The Perfect Marriage(70)
“Not quite a shocker, is it? The police not believing the person they ultimately arrested.”
“No need for the sarcasm, Mr. Miller,” Judge Martin said. “There’s no jury here.”
“Apologies, Your Honor,” Miller said, then turned his attention back to Gabriel. “And the fingerprints at the scene . . . Didn’t Mr. Fiske tell you that he visited Mr. Sommers’s office at certain times?”
“Yes, he said that, but he would not tell us when he had last been there.”
“But his ex-wife corroborated that he visited Mr. Sommers’s office from time to time, didn’t she?”
“She did.”
“So even though you were suspicious of Mr. Fiske being in Mr. Sommers’s office, she wasn’t.”
“I can’t speak to her motivations regarding what she told me.”
Gabriel thought for a quick second about adding that Jessica Sommers might have lied to keep her son’s father out of jail but decided there was no need. Miller hadn’t landed any punches.
The lawyer still hadn’t done any damage five minutes later when he informed the judge that he had no further questions. Salvesen obviously also concluded that Gabriel had emerged unscathed because he declined to conduct any redirect. Gabriel left the witness stand and reclaimed his seat beside Asra in the gallery.
Judge Martin said, “Any further witnesses, Mr. Salvesen?”
“No, Your Honor.”
She turned to Miller. “For the defendant?”
“No witnesses, Your Honor.”
“Very well. I’m going to issue my ruling, then.”
Gabriel knew that the fact that the judge was ruling from the bench meant she had already decided the issue before she even took the bench. Judges would often write out their ruling beforehand, and it was only if something came up unexpectedly during the hearing that they’d reserve judgment and issue a written order later.
Sure enough, Judge Martin put on her reading glasses.
“In this matter, the People request a DNA sample from Wayne Fiske. The legal standard that applies when a biological DNA sample is obtained by court order is well established and designed to reflect the United States Supreme Court’s directive that an individual has a privacy interest to his or her bodily fluids. See Maryland v. King, 569 U.S. 435, 446 (2012). A court order allowing the government to procure evidence from a person’s body constitutes a search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Such court order may be issued if the three-prong standard of Abe A. is met. Matter of Abe A., 56 N.Y. 2d 288.”
The court reporter asked the judge to repeat the citation to the case she had referenced, to which the judge replied that she’d go one better and allow the court reporter to review her notes when the order was fully read into the record.
With that, she continued: “This well-established test decided by the New York State Court of Appeals held a court may order a suspect to provide a sample for DNA profiling, provided the People establish: (1) probable cause to believe the suspect has committed the crime; (2) that relevant material evidence will be found; and (3) the method used to secure it is safe and reliable. The Court of Appeals also stated that the worth of the evidence to the case must also outweigh the intrusion to the individual.
“It is the ruling of this court that the People have satisfied all of the prongs required by the Court of Appeals. First, I am convinced that there is sufficient probable cause that Wayne Fiske committed the crime for which he has been charged. Second, I further believe that the DNA test will lead to the discovery of material evidence. To wit, his blood at the crime scene. Third, there has been no showing by the defendant that there is any risk to him if he were compelled to provide DNA evidence. And finally, I hold that the stated worth of this evidence outweighs the intrusion to Mr. Fiske. Nonetheless, to ensure Mr. Fiske’s safety through the DNA retrieval process, I order that the DNA be procured through a licensed medical professional. That is the order of the court.”
Wayne was immediately brought back into the witness room. He waited in handcuffs for a nurse to arrive. Once she did, the police unlocked the shackles but then reapplied the right one to the chair leg.
The entire process lasted only a few minutes. The nurse put the rubber band around his bicep and told him to make a fist. Then she stuck the needle in his arm and drew two vials of blood. When she was done, she even put a Band-Aid over the puncture.
24
It was an old cop adage to claim that you’d seen it all. After a couple of decades on the force, Gabriel thought he’d earned the right to apply it to his own experiences. He’d seen a man who beheaded his wife with a samurai sword. A woman who poisoned her husband by sprinkling crystals from a dishwasher pod on his breakfast cereal. A man who slaughtered his brother and two cousins while they ate Thanksgiving dinner because, according to the murderer, the Detroit Lions failed to cover the spread.
But a child murdering a parent was a first for him. Even if it was a stepparent.
Gabriel knew it happened, of course. The Menendez brothers sprang to mind. Lizzie Borden. Oedipus, although he didn’t count because he wasn’t real, and besides, in the play he didn’t realize it was his father.
Owen Fiske knew, however. For some reason, he had decided to go to his stepfather’s place of business after school, and however it happened, his stepfather’s head hit the coffee table, and Owen fled the scene while James Sommers lay dead.