A Fever in the Heart: And Other True Cases (28 page)

Both men had seen the slender woman emerge from her home and run through the snow, only to run back, screaming,"Morris! Morris!"

Despite the August heat, it had grown cold in the courtroom.

Sullivan had been successful in turning back time and season.

Shortly before nine the next morning, Wednesday, August 18, the word that the woman at the center of the triangle was going to testify buzzed through the tenth floor. "She's here...." The murmuring passed along the oak benches outside the courtroom. Witnesses waited there. Family sometimes retreated to the benches when the testimony grew too graphic, while the reporters came and went. Today, they packed the press rows inside the courtroom and their cameramen waited outside for a glimpse of the woman who had bedazzled two me none enough to forgive her for what many men would find unforgivable and the other enough, allegedly, to both kill and die for her. She was beautiful. There had been no exaggeration about that.

Jerilee had a wonderful figure, slender and full breasted. She wore a tight-fitting striped shirt over a black turtleneck top and black bell-bottom slacks. Her hair was dark brown, parted in the middle, and fell to her shoulders. She had huge eyes under carefully arched brows.

Her eyes were lined with kohl, which made them appear even bigger.

Despite everything that she had been through, she seemed younger than twenty-nine. Outside the courtroom, Jerilee posed willingly for the cameras and talked to reporters. Yes, she was nervous, but she was prepared to testify. Only when Jerilee moved toward the witness chair to be sworn in, did her real anxiety show. She would now have to relive the most horrendous three years of her life. There was a quaver in her voice as she answered Jeff Sullivan's questions. "First, Jerilee," he said, "I want you to sit up as close to the microphone as you can and speak loudly to all of the jurors, and so counsel can hear you. Would you please state your full name and spell it for the record?"

"Jerilee Littleton. J-e-r-i-l-e-e. .. L-i-t-t-l-e-to-n."

Vern Henderson stared at her from his spot at the prosecution table.

Later, he commented somewhat sardonically, "Everybody was looking to see Mrs. Blankenbaker or Mrs. Moore, and neither of them showed up. Mrs. Littleton came to court. Most people were surprised to find that out."

The witness gave her address in Yakima, and said she was a loan interviewer at the Pacific National Bank. "Since October. .."

"Jerilee, when were you married to Morris Blankenbaker?"

"August twenty-eight, 1965."

"Did you and Morris have any children?"

"Yes, we did a boy, Rickhe's now seven, and a girl, Amanda, and she's five."

"Now, how long were you and Morris married?"

"It would have been nine years in August of seventy-four, we were divorced in June."

"After you divorced Morris, did you remarry?"

"Yes. .. Glynn Moore."

"Does Glynn Moore have a nickname?"

"Yes, it was Gabby.""

"Now, when were you and Gabby Moore married?"

"September fourteenth, 1974."

"How long did you and Gabby Moore live together?"

"Till July of 1975."

"Less than a year?"

"Yes."

"From September to July, did you and he ever separate?"

"Yes, about three times."

"What was the longest separation?"

"I think about two weeks."

"Why did you and he separate during that period of time?"

"Well, he was a very unpredictable person. He would he loved you a lot one minute and the next minute he just kicked you out of the house, and I was getting a little bit scared of him."

"Did he actually throw you out of the house on occasion?"

"Yes."

"What about his drinking habits during the time you were married to him?"

"He drank very heavily."

"When you say very heavily,' can you give me some idea of the amount?"

"Well, within a two- or three-hour period, he would drink a fifth of bourbon or whatever." Jerilee testified that this level of drinking occurred three or four times a week, but she said she didn't think Gabby had used drugs. "Not that you are aware of?"

"No."

"Now, were you separated in July?"

"Yes."

"When you left, where did you go?"

"I went back to my first husband, Morris Blankenbaker."

There was a slight murmur in the courtroom. What had been well-chewed gossip in Yakima was news to most of the spectators in this Seattle trial. Jerilee kept her eyes on Jeff Sullivan. He was being gentle with her. She didn't know what kind of questions Adam Moore and Chris Tait might ask. "When did you file for divorce from Glynn Moore?"

