Apex Predator (60 page)

Read an excerpt from the next book in the Apex Predator series by J.A. Faura,
The Human Element.

Prologue

Manhattan, New York

Felix Garcia finally had fifteen minutes to run downstairs and grab a hot dog from the vendor that was always in front of the New York Chronicle building.
Garcia, a reporter for the Chronicle
, actually ran a tab with the guy, he was there so much. He had been looking for some unique angle to cover on the biggest story in the history of New York, perhaps the US and maybe even the world. A criminal trial where what defines a human being would be litigated; a first-degree murder trial, no less. As he sat in the elevator
Felix
thought that it really did depend on how the audience thought about the case: if they believe the defense’s argument that there was indeed another sub-species under homo-sapiens, then it was most definitely the biggest story in the history of the modern human; if they thought it was just some sort of ploy or gimmick the defense is using to get their client off, then it wasn’t quite that big, but it was still the biggest story New York had ever seen for sure. It wasn’t just the argument the defense was planning on using that made it a huge story, the facts of the case were simply sensational, even by New York standards: a father whose daughter is kidnapped and murdered and who is a former Navy SEAL, decides to take out his daughter’s killer. After he does it, however, he does not claim insanity, temporary or otherwise and in fact declares that his motive for killing the man was to bring the world’s attention to what he says is the most significant and real threat humanity has ever seen. It had everything, a sympathetic figure, a monster, a hugely divisive issue and some groundbreaking scientific testimony. It did not get any more sensational than that, it hadn’t, ever, anywhere. So even if it wasn’t the biggest case modern humanity had ever seen, it was definitely in the running. With that kind of case, the media attention had also been unprecedented and just kept getting even more frenetic, something that Garcia and most other reporters covering the story had not thought possible. He had almost given up on getting a scoop, when his local contacts at the courts building, the police department and strategically important law firms
,
came through for him. He had made the deadline last night and knew the digital version would be published any time and the non-
digital would command the front-
page headline in their evening edition.

The elevator light showed they were on the first floor, the door opened and he everyone in the elevator except for Felix
and two other people, both of whom also worked for the Chronicle, stayed in the elevator. They knew that the first floor lobby was a chaotic and crowded space with reporters from other papers owned by the same group that owned the Chronicle parked on every square inch available in the building. With every office stuffed beyond capacity, they had migrated to the first floor lobby.
Felix
and the two other people, however, knew that if they went down one more floor to the basement of the building, they could exit without having to navigate equipment, people, tripping over cables or being seen.
Felix was still the only reporter that Steven Loomis, the man accused of the murder, had spoken to, which now made Felix
something of a celebrity himself. The three of them walked through some storage, past an electrical panel and out a side door, which locked once they were through.
Felix pulled the collar on his coat up over his ears;
it was still very cold, even though it was almost mid-March. As he walked to the vendor’s cart, which had now morphed into three carts, all owned by the same family, he got a notice on his smartphone, the piece had hit. He stopped, stood to the side and pulled up the story on the Chronicle’s mobile app.

