The Insanity Plea (12 page)

The 423
^rd
District Court
on the fourth floor of the old Galveston courthouse was packed with lawyers
waiting for Judge Fernandez to take the bench. Some lawyers found places at one
of two counsel tables. Others filled chairs in front of the rail and in the
jury box. The rest occupied the benches in the audience. A few huddled in
corners, quietly talking with clients or trying to cut a deal with prosecutors.

Judge Fernandez didn’t believe in
ceremony. There was no command to rise when he entered. Still, everyone stood
at attention until he took his seat.

“All right, you guys. Get off your
feet and I’ll start sounding this docket.”

Fernandez was in his sixties, with
hair still black as the day he was born. A handlebar mustache curved away from
both sides of his face, obviously groomed and waxed each morning. In another age
he could have been one of Poncho Villa’s lieutenants. His most prominent nose
sprouted a few spider veins, probably the result of fifty years of good tequila
on the rocks. Peering over reading glasses, he started calling cases and
inquiring as to how much of his time the lawyers would need.

“The State of Texas v. Daniel Little.”

“Katherine Rasmussen for the State, Your
Honor.”

Wayne rose from his seat in the
audience with Duke at his side, “Wayne Little and Duke Romack for the Defendant,
Judge.”

“You folks go have a cup of coffee or
something. I’m putting you at the end of this docket.” Looking around the
overflowing courtroom, he continued. “Be back here in two hours. I’ll empty out
this place by then.”

Without saying a word, Rasmussen left
the courtroom. Her heels clicked down the corridor with her adversaries
trailing behind. To avoid having to talk to defense counsel, she ducked into a
stairwell and was gone.

Wayne shook his head as he watched
her disappear. “You figure that even her mother loves her?”

“Sure. She raised Kate in her image. I’ll
bet if her mother walked in here right now, she could pass for an older sister,
stocky, gray hair in a bun, round face without much makeup and a cross around
her neck. She probably joins Kate in a prayer of thanks every time Kate gets a
conviction.”

“Two hours to kill, Duke. Let’s go
over to the jail and see how Dan is doing. He’s been on that new medication Dr.
Adashek prescribed a couple of weeks now. Good time as any to see how it’s
working.”

The two lawyers had waited for about
twenty minutes when the door to the small room opened and Dan entered, followed
by a deputy. This time Dan was not wearing handcuffs. While his affect was flat,
Wayne could immediately see that this was not the same person they talked with
on the last visit.

“Sorry about the delay, gentlemen,”
the deputy apologized. “Dan was finishing up a counseling session.”

Wayne noted the guard’s change in
attitude and nodded his head. The guard closed the door behind him as Dan took
a seat.

“Morning, Wayne. Duke, you doing okay
today?”

“What are they doing to you?” Wayne
marveled at the transformation in his brother.

“They got me on some new medicine
that’s working, at least for now. Side effects are the least I’ve ever
encountered. I’m doing pretty good and behaving myself. As you can see, I don’t
even have to be handcuffed. I just wish they had this one ten years ago.” Dan
hesitated. “Then maybe I wouldn’t be here.”

“Dan, we’ve got an hour or so before
we’ve got to be back over in Felix’s court on our first appearance for you,”
Duke said. “That young public defender had already pled you not guilty. This
hearing’s to set a trial date. Wayne and I also want to kinda get the lay of
the land. You know Judge Fernandez?”

While he was talking, Duke massaged
his knee and flexed it as much as the small room would allow.

Dan watched the big man work on his
knee, then said, “Guards told me about you and your knee. That’s a shame. Ruined
a Hall of Fame career is what they tell me.”

Duke nodded when his knee finally
popped and he got relief from a shooting pain. “Weather’s about to change. Hell,
I could have been a weatherman. Damn sure could do better than most of those
guys on television.
 
Now about
Fernandez…”

“Yeah, I know him. You’ve seen my
record. Mainly a bunch of petty stuff, and a couple of them have been before
Judge Fernandez. He always treated me fair. Thirty, sixty days in lock-up. They’d
get me on some medicines and before long I’d be back on the street. Should’ve
stayed where I was.”

“Yeah, we’ve already heard about that
revolving door for you guys. Damn shame,” Duke said.

“Okay, Dan. We don’t have a lot of
time,” Wayne said as he reached into his briefcase for a yellow pad and fished
a pen out of his shirt pocket. “Last time we talked, you barely knew who I was.
Now it looks like you could practically defend yourself. Let’s go back to that
morning. Do you remember anything more?”

Dan searched through his memory
briefly and spoke, “My recollection may not be perfect, but it’s better now.” He
leaned over the table and stared into his brother’s eyes. “First, Wayne, you
must
believe I didn’t do it. That
clear?”

“You don’t have to convince Duke and
me. We know you couldn’t have possibly killed her. Go on.”

“Here’s what I remember. Well, back
up a little. I had this command from one of my voices that I had to go to the
end of that jetty every morning to make sure the sun came up. I really believed
that if I wasn’t there, the sun wouldn’t rise, and it would be my fault that
the world came to an end.”

