patti's very much a follower—a weak person . . . authorities wonder if one
strong
person didn't orchestrate this—using little people.

"Patti shakes, chatters. . . . Patti had a very unique relationship with David Brown. He told her at eleven or twelve that he would marry her. He was her alpha and omega. David was her father, her provider, her friend. . . . David won out over her sister when it came down to a choice. . . .

"There's more," Robinson said as he saw incredulous looks on jurors' faces. Some of them, to this moment, had led lives where they had never encountered such things as murder and molestation. Their eyes widened, even as they managed to keep their faces calm.

". . . In jail, after the preliminary hearing—to avoid the hammer that was going to fall—the plan was to have Patti killed ... he arranged with a jail inmate to have someone arrested to go into Patti's tank and have her 'shanked' [knifed]."

This jury did not know that the "prosecutor" and "investigator" that David Brown sought to have killed were Jeoff Robinson and Jay Newell. Their names would never be mentioned in this courtroom as potential victims. All the tapes to be played had been edited so that Robinson's and Newell's names would not come through.

"He wasn't set up or pressured," Robinson explained. A calm voice speaking of uncalm motivation. "He
wanted
it done. He had a lot of money to subsidize the plan. Steinhart thought Brown was kind of crazy—but the money was good."

Robinson pointed out the inconsistencies in David Brown's reasons for ordering the hits. "I'm doing this because I'm
innocent?. . .
And when David Brown hears from Steinhart that the prosecutor and the investigator are dead, he says, I love you, buddy. I'd get more excited but there's too many people in the tank.' "

There was so much for the jurors to absorb in one hearing. Newell, McLean, and Robinson had constructed this case as painstakingly as a skyscraper made of toothpicks. It was just as complicated: five years of lies and plots and killing games.

Robinson left the jury with "buzz words," David Brown's phrases that the investigators had learned to recognize, words that had telegraphed lies, words that demonstrated the defendant's cowardice: "Honest to God" . , . "Leave me out" . . . "Don't give me up!" . . . "I'm not involved" . . . "Don't mention my name."

"The bottom line," Robinson summed up. "This case belies David Brown's righteous indignation. He was a diabolical manipulator. Linda was older, getting a mind of her own. He wanted a new robot, and he did it for eight hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. He did it to kill the DA and the investigator to weaken the case.

"He did it to get away with murder!"

How could a defense attorney, even one as talented as Gary Pohlson, stand up now and present a believable opening statement? Robinson had deliberately brought out all the weak spots in his own case. It was a sly—and time-worn—tactic meant to reduce the impact of information that would surely come from the defense. Robinson had even mentioned the minute amount of cocaine found in Linda Brown's blood in postmortem tests. Pohlson expected all this. The two attorneys knew each other well. They had had ample opportunity to study each other's style and technique.

Pohlson rose and spoke to the jury of unnamed witnesses who would come forward to substantiate the natural panic of an innocent man. Only a desperate man would agree to a murder plot, and Pohlson hinted that David Brown's reason had become unhinged. Pohlson's only other avenue of defense would be to attack Cinnamon Brown and Patti Bailey.

Throwaway girls.

Pohlson explained that he usually reserved his opening statement until the defense portion of the trial began. "I figure this case opens with the prosecution's case." He said he agreed with the facts as stated, but he did not agree with what the facts meant. He suggested that the evidence showed something entirely different. "These two girls had their own agenda, their own problems. . . . Cinnamon and Patti are going to lie as they have lied before—over and over and over again. They have motives."

Pohlson outlined the motivations behind Cinnamon Brown and Patti Bailey, the reasons he submitted that they killed Linda Brown all on their own. "Cinnamon Brown killed Linda. She'd been expelled from Brenda's house— again. Things were not going well. She told the medical student, the police, the psychiatrist, about the problems. Three months prior to the murder, she was upset, she had problems with Linda. The day before, Linda said Cinnamon would be gone. Again, Linda allegedly said she would kill Cinnamon if she didn't leave. . . . She's nineteen. Is she
really
young and immature? How was she five years ago? Depressed. Upset. Impressionable. She told people, 'Linda was the cause of all my problems.' She thinks, 'I may lose my dad. She's giving me and my dad a hard time.'"

And Patti. Pohlson took a chance here. Like Robinson, he laid out the worst news for his side. "Patti is also having problems with Linda. Patti had been in love with David for a long time. As early as eleven, sexual molestation; at fifteen, they started intercourse. Patti was very jealous of Linda. She wants to supplant Linda. She wants what he can give her. Linda had lots of jewelry—cars. Both girls wanted what Linda had."

One by one, Pohlson pointed out the lies Cinnamon and Patti had told. And there
were
many lies. Why would both these young women turn on David Brown at this point? "Cinnamon's motive is to get out of prison. She wants to lay it on David and Patti. Patti? Patti isn't sure her sister is really dead. Is Linda in the car with her when she drives? Patti's state of mind? What would help
her
as she comes forward November seventh, 1988? She has something—a
great deal
—to gain. Instead of twenty-seven years to life in prison, she gets out when she's only twenty-five."

And now Pohlson tackled a most worrisome area. Until the day before trial, Pohlson had fought to keep the 1989 murder plot out of this trial. But Judge McCartin had allowed it in, and Pohlson had to put out the brush fires of doubt that it would surely start.

If David Brown was innocent, why would he plot to have Patti and the "prosecutor" and the "investigator" killed? "We'll hear from Joel Baruch," Pohlson said. "You will hear that David Brown got panicked by Baruch. Baruch asked to be excused because Jeoff Robinson intimidates him."

Pohlson's point was that if Joel Baruch was intimidated by Robinson, then David Brown, an avowed coward, was totally panicked.

"An innocent man believes he's being railroaded by a prosecutor on a vendetta. He kind of lost it. [The murder plot] was Irv Cully's idea—and he's a longtime snitch." His client, Pohlson explained, was confused. He quoted David: "I don't know what was going through my mind. I was innocent. I didn't know how to get out of this."

"The prosecutor scared him," Pohlson said, and then he summed up the thrust of his case. "We won't differ on the facts. But we'll argue and fight on what they mean. Keep in mind 'reasonable doubt.'

" 'Lies' is the operative word."

If Pohlson's viewpoint was to be believed, then the jury would have to see Cinnamon and Patti as wicked, scheming teenagers who would kill to get what they wanted. Jewelry and cars and presents, and for Patti, sex with David, undeterred by her older sister.

David Brown relaxed. His attorney had revealed the girls as the treacherous little liars they were.

Robinson and Newell had
expected
Gary Pohlson to go after their main witnesses. There had been no surprises.

It was time to let the jury relive the case through the eyes of those who were there five years ago.

"Call Officer Alan Day."