District Attorney will not pursue lesser-included charges

API-Manhattan, New York

By Felix Garcia/New York Chronicle

The District Attorney’s office has confirmed that there will not be lesser-included offenses used on the Steven Loomis murder trial. Loomis is charged with the first-degree murder of Donald Riche, who was suspected of the kidnapping and murder of Tracy Loomis, as well as eight other girls between the ages of five and seven years old. Riche was shot while being transported from the courthouse to the holding facility. NYU law school criminal procedure professor and Chronicle legal consultant Hank Weller believes not including lesser
included offenses is a very unusual step for a DA to take, especially in a murder trial of this nature, ‘Normally in a murder trial you want to make sure to give the jury plenty of choices to convict, so you would include the charge of second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, whatever is appropriate. David
Neill is basically saying that he believes so much in the facts of the case that he doesn’t need
other charges as a choice for the jury’. While District Attorney David Neill did not comment personally, a statement from his office seemed to confirm Weller’s opinion, ‘The District Attorney’s office believes that the charges in this case fulfill the precise requirements for first degree murder without question. This decision is not an attempt at making a statement or trying to influence the jury pool, it is a decision based on the facts of the case alone.’ During a telephone interview Steven Loomis’s lead attorney, Drew Willis, seemed unconcerned about the DA’s decision, ‘That is a choice every prosecutor is entitled to make, regardless of the facts of the case. As a defense team we cannot concern ourselves with every choice the District Attorney chooses to make, if we did that we might have to change our strategy every couple of weeks.’ Other experts interviewed also find the DA’s decision unusual. Carrie Hutton, a senior attorney with the public defender’s office, disagrees that it is not a decision meant to communicate a message, ‘We see this kind of decision when the district attorney is absolutely convinced that the jury could not find otherwise, when the facts are so crystal clear and the evidence is so convincing that it is almost a foregone conclusion that the jury will find a defendant guilty. It is usually done to pressure a defendant into taking a deal and pleading guilty. I think this could backfire for the DA in this case. I don’t think the facts are as clear as the DA thinks they are.’ She went on to explain that while the facts of the case are undisputed, the science and other probable evidence makes it a situation where the jur
y could find for the defense, ‘Consider,
the defendant shot the victim in broad daylight, confessed after the shooting and clarified that he had planned exactly what he was going to do. By all rights that should not be in any way defensible, not unless there is a claim of insanity, which there isn’t in this case.’ Loomis’s defense team strategy has been the focus of intense international media attention. The defense strategy is based on what they claim is solid and significant
scientific research that points to a previously unclassified subspecies of homo sapiens, a subspecies they are calling homo sapiens predaer or homo predator. Hutton went on, ‘That’s why the defense’s argument is so fascinating from a legal perspective. The human element is not something that has ever been litigated before.
Not in this context at least.
’ Professor Weller agrees that it may be a wrong decision by David Neill, ‘I think he’s laying his cards on the table and simply establishing just how clear cut this case is, but it is far from clear cut. Juries can do a lot of things, as the OJ trial showed us.
I think it is a strategic move designed to
give the defense an incentive to make a deal with the prosecution.’ Jury selection begins Monday,
May 12 at 8:00 AM. The county information office confirmed that there will be a jury pool of approximately 100 potential jurors, far more than would be called in, even in the most visible and public cases. Weller, Hutton and other legal experts believe that jury selection may take as long as three weeks, far longer than for any other case that has been tried in the state and perhaps the country. It is widely believed that the outcome of the case will hinge on jury selection and the strength of both sides’ expert witnesses, which is the reason many believe the jury selection will take so long. Hutton stated she believes it is going to be a much more contentious process than it normally is, ‘I think both sides are doing some serious assessment of the type of juror they are looking for and they will go toe to toe to get the jury they want. They don’t have to spend time litigating any of the facts other than what the defense is claiming, so they can focus on the jury they want.’ She explained that each side is allowed a number of preemptory challenges, challenges where neither side has to give an explanation for why they are dismissing a juror, but she believes that each side will go through those
challenges in the first week
and will then need to challenge for cause, where they have to provide the court with a reason for dismissing a juror. The court is not obliged to accept the reason each side presents. Although it is extremely rare, the judge may decide that a juror can stay, even though one side or the other might have provided a reason for the request to dismiss.

Felix smiled; the story had probably hit the rest of the media like a lightning bolt. Even the most well-
known reporters and their teams had not been able to get the information and had definitely been definitely looking. He had gotten the information before anyone else covering the trial because of his contacts and his absolutely relentless work ethic. That had also been the reason that Steven Loomis had only spoken to him, Robert Grady the lead detective in the case had given his name to Loomis when he had asked for an honest, balanced member of the media that he could trust with writing his story. It wasn’t just his work ethic that had allowed him to scoop much bigger media outlets, it was also the fact that he had grown up on these streets,
Spanish Harlem and
the Bronx specifically. His grandfather had been a well-known hustler
on those streets. Never into anything too heavy, just enough to keep his family covered, Augie Garcia had made a lot of friends in a lot of places;
friendships that extended into family and that had been cultivated and maintained over the years. The ‘grapevine’ on the street was always the best source
of
information if you were really looking for the story, the true story. Any son of the streets of Spanish Harlem and the Bronx could tell you that. Garcia, walked up to the hot dog vendor who smiled at him, “Hungry big
Felix
?”
Felix
held up two fingers, “You know it Ali, hit me up with a couple.” Ali started preparing the hot dogs, “Everything on them?” Garcia winked at him, “You know it.”