"In July."

"So when you moved out of Gabby's house, you moved back in with Morris?

And where were you and Morris living in July of 1975?"

"At two-ten North Sixth Street in Yakima."

Jerilee answered questions about Gabby's obsession to have her back.

"Did you have any contact with Gabby Moore?"

"He would call daily and he stopped by a couple of times. He would call me at work and he would call me at home. .. he came out to the bank.

.."

"When he called, what was the general nature of his conversation?"

"He would just ask when I was coming back and wouldn't I give him another chance. He wasn't going to make it without me."

"Did he ever talk about Morris?"

"Not really that I recall."

"Did he ever threaten to do bodily harm to Morris?"

"No."

"Did he ever threaten to do bodily harm to himself?"

"Yes.... He would often say that he would like to commit suicide in front of me so that I would be on the fifth floor of Memorial which is the psychiatric ward." Jerilee testified that Gabby's children had all spoken to her on their father's behalf and begged her to give him another chance. "Did you tell Glynn Moore that if Morris wasn't around that you would go back to him?"

"No, I definitely didn't."

"Did he ever ask you what you would do if Morris wasn't there?"

"I don't believe he did."

At the prosecution table, Vern Henderson listened and watched. He knew that Jerilee had met with Gabby Moorehe had seen them. From the distance at which he had observed them, he had no way of knowing if Jerilee had given Gabby any mixed signals. He wished that he had talked to her.

Talked to Gabby. Done something. But he had kept out of it, he had followed his own rule not to mess in anyone else's relationship. Jerilee told the jury about the night Gabby came into her house, and of how Morris and Joey Watkins had arrived to send him away. "Do you remember where he [Morris] was teaching?"

"He was teaching physical education at the intermediate school in Wapato."

"And sometime later in the fall, he took on another job, is that right?"

"Yes, he checked ID at the Lion's Share, at the door."

"And what is the Lion's Share?"

"It's a tavern, located on Second Street, I believe, in Yakima."

"How long had Morris been working at the Lion's Share?"

"He worked three days a week, and I believe this was his second week."

Jerilee's voice trembled more as she recalled the last night of Morris's life. They had had pizza with their children, and then he had gone off to work. She and a girlfriend had gone out to hear her friend's husband's band playing at the Country Cousin. They had stopped by to see Morris. The last time she had seen him alive was about a quarter to ten that night. Later, she had picked up Rick and Amanda from Olive's mobile home and taken them home where they'd all gone to bed. At two A.M she had wakened, realized Morris would be home soon and she had moved the children from her bed into their own. "Did you just wake up at two or did you have an alarm set?"

"I just woke up at two o'clock."

"... How did you know it was two?"

"I have a clock by the bed. I took the children out of the bed and put them in their own beds. Then I went back to bed myself."

"Did Morris come in, come home?"

"He came home just a few minutes after I put the children in bed."

"Tell us what happened then," Jeff Sullivan said.

"I heard our car drive in and I heard our car door shut. And then I thought that I heard two more car doors shut and Morris didn't come in."

"What did you do when he didn't come in?"

"Well, at the time I didn't do anything because I had thought some fellows had asked him if he would like to go for a couple of drinks after work. So I thought the car doors that I heard later were the fellows picking him up, so I didn't do anything. I just remained in bed."

"Did you hear anything else, Jerilee, when the car doors closed?"

"I heard some voices. .. from the back of the house. ..

toward the alley.... They sounded rather excited, kind of high-pitched.

"

"Did you recognize any of the voices?"

"No, I didn't."

"Could one of the voices have been Morris's?"

"Could have been, but I didn't recognize it at the time."

"How long did this conversation or these voices last?"

"Not long, maybe ten words."

Jerilee could not remember the sequence of the car doors slamming and the voices. She didn't know which had come first. "Okay. How long did you stay in bed before you decided you better see what's going on?"

