Lost in Clover (7 page)

Randy smiled slightly as if he was reliving the moment.

“It was just some rough-housing. Nothing unbearable. Guys pushed me around and called me names. I just manned up and took it. Had beers with them later.”

“Were you planning to do the same thing to Eddie Cooper?”

Randy leaned forward slowly. “Yes, sir. Ab…Absolutely.”

Jeremy felt the sting of a lie. Maybe Kevin would have had mercy on Crazy Eddie if had he stepped out of the house unarmed, but not Trevor or the other boys. They only had bloodlust on their minds.

“Tell us what happened next. After you decided to put Mr. Cooper in his place.”

“Well…as I remember, we loaded up and drove up to his place.”

“When you say we, do you mean you and all of the victims on the night of August thirteenth?”

Jeremy gripped the edge of his desk and clenched his jaw.

“Yes, sir.”

Jeremy sighed, relief overwhelming him. He wasn’t sure if he could make it through the testimony. He could tell he was flushed, but nobody in the classroom noticed. They were all transfixed on Randy’s testimony.

“So you just drove up to Mr. Cooper’s house. What happened?”

“We, uh… We got lost at first, and then somebody knew where he lived, so we drove there.”

Jeremy couldn’t believe his luck.

“Then what?”

“Um…” Randy looked to be thinking hard. “We, uh, got out of our trucks and called out his name…and…” Randy’s body began to shake. “Then a-a-all hell broke loose.”

Randy broke down into tears, his body quaking. The male nurse walked up to the stand, but Randy pushed him away.

“If you’re able too, could you give us the…details of what happened?”

Randy took a moment to collect himself. “I don’t know, sir… I-I remember getting out of a truck… Kevin was already out and calling Crazy… I mean Eddie’s name… The door to the house opened…” Randy exhaled, his good eye staring at the floor. “Before I knew what was h-happening, a machine gun blasted us all to hell.”

“What happened to you then?” Carson asked.

“I got blown backwards… I, um…crawled under my truck.” Randy paused, wiping a tear away. “I heard more blasts…. Sh-sh-shouting and screaming from everybody… Then quiet, but only a few seconds wh…when he started shooting again…” Randy’s body trembled. “I, uh, I don’t know what happened after that… I passed out.”

“So Eddie Cooper reloaded and shot everybody else?”

“Objection,” Lawrence said. “He’s leading the witness.”

“I’ll rephrase, Your Honor. Did Eddie Cooper shoot all of the men you were with after they were already wounded?”

“Yes, sir. He did.”

“How can you be certain? You said you passed out.”

“Well, I did, but not before…he, E…Eddie walked up to K…Kevin and…shhhhoot him in the head.”

A collective gasp went through the classroom. Jeremy felt the bottom of his stomach drop.

“Did Eddie Cooper say anything?” Carson asked.

“No, sir. Not Eddie…bu…but Kevin did. He, uh, beg…begged him not to shoot. Sssss-said it was a misunderstanding…then boom.” Randy choked up, allowing tears to slide down his cheek.

Somebody from the gallery yelled, “Murderer! You murdered my son in cold blood, you son of a bitch.” The cameras panned to L.T. pointing an accusatory finger at Crazy Eddie.

The judge banged his gavel. “Somebody take Mr. Diamond out the courtroom now.”

“You’re a murderer, Eddie Cooper! Blood is on your hands!” L.T. shouted. His voice broke as a deacon and a sheriff’s deputy grabbed and escorted him to the doors. Crazy Eddie turned to stare at L.T. A camera zoomed in on his face. It was cold and unmoving.

“He’s a killer. Look at those eyes,” somebody in the back of Jeremy’s class said.

Judge Reinhardt said, “Members of the jury, please disregard that outburst. You must weigh all of the evidence from the testimony here. If a sentencing occurs, then we may take testimony from Mr. Diamond. Until then, I repeat, please disregard what just happened. Please continue, Mr. McKinney.”

The prosecutor stood with a solemn face. “Seeing how fragile the health Randy is in, I’d better cut this short. No further questions, Your Honor,” Carson said, sitting down.

Lawrence stood up, took a breath, and walked over to Randy. “I understand you aren’t feeling too well these days.” The audience and classroom gasped at the insensitive comment, but Randy chuckled, shaking his head. Tension in the classroom eased.

“I… I’ve been better.”

“You are very lucky to be alive, and I think we can say all of Clover’s prayers were answered when you pulled through a few weeks ago.”

