Defending Jacob(106)

Rakowski’s testimony went on for some time. It was a critical part of Logiudice’s case and he took his time putting it in. She testified in detail that the blood found at the scene was all the victim’s. There was no physical evidence found in the immediate vicinity of the body that could be linked to any other person—no finger-, hand-, or shoe prints, no hairs or fibers, no blood or other organic material—with the single exception of that damn fingerprint.

“Where precisely was the fingerprint located?”

“The victim was wearing a zippered sweatshirt with the zipper open. On the inside of that sweatshirt, about here”—she indicated a spot on the inside of her own jacket, on the left side of the lining where an interior pocket is often located—“there was a plastic tag with the manufacturer’s name. The print was found on that tag.”

“Does the surface on which a fingerprint is found affect its value?”

“Well, some surfaces take a print better. This was a flat surface. It had been wetted with blood, almost like an inked pad, and it showed the fingerprint very clearly.”

“So this was a clean print?”

“Yes.”

“And after studying this fingerprint, whose print did you determine it was?”

“The defendant, Jacob Barber’s.”

Jonathan stood and said with a shrug in his voice, “We’ll stipulate it’s the defendant’s fingerprint.”

The judge said, “Without objection,” and he turned to the jury: “The meaning of a stipulation is that the defense concedes that a fact is true without the prosecutor having to prove it. Both parties agree to the truth of this fact, therefore you may take it as true and proven. Okay, Mr. Logiudice.”

“What significance, if any, did you assign to the fact that the fingerprint was in the victim’s own blood?”

“Obviously the blood had to be on that tag first in order for the defendant’s finger to be pressed into it. So the significance is that the fingerprint was put there after the attack had begun, or at least after the victim had been cut at least once, and soon enough after the attack that the blood on that tag was still wet, since dry blood would not have taken the print the same way, if at all. So that print was put there during or very soon after the attack.”

“How big a window are we talking about? How soon before the blood on that tag is too dry to take the fingerprint?”

“There are a lot of factors involved. But not more than fifteen minutes on the outside.”

“Even sooner, is it likely?”

“Impossible to say.”

Good girl, Karen. Don’t take the bait.

The only sparring took place when Logiudice tried to enter into evidence a knife, a sleek and wicked thing called a Spyderco Civilian, which was the knife Jacob specifically named in his story imagining the Rifkin murder. Jonathan vehemently objected to this knife being shown to the jury since there was no evidence that Jacob ever owned such a knife. I had dumped Jacob’s knife long before the cops searched his room, but I blanched at the sight of the Spyderco Civilian. It looked very similar to Jacob’s. I didn’t dare turn around to look at Laurie, so I can only report what she later told me: “I died when I saw it.” Judge French ultimately did not allow Logiudice to enter the knife in evidence. Its physical appearance, he said, was “inflammatory” given how weakly the government had linked the knife to Jacob. Which was Judge French’s way of saying he was not about to let Logiudice start waving a lethal-looking knife around the courtroom as a way to work the jury up into a lynch mob—not until the government offered a witness who could say Jacob had such a knife. But he would allow the expert to testify about the knife in general terms.

“Is that knife consistent with the victim’s wounds?”

“Yes. We examined the size and shape of the blade relative to the wounds and they were consistent. The blade on that particular knife is curved and has a serrated edge, which would account for the ragged tears at the edge of the wounds. It is a knife designed for slashing at an opponent, as you would in a knife fight. A knife intended to make a neat slice will typically have a smooth, very sharp edge, like a scalpel.”

“So the killer might have used exactly that sort of knife?”

“Objection.”

“Overruled.”

“He might have, yes.”

“Could you tell from the angle of the wounds and the design of the knife how the killer might have inflicted the fatal wounds, what sort of motion he might have used?”

“Based on the fact that the wounds enter the body essentially straight, that is, on a horizontal plane, it would seem that the assailant most likely stood directly in front of the victim, was of about equal height, and stabbed straight ahead in three thrusts holding his arm roughly level.”

“Would you demonstrate the motion you mean, please?”

“Objection.”

“Overruled.”

Rakowski stood up and thrust her right arm ahead three times. She sat back down.

Logiudice said nothing for a few seconds. The courtroom was silent enough in those moments that I heard someone behind me in the gallery emit a long breath, whoo.

Jonathan fought gallantly on cross. He did not attack Rakowski directly. She was obviously competent and playing it straight, and there was nothing to be gained by savaging her. He kept the focus on the physical evidence and how thin it really was.