Duke shook his head.

“I know it sounds insane and it is;
only, back then I couldn’t control anything. I would argue with the voices and
sometimes there would be people apparently only I could see, right there with
me, telling me what to do. Usually, I just gave up and obeyed them.”

Wayne put down his pen and interrupted,
“On this new medication, are those people still talking to you?”

Dan stared through his brother to the
opposite wall. “Yeah. The voices are still around, only I have some control
over them. I can tell them to shut up and sometimes they do. Other times I can
just ignore them. At least with these medications, I usually understand they
can’t control me.

“Here’s what I remember. I got the
sun up that morning.” Although his affect remained flat he even managed a
slight, sheepish smile. “I was picking my way through the rocks and stumbled
over this body. Scared the hell out of me. I felt for a pulse.”

“Why did you take her bracelet?” Duke
interrupted.

“I can’t give you a logical reason
for why I would do anything when I was psychotic. Probably, I figured I could
pawn it for a few bucks for some wine or marijuana. I don’t have a specific
recollection of taking her bracelet, but they found it on me the next day; so,
I must have.”

“Why did you run away when you found
her body? Why not get someone to call for help?”

“My medical diagnosis is
paranoid
schizophrenia. I found a dead
woman. I’d been in and out of this jail too many times. I wanted to get away
from there as fast as I could.”

Wayne folded his arms, and in as
solemn a voice as he could muster, said, “We have to go back over to the
courthouse in a few minutes. Do you understand the evidence against you?”

“Yeah, I do. It’s pretty damn
overwhelming.”

“Duke and I don’t think we can get
you off with that evidence against us. We’ve filed notice of a plea of
insanity. You’re rational enough to understand what we’re talking about. Also,
with your current state of mind, we’d be wasting our time to claim that you are
not competent to stand trial.”

Dan sorted through all he knew and all
that he had been told before reaching a decision. “Don’t waste your time with a
competency hearing. I now know what is going on and can help with my defense. In
fact, I want to help with my defense. As to insanity, you know I wasn’t a criminal
lawyer. I agree for now. Understand that I’m reserving the right to change the
plea to just ‘not guilty’ later on. I know damn well that I didn’t do it.

“By the way, either of you see the
Galveston Daily News. Another jogger was found in New Mexico. Throat cut and shorts
gone.”

 
“Damn it all,” Wayne interrupted. “I haven’t
seen anything saying the feds suspect a new serial killer. We can’t sit around
for the cops to get to the bottom of this. It may take them years and we’re
probably going to trial in months. I can get Rita working on it. She’s my next
door neighbor.
 
Maybe she can put some
kind of computer program together that will produce results. We’ve got to find
this guy before trial.”

 
“I want to be involved. What can I do?”

“You got access to a computer, Dan?”
Duke asked

“Not yet, but I think I know how I
can do it. The jail trustee in charge of the library has been asking me for
some legal advice. Maybe I can trade some research for access to the library
computer. My computer skills are rusty. Still, I’ll figure it out. Wayne, you
got a Lexis number and PIN I can use?”

“Damn straight,” Wayne replied as he
wrote on a yellow sticky and handed it to his brother. “As soon as you’re online,
email me. My email address is on there, Rita’s, too.
 
You haven’t met her, but what she doesn’t know
about computers hasn’t been discovered yet.”

Now the excitement almost glowed in
Dan’s eyes. “We can do it. We’ll find the connection. The internet can be my
super highway out of here.”

Wayne nodded his understanding,
praying that he might prove to be right. “Get in touch with Rita when you can,
but don’t get your hopes up. Serial killers are almost impossible to catch even
when they work in one area. Problem nearly always is that the murders are
random with no prior connection between the killer and his victim. Right now we
know of a few similar murders scattered in various states. That’s not much to
go on and makes tying them together a helluva lot more difficult.”

Dan shook his head and clinched his
fists before he replied. “Don’t take my hope away from me. It’s all I’ve got.”

Wayne nodded his understanding as Duke
knocked on the door. Wayne and Duke rose when the deputy re-appeared. “Sheriff,
you make damn sure that he keeps on that medicine, you hear me?”

“Yes, sir. Don’t worry. It makes my
job a whole lot easier. You ready, Dan?”

The deputy escorted Dan away and Duke
started to leave the room.

“Hold on, dog. I’m shocked by how
well Dan is doing. I want to see if I can get hold of Dr. Adashek before we go
back to see Felix.”

Wayne punched numbers on his cell and
was soon connected to Adashek’s office. “This is Wayne Little. I’m calling
about my brother. Is the doctor available?”

In a matter of moments, Dr. Adashek
was on the line. “What can I do for you, Wayne?”

Wayne explained their meeting with
Dan and his remarkable change, then inquired as to what was causing it. Dr.
Adashek told him it was the new medication. When asked if it was a permanent
change in his status, the doctor refused to offer an opinion since the drug was
considered investigational. Still, Dr. Adashek confirmed what the two lawyers
already knew, that for now, at least, Dan was competent to stand trial for
murder.