Not too far from where Felix Garcia was enjoying his hot dogs, the District Attorney, David Neill, was in a meeting
with the two prosecutors that would be handling the Loomis trial, Barton Logan and Melanie Farris. Bart would be lead counsel with Melanie backstopping him. She was actually more senior than Logan, more seasoned, which meant that if the trial went to hell she’d have more to lose. Both of them had been very cleverly manipulated, almost ambushed, into handling the case. Not that they really had much choice. When it was going to be a trial to convict Donald Riche, murderer of young children, Neill was going to handle the case personally with Farris as second counsel and
Logan as the third-string
sub. Bart
would have more than likely been researching points of law and citations for them to prepare for the trial. When Loomis shot Riche the situation had gone from a
‘can’t lose’ type case, to a ‘can’t win’
type case. How do you prosecute a man who
is an upstanding citizen, a decorated military commander
serving in the military team that was literally made up of the best of the best? A man whose daughter the victim in this case had kidnapped and brutally murdered along with eight other girls and who knew how many other victims. How do you prosecute such a man? Very carefully, that’s how. You make sure you don’t attack him or who he is and you focus on the law, on establishing the elements of the crime and that’s it, no
judgment of the man whatsoever. His boss had called this meeting to go over preparations for the trial, but had instead been ranting about the article that had just been published by the New York Chronicle. David Neill was not a very amiable or charismatic individual; he was a dry, focused individual who had been born to be a public servant. He believed in the absolutes of the law and expected every one of his deputies to be the same way. There were no gray areas in the law for David Neill, something was right or something was wrong, period. He had used that complete commitment to the law and to catching and convicting those who broke it to get elected twice already. Right now, however, Neill was breathing fire about the article.
He had lost it after Lucas Gordon, one of the chief deputies in the office, had notified him about the article. “I want to know who the fuck is talking to that little bastard from the Chronicle! That spic has been hanging around the courthouse and our office for years getting all kinds of information that nobody should be able to get. It hasn’t really been an issue because the crap he usually covers is small-time, but this is different, this will literally make or break the careers of every single person from this office who is involved in the case directly.
That includes me, in case you were wondering!
So I want to know who he’s talking to and I want their balls on a platter!” Logan and Farris both smiled as they
looked down, but Neill still caught the gesture, “You guys think this is funny?! We’ll see how funny you think it is when the media is roasting you over an open fire after losing the case.” He turned to Gordon who had just been frozen in place since giving Neill the news. Gordon tried to mollify his boss, “We’re trying to find out precisely that as we speak. I’m confident
before we’ll know who it is he’s been talking to before too long, at least about this case.” Neill seemed to settle a bit, but was still angry, “
You better hope so.
I’m serious Lucas, I want their balls when you find out who it is.” Lucas nodded and left. He had wanted to ask his boss what he’d like to have on the platter if it was a woman that was talking to Garcia, but he thought better of it and just left without saying anything. Neill got back to the business at hand, “Well, it is what it is, now they know. Melanie, where are we with our expert witnesses?” Farris looked down at the open manila folder in front of her, “We have experts for just about every aspect of the science they are most likely to use. Anthropologists, archaeologists, paleoneurologists, psychiatrists and at least five other disciplines.” Neill was visibly taken aback, “That’s a lot of experts to prepare for, so we’re going to need to have other people in the office handling some of it. Get Diaz from the human trafficking unit, Marchowski
and Thompson from organized crime
. All of them have had a lot of experience with expert witnesses and they can prepare ours for when the defense cross-examines them. I want the two of you to concentrate on coming up with the cross for their witnesses. By the time you are done with their
experts the jury should be thinking they’re just a bunch of crackpots capitalizing
on a high-profile case.” Logan and Farris looked at each other as if to ask ‘Do you tell him or do I’; neither one of them was looking forward to this case having Neill looking over their shoulder and they
really
weren’t looking forward to telling him when they thought he was wrong about something. It was Melanie Farris that finally spoke up, “Um, sir, we believe it may be risky to just discount their experts. We’ve looked into all of their backgrounds and they all check out as serious researchers at the top of their field
. Perhaps it would be more effective to go forward with the assumption that their findings are correct and simply attacking their conclusions. We don’t need for them to be crackpots to win the case, sir, we just need to show the jury that as accomplished as the expert are, they are human beings that can and have made mistakes.” Neill let her finish and then shook his head while a wry smile spread across his face as he turned and looked directly at Bart Logan, “I see, and is this point of view shared by Logan.” Bart Logan was definitely not as bold or seasoned as Melanie Farris was, but he very much shared the point of view so he nodded and chose to just go with a simple ‘yes sir’. Neill nodded, put his hands on his waist and began to pace as he laid into his deputies, “Are you both crazy? Do I need to find two other deputies to handle this case? Anything short of taking apart their witnesses gives credence to this bullshit theory of theirs and credence is something we absolutely cannot give the defense. Not in any way.” Farris’s eyes were focused on a point on the floor as she listened
. Neill had a point, but it was one that both she and Bart Logan had already explored and discounted. She had told herself she wouldn’t respond to Neill, not matter what he said. She wasn’t able to contain herself, however, “We actually started with that strategy in mind, sir, but after going through each of the witnesses’ backgrounds we realized it just wouldn’t be possible.” Neill shook his head emphatically, “Nonsense, any witness can be taken apart by a good litigator,
any
witness. I don’t care what their backgrounds are; this theory is ridiculous, so all we