“Thank you…sir.”

“You know, I have to ask you these questions. It’s my job, and everybody gets a defense in America.” Randy nodded slightly. Lawrence dropped his sensitive expression, replacing it with a confused look. “I understand you want to protect your fallen buddies, but did you guys think Eddie’d come out and greet you with cookies or something when you hollered out his name?”

“Objection,” Carson said.

“I’ll rephrase. Mr. Cochran, what did you plan to do once you got to the Cooper’s residence?”

“It’s, uh, kind of, uh…sort of like, um…” Randy searched for the word in his head. “A tradition. You, uh, show up at somebody’s doorstep…tell ’em to come out.”

“Does this strategy often work?”

“Yes, sir. It does…”

“What happened if you don’t walk outside?”

“Well, uh, if you don’t…you’re considered a…um, a…um…” Randy looked up at the ceiling, looking genuinely stumped. “I can’t think of a proper word to use in public.”

“Are you thinking of a word like ‘wimp?’” Lawrence said.

“Yes, wimp.”

“But you don’t use that word? Wimp?”

“Not…not anymore… Used it in elementary school.”

“Does that other word start with a ‘p’ and describe a woman’s body part or a cat?”

“Objection, what is the relevance of this?” Carson said.

“I’m trying to create an atmosphere of the event of what happened and the state and mood of these men on the night of the attack, Your Honor,” Lawrence said.

“Objection overruled.”

“Is it the ‘p’ word?”

Randy cracked a slight smile. “That’s the one.”

“Pussy, correct?”

The classroom burst in laugher.

“Objection!” Carson shouted, standing up suddenly and knocking over a pile papers. “This is irrelevant and it is being broadcast live to families and children, Your Honor.”

“Withdrawn, Your Honor,” Lawrence said, hiding a smirk.

The Judge nodded. “Continue. I don’t need to instruct the jury.”

Lawrence from Lawrence turned back to Randy and pasted a big smile on his lips. “Mr. Cochran, Would ever want to be called that p-word?”

“Never… Definitely not to your face… You, you’d have to do something about it if somebody called you that to your face.”

A slight laugh rumbled in the courtroom.

“Damn straight,” the jock said in the classroom.

“It’s a code. A man code, is the right, Mr. Cochran?” Lawrence said.

“Yes sir. It is.”

“So if men come taunting you to come out of the house, lest you be called that other word for a wimp, you’d have to step outside and take whatever that group is dishing out?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You didn’t expect Eddie to come out shooting, did you?”

“No, sir… Not at all.”

“Have you ever encountered guns when you’ve tried to put somebody in their place?”

Randy thought about for a while, then his face brightened.

“Once, I think. A mother…maybe a sister…came out with a shotgun. Only time I recall.”

“Did she pull the trigger?”

“No…and Crazy Eddie didn’t give no warning shot.” He stared straight at Crazy Eddie. The camera switched to Crazy Eddie holding his stare.

“I didn’t ask about Mr. Cooper,” Lawrence said. “But that’s fine. Did you know you were on private property when you drove up to the Coopers’ residence?”

“It’s r-r-rural… I didn’t know. We s-s-stayed on the dirt road,” Randy said with a determined look on his face.

“Did it occur to you that the road and everything around it might be private property?”

“No… Not at all.”

“Were you drunk at the time of the shooting?”

“I… I’d been drinking some…but not drunk.”

“I’m not trying to contradict you, but earlier in the trial, the coroner testified that his autopsy report showed all of the men who were killed had a blood alcohol content of point one two or higher. It sounds like you and your buddies kicked back more than a couple of brews, isn’t that true?”

Randy didn’t say anything, but stared down, swallowing hard.

“How many did you drink, Mr. Cochran?”

“I… I don’t remember…”

“Fair enough. Can you say that you were drunk enough to perhaps not have the best idea at that moment and time what was private property or not?”

Randy dropped his chin to his chest. “I…don’t know,” the witness whispered.

“When Eddie saw all of you out on his front lawn, drunk by the legal definition in the State of Kansas, you did not expect him to want to defend his family’s home?”

“Objection!” Carson said, rising from his chair. “This is pure speculation.”

“I’ll withdraw the question, Your Honor.”

“Move to strike.”

“So stricken.” The judge turned to the unseen jury and instructed them to disregard Lawrence’s last question.

