Needle Work: Battery Acid, Heroin, and Double Murder(47)

“You may speak to an attorney if you wish or you can speak to a detective.”

Carol had thought about her answer and then replied: “I want to talk to the detective.”

By agreeing to talk to a detective instead of an attorney, she waived her Miranda rights. The police were therefore under no obligation at that point to provide her with an attorney. He cited case law to prove his point.

After carefully considering both sides, Judge Nichols ruled that Carol Giles had waived her right to an attorney when she gave her statement. She had not been coerced. The confessions stood.

“She confessed; there’s a video of the confession, and the jury will hear it,” John A. Basch, Carol’s attorney, told the press afterward. It was time to put a little spin on things. “But that’s only part of the story.”

No kidding, thought Skrzynski, listening.

“She intends to testify and fill in the blanks.”

Now that was something Skrzynski could look forward to. It was rare for a defendant to testify on her own behalf in a capital case because then the prosecution gets their shot at breaking down their defense during cross-examination. Courtroom confessions only happen on TV, never in real life. Still, a skilled prosecutor can show the discrepancies in the defendant’s story while he or she is on the stand.

“I think the jury will be captivated, and the outcome of this case, despite what the prosecutor may believe, is not a foregone conclusion,” Basch continued.

John Skrzynski, of course, disagreed.

“The case is pretty strong against Giles because she gave a pretty detailed statement about what happened,” Skrzynski told the press when it was his turn. “Collier did also and it’s fairly incriminating.

“Since there were no witnesses to Giles’s murder except Carol Giles, the case hinges on their testimony. Whatever the jury thinks of their statements is what their decision will be,” Skrzynski continued.

Tim Collier, of course, disagreed. He came up with a novel defense. Howard S. Arnkoff, Collier’s attorney, told the press why his client should be acquitted.

“He was in Pontiac when Giles was injected,” said Arnkoff. “They claim he gave Carol Giles advice, but that isn’t true. She allegedly injected her husband first and then called Collier up wanting to know why he wasn’t dying fast enough.”

Mike Messina sat at his desk and looked back.

It had been nine months since Jessie was murdered. His killers had almost gotten away with it; they still might.

Jessie’s wife was in jail for killing him. So was his friend Tim Collier. His children were now living with his sister. It was a lousy situation any way you looked at it.

In the end, Messina knew that there was only one thing left. It was an abstract concept at best, one best left for philosophers and not cops. But once in a while, Messina knew, it happened. It really came out.

The truth.





Fourteen

DNA testing is complicated. It can take months before the results come back. In the Billiter case, when they did, it was not to the satisfaction of the prosecution.

Nancy Billiter’s torn anus came back negative for Tim Collier’s DNA. None of his fluids were present, not blood, mucus, saliva. That meant that if he had inserted his penis into the body cavity, he had to have been wearing a condom. The other possibility was that she was raped with an unidentified object. Helton had thought it might be the Coke bottle/piggy bank, but that came back negative for Nancy’s fluids.

But someone had sodomized Nancy Billiter. She hadn’t been anally bruised by accident. That much was clear. Then who had done it, and how had it been done?

Women don’t usually engage in forcible sodomy; men do. And Carol had no reason to force herself on Nancy that way. Forcible sodomy shows an inexpressible amount of rage and anger, like the type Tim Collier carried around with him all the time.

If Carol Giles was telling the truth, that she never saw Tim rape Nancy, then there was only one explanation: Collier sodomized Billiter, either with an object or with his protected penis, when Carol wasn’t around. When had it happened?

In going back over Carol Giles’s first statement, Helton noticed the following interchange between her and Shanlian:

“What happened after Tim and Nancy smoked crack? What time was that?” Shanlian had asked.

“About eleven-thirty. Then about one-thirty, I went upstairs to check on my children, who were sleeping. When I got back to the basement, Nancy was on the bed tied up with nylons and she was screaming,” Carol answered.

“What happened then?”

“Nancy’s pants leg was off. …”

What if, Helton theorized, while Giles was upstairs, Collier sodomized Billiter? He could have used a condom, which he flushed down the toilet afterward. Or maybe he had used an object in the room that hadn’t been tested. The basement itself was a combination sleeping area/laundry room/work area, with tools, laundry bottles and other things scattered about; none of these things had been tested for fluids because there were just too many.

There was still another possibility that Helton and the other detectives, even the medical examiner, had not considered because it was just too gruesome to contemplate.

In her statement, Carol Giles clearly stated that when she and Tim Collier left the basement, she thought Nancy Billiter was dead. What if Billiter wasn’t?