When the lawyers got back to the
courtroom, the judge had two attorneys and a defendant in an orange jump suit
before him. Capital Kate sat alone at the counsel table and ignored them as they
took seats at the opposite table. After accepting a plea bargain, the deputy
escorted the defendant away. Judge Fernandez looked at the lawyers seated
before him.

“Ms. Rasmussen, you and Mr. Little
and Mr. Romack follow me back into my chambers.”

As the judge directed them to shut
the door behind them, he took off his robe and hung it on a coat rack. Then he
removed the pistol that hung from his left shoulder and laid the holstered
revolver prominently on the empty desk in front of him.

“Take a seat.”

As the lawyers arranged themselves in
front of the desk, he reached in a drawer and found a Bowie knife and began
cleaning his finger nails. “Wayne, my old amigo, how you been doing in the big
city?”

“Doing well, Judge. Trying some big
cases in the civil courthouse. Not quite as much fun as when I was prosecuting
here,” he smiled. “Fortunately, the money’s better.”

“How about you, Duke? I see you a
little more often than Wayne. Any hope for the Rockets this year?”

“Judge, if they made it to the first
round of the playoffs, the Pope should declare it a miracle and anoint the
coach as a saint.”

“That’s what I figured, too,” the
judge replied as he finished the fingers on his left hand and started on the
right. “Okay, Kate, your turn.
 
Have you
talked with the defense about a plea bargain?”

“No, sir,” she replied. “There’s no
room for negotiation. We want the death penalty.”

The judge’s eyes narrowed over his
reading glasses as he glared at the prosecutor. “Dammit, Ms. Rasmussen, I know
the facts. The evidence is about as strong as it gets. Maybe Dan needs to be
sent away and get out in twenty years if he’s sane. He probably did it, but
he’s not a violent man. He was born on the island. He comes from a good island
family. Hell, it’s his brother defending him. We ought to be cutting him a
little slack.”

“Judge, if I can interrupt,” the
prosecutor’s voice almost a monotone. “This is the climax of a long history of
violence. We have at least one incident where he broke a bottle over another
man’s head in a street fight, nearly killed him…”

“Kate, I know about that. They were
fighting over some whiskey. Have you talked to Harry about this?”

“Yes, sir. He agrees that this is a
capital murder.”

Anger framing his face, Fernandez
jumped from his chair and drove the Bowie knife into the desk. Judging from
other scars, this was not the first time he had used it to make a point. “Look,
Kate, I’ve known Dan and his family since he was a kid. Ever since he’s
returned to the island, I’ve had him in my court…at least four, five times. He’s
a sick man. I know it and you know it. Let’s put him in the Rusk Hospital for
the criminally insane and let them deal with him.”

Kate stood and put her hands on the
judge’s desk as she stared at Fernandez. “No sir. This was a horrendous crime. The
young lady was deprived of the right to live, to marry, to have children.”

“Stop it, Ms. Rasmussen. And get your
goddammed hands off my desk unless you want me to use them for target practice.
I can hit a bull’s eye at twenty feet with this pig sticker.”

Kate quickly withdrew her hands and
put them behind her as she also stepped back several feet.

“I’ve heard enough. This is a
seafaring island. We have murders too damn regularly, but they rarely deserve
the death penalty.” The judge was exasperated. “Save your god damn jury
argument, Kate. Wayne’s pled insanity. Where are you going to find a shrink to
say he’s sane?”

Kate regained her composure as she
withstood the judge’s frontal attack. “Judge Fernandez, the state has employed
Dr. Frederick Parke, a noted forensic psychiatrist. We’re arranging for him to
examine the defendant.”

“Well, I’ll be a son of a bitch,” the
judge bellowed. “I know about Dr. Parke. Heard him speak at a seminar a while
back. He made it damn clear that it’ll take a couple hundred grand to get him
on board. Hell, I can’t even get a five percent raise for my clerk from the
county commissioners. Where the fuck is the district attorney’s office coming
up with enough money to hire him?”

For the first time a cloud briefly
crossed Kate’s face as she thought of the real source of the money before she
lied. “Judge, the D. A. has a special fund for this kind of case. It’s built up
over the years and we can afford him.”

Fernandez yanked the knife out of his
desk top and returned to his seat as he pointed it at the prosecutor. “Okay,
Wayne unless you and Duke disagree, we’re going to trial in three months. Ms.
Rasmussen, don’t ask for a continuance or any favors from me. You’ll be wasting
your breath.”

Wayne knew when to keep his mouth
shut. Now he said, “Judge Fernandez, ninety days will be about perfect. I might
also add that we’re waiving a competency hearing. The shrinks finally have Dan
on some good meds and he’s reasonably competent.” He turned to look at
Katherine Rasmussen and said, “Matter of fact, I expect him to be a key part of
our defense team.”