Jeremy watched the students in his class as they pondered the implications of drunken hooligans invading their property so they could beat the crap out of them.

“Mr. Elliot,” Judge Reinhardt continued. “I’d advise you to save your comments about the case until the closing remarks.”

“Yes, Your Honor. I have no more questions.”

Carson asked for a redirect, but the judge shook his head.

“After lunch, Mr. McKinney. My stomach is churning.”

He hammered the gavel, and the audience rose to exit as voices increased from a cacophony of mumbles to chorus of fragmented voices. The bits and fragments of conversations that Jeremy caught over the television included phrases like “they shouldn’t have been driving at all, drunk like that,” “they should have known better than to enter another man’s property,” and “drunk as a skunk.” The students sat uncomfortably silent, as if wanting to be loyal to one of their own, but feeling Randy might have been wrong.

18. HISTORY LESSON

Although Carson tried for damage control with his redirect of Randy emphasizing Crazy Eddie’s violence, it looked desperate. Randy came across as guilty and regretful. Public opinion swayed in Lawrence’s favor. The death penalty no longer seemed like a slam-dunk, though manslaughter—in a self-defense plea—couldn’t be attained, not with Crazy Eddie’s brutality.

Jeremy, in spite of himself, followed the trial obsessively. He didn’t talk about it, but listened to the news, friends, or anybody vocalizing a theory about what would happen next. Even though he felt he wouldn’t be called on at this point, he couldn’t get his mind off of the trial. Would Crazy Eddie be freed or fried? He honestly didn’t know and felt too scared to have his own opinion, lest it might come true. And he felt he had done enough dirty work arranging the fates.

Lawrence from Lawrence brought in folks from Topeka and the University of Kansas to discuss property law and defending it. He even had an old historian and rancher, Dr. Jake Clemmons, discuss the history of Kansas and what happened to cattle rustlers and other ne’er-do-wells who entered another man’s property a century ago.

“Branding, blinding, hanging, dragging a man by his ankles with a horse to the county line. They did a lot of things to men who entered another man’s property with ill intent,” Dr. Clemmons said. He was dressed in a faded jean shirt with pearl buttons and a turquoise stone bolo. His seventy-year-old skin was leathery from decades in the sun.

“Did these trespassers know that they were going to get into a heap of…” Lawrence stopped himself with a self-deprecating smile. “Let me rephrase that. I’m getting a little caught up in all this exciting history.” The audience laughed. So did Jeremy’s classmates. Can’t they see this is just an act? Jeremy thought.

“Did they know they were going to endure all of this retribution if they entered another man’s property illegally?” Lawrence continued.

“Yep. It was a code. A code of the property owner you might say. If you entered another man’s property you were a dead man until you made it back to other side of that property line.”

“Was there much documentation on these procedures?” Lawrence asked.

“Well, nothing was officially documented, you see. It was something that was just done. Outside of a few hangings and an occasional write-up in a town paper by an editor, most documentation is found in diaries of old.”

“Would you say that what Eddie Cooper did was in keeping with code of the property owner?”

“Well it was a bit of an extreme…”

“But was it within the bounds of property owner code from the olden days?”

“Yes, I’d say it was, but with modern technology.”

A chill went through the classroom. Jeremy knew what they felt because he was feeling it too. Crazy Eddie might’ve been right.

19. CAUGHT

More than once Carson had called for a sidebar with the judge and Lawrence. It seemed that the prosecution wanted to cut a deal, something that would have been unthinkable a week earlier. For almost eight months people had talked with dead certainty about how Crazy Eddie was going to get a state funded lethal concoction shot in his veins. No two ways about it. But then Lawrence rode into and shook everything up. Left was right, and up was down. Was it possible that Crazy Eddie was a victim and not a mass murderer? Jeremy was as confused as everybody else.

After the property rights experts testified, constitutional law professors discussed the importance of the second amendment. It seemed like Crazy Eddie was only defending his family from a group of hooligans with uncertain intentions. More than one Clover resident admitted to spending a night tossing and turning, trying to figure what was right and what was wrong. Rumor had it that Lawrence wasn’t interested in cutting any deal: manslaughter or nothing. Even with all the arguments supporting Crazy Eddie, people said a manslaughter charge just wasn’t enough. He had killed seven unarmed boys, finishing them off at point blank range. And Carson McKinney had to know that no district attorney with an ounce of political ambition or any modicum of self-esteem would allow such a compromise.