Defending Jacob(113)
“He said he wasn’t.”
“In what context? Why did he say that to you?”
“I was just, like, telling him to ignore Ben. I was like, ‘Hey, Jake, it’s not like you’re gay anyway, so what do you care?’ So he said he wasn’t, and he said it wasn’t about whether he was gay; it was about Ben giving him shit—giving him grief, I mean—and how long was it going to go on before anyone did anything to stop it? He just knew it was wrong and no one was doing anything to stop it.”
“So Jacob was upset about it?”
“Yes.”
“He felt he was being bullied?”
“He was being bullied.”
“Did you ever intervene to try to stop Ben from bullying your friend?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it wouldn’t have mattered. Ben wouldn’t have listened. It doesn’t work that way.”
“Was the bullying just verbal? Or did it ever become physical?”
“Sometimes Ben would push him or like jostle him as he went by, like knock him with his shoulder. Sometimes he took Jake’s stuff, like stuff from his backpack or his lunch or whatever.”
“Now, the defendant looks like a big kid. How could Ben get away with picking on him?”
“Ben was big too, and he was kind of tougher. And he had more friends. I think we all—like Jake and Dylan and me—we kind of knew we weren’t important kids. I mean, I don’t know, it’s weird. It’s kind of hard to explain. But if it got to be a real fight with Ben, we would have just been cut out.”
“Socially, you mean.”
“Yeah. And then what would school be like if we were just, like, alone?”
“Did Ben do this to other kids too, or just Jacob?”
“Just Jacob.”
“Any idea why?”
“ ’Cause he knew it made Jake mad.”
“You could see it made him mad?”
“Everyone could.”
“Did Jacob get mad a lot?”
“At Ben? Of course.”
“At other things too?”
“Yeah, a little.”
“Tell us about Jacob’s temper.”
“Objection.”
“Overruled.”
“Go ahead, Derek, tell us about the defendant’s temper.”
“He just, like, got really upset about stuff. He kind of stewed about it and he couldn’t let it go. He’d get himself all worked up on the inside and then sometimes he would kind of go off over some little thing. He’d always feel bad afterward and he’d be embarrassed because it was like he was always overreacting, because it was never just about whatever made him go off. It was all the other stuff he’d be thinking about.”
“And you know this how?”
“Because he’d tell me.”
“Did he ever lose his temper with you?”
“No.”
“Did he ever lose his temper in front of you?”
“Yeah, sometimes he could be a little schizo.”
“Objection.”
“Sustained. The jury will ignore that last comment.”
“Derek, would you describe a time you saw the defendant lose his temper?”
“Objection, relevance.”
“Sustained.”
“Derek, would you tell the court what happened when the defendant found a stray dog?”
“Objection, relevance.”
“Sustained. Move on, Mr. Logiudice.”
Logiudice puckered his mouth. He flipped a page of his yellow pad, a page of questions he would set aside. Like a bird rustled from his perch, he began to move nervously around the courtroom again as he asked his questions until, at length, he settled back into his place at the lectern near the jury box.
“For whatever reason, in the days after Ben Rifkin’s murder, you became concerned about your friend Jacob’s role in it?”
“Objection.”
“Overruled.”
“You can answer, Derek.”
“Yes.”
“Was there anything in particular, besides his temper, that made you suspicious of Jacob?”
“Yes. He had a knife. It was like kind of an army knife, like a combat knife. It had this really really sharp blade with all these … teeth. It was a really scary knife.”
“You saw this knife yourself?”
“Yeah. Jake showed it to me. He even brought it to school once.”
“Why did he bring it to school?”
“Objection.”
“Sustained.”
“Did he show you the knife once at school?”
“Yeah, he showed me.”
“Did he say why he was showing it to you?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you why he wanted a knife at all?”
“I think he just thought it was cool.”
“And how did you react when you saw the knife?”
“I was like, ‘Dude, that’s cool.’ ”
“You weren’t bothered by it?”
“No.”
“Concerned?”
“No, not then.”