2/4/93
Equipment from Brian for clinic after 4:30
Call printer about forms
Start calling to confirm clinic help
Confirm pitching machine availability
Things pile up when you're out of touch. I'm back to work tomorrow. Will each individual crime scene play itself out this way, day after day? I can see how we'll be here for some time. How do you really and truly disregard something you've heard in court, yet been told to forget?
We made the paper, the trial did...I was a good juror and didn't read any of it. So proud of myself.
2/4/93
We listened to Tech Rivers complete her report about what she found around the RX7. The prosecution focused on the fact that there was a regular house key stuck in the ignition of the RX7. I'm sure her job is tough. She has to take pictures at some pretty horrible crime scenes - blood and guts everywhere.
We heard from Officer Flynn, the cop who searched Stevens, finding an extra clip, loaded, and one live round in his jacket. Not much other testimony here, just substantiating the fact Stevens possessed the optional (?) equipment for the gun.
Next up: The coroner who autopsied Ray August. What struck me about the testimony here was that the DA had to structure his questions to prove it was the gunshot wounds that killed the man, not the accident. After viewing the photos of the man's head, it's pretty apparent to me that it was the bullet that did the job. The entrance wound was small and neat, the exit wound about the size of a half dollar, maybe larger. We got a detailed description of all the wounds, just to be sure that nothing there would have killed him outside of the bullets to his back and head. We also examined the slugs taken from his body, some aerial photos of the scene. The most sinister piece of evidence though, is the Desert Eagle. As it's passed around, all eyes are on it. It comes to me. I hold it with the barrel pointed at my left eye in order to see the rifling inside. What the DA said in his opening statement was accurate: Instead of the lans and grooves of a normal fire arm which are carved into the metal to spin the slug accurately, there were six smoothly polished, twisted ridges. This supposedly improves accuracy with such a powerful charge. Then I hold the weapon in my left hand to check the balance.Stevens is right handed, and I have wondered how easy it really was for him to steer a car with his "strong" hand while firing with his left.
The DA claims, and there is a statement later by Stevens himself, that he has practiced firing the Eagle with both hands. It is a well balanced weapon, semi-automatic. I could probably do the same kind of damage he did with a gun like this.
After lunch we're treated to the detective from Homicide who interviewed Stevens at the police station. We listen to his tape-recorded statement while following along with the transcript. Stevens admits to possession of the gun, practicing with it, driving around the area at the time of the shooting. He says that he had no idea why the officer pulled him over. He was with somebody named Mario earlier, and in the statement he thinks Mario is still around, either busted or running away. He claims to have had one 16 oz. beer earlier in the evening. He thinks he was turning onto 35th or MacArthur instead of the freeway when he was captured at the on ramp. He sounds tired, but lucid. So lucid, in fact, that either he is blocking out what he did or he's one hell of a liar.
There are moments where he mumbles or hesitates, and I don't know how to interpret these moments. I'll need more information all around this point before I get a clearer picture of his mental condition or personality. How much of this can I believe?
This seems to wrap up the main portion of the DA's case with respect to the night of 7/27/89. I'm sure we'll hear more about it later. Now the next fellow on the stand is another ordinary cop, the first one on the scene of the murder of Leslie Noyer. She is considered the first victim of the Clark/Stevens murder lesson. Clark is charged with being the trigger man, while Stevens supposedly lured Noyer to her death. The officer seems like a tired man. He's not too happy having to describe what he found on the driveway there on Chetwood, but he hangs tough. No need my describing here what he found. It was all covered in the opening statement. Time to chill out now. Time to go home...
I drove beneath the 35th Street overpass on Interstate 580 every day going to and from the trial from my home in Dublin. It was hard to pass the concrete pillar where Ray August died without feeling a pang of sadness and sympathy for his loved ones. I'm so glad I had a lot of other things on my plate at home to keep my mind off the horror I was seeing recounted every day.
Next: Keeps gettin' rougher...
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