"About half an hour. Then I got up and went to the back window and looked out, and I saw that our car was there. So then I went outside and looked inside the car. Nobody was there so I went back in the house, went back to bed."

"How far was the car parked from where Morris's body was found the next day?"

"Maybe thirty feet, about."

"Is it dark out there?"

"Where Morris's body was. .. it was."

"Do you wear glasses?"

"I wear contact lenses."

"If you take your contact lenses out, how far can you see?"

"I can't see hardly at all."

Jerilee had taken her contacts out when she went to bed, and she had gone out to look in the car without them. She was nearsighted and had difficulty seeing at a distance. She had been able to see that both their cars were parked in their usual places, but not much more than that. She had gone back to bed, read for a while, and then slept fitfully until five M, ..... "You have a large dog, do you not, or did at that time?"

"Yes, we dida black Lab."

"Where was he?"

"In my bedroom."

"Did he make any noise at two o'clock?"

"No, he didn't."

"Did he usually bark when there were strangers outside the house?"

"Oh, yes. .. he's very, very protective."

"To the point where you didn't have your mail delivered if he was outside? Is that right?"

"That's right."

"Did he bark when Morris came home usually?"

"No, he pretty much could recognize the footsteps, I believe, because he never barked at anybody familiar." At five A.M Jerilee had called her brother-in-law Mike, who had offered to come over. He knew that Morris had had no plans to go anywhere after work. "I said, Well, I think it will be okay,'" Jerilee testified."

Rather than have you come down, I'll take Hike and we'll go around the house'. .. so I left Mike on the phone and took the dog and went out the front door. Before I did that, though, I put my contacts in this time. The dog ran ahead of me and started growling and barking at something on the ground. I couldn't tell right then what it was, but when I got there I saw that it was Morris." Jerilee could no longer contain the tears that brimmed up in her eyes, trying as she obviously was to blink them back. This was the worst part, but she kept answering Jeff Sullivan's questions. "Was it dark?" he asked softly.

"Yes."

"How was Morris lying when you first walked over to him?"

"He was lying on his stomach, facedown his feet pointing toward the alley that would be west."

"And his head?"

"East toward Sixth Street."

"Where was his body, Jerilee, in relationship to your fence and the gate?"

"It was just inside the gate just right inside the gate, and" Her voice shook, thick with tears. "What did you do then?"

"I rolled him over and tried to pull him toward me. I felt his face and I thought I felt something on his face which I thought was mud at that time. And he was really heavy. I mean he didn't help me at all. And I think I tried to hear a heartbeat. I don't remember exactly.... I took ahold of his jacket on his right side and rolled him toward the house, which would be north, and then I pulled him into a sitting position toward me with his jacket. "And then I started screaming...."

The summer morning in Seattle was lost to everyone in Judge Lay's courtroom. They were too caught up in listening to Jerilee Littleton recall a dark dawn in November. She explained to Prosecutor Sullivan how she had run to the phone where her husband's brother waited. "I just ran inside and picked up the phone and said, Mike, come quick. Morris has blood all over him!" And then I went back outside and I was screaming and then two neighbor people came over and asked me if I had called the ambulance, and I said no, and they told me to do that so I went in and called the ambulance. And by the time I went back outside, the police had arrived then and I went back inside and stayed." There were photographs to be introduced into evidence. Sullivan began with the least upsetting. He handed Jerilee pictures of her car, the carport on North Sixth, the back of her house, of Morris's car, the side yard. "The gate was always open," Jerilee said. "I don't know if the hinges weren't working right or"

"Jerilee," Jeff Sullivan said gently, "I'm handing you what's been marked as Identification eight. Can you tell me what that is, please?"

Her breath caught, but she managed to answer, "The fence and Morris's body on his back."

"Does that picture fairly and accurately portray the position of Morris's body?"

"Yes."

Sullivan changed gears and asked Jerilee about her sister's conversation with Gabby Moore. "What did he talk to her about?"

"He would ask her to influence me or persuade me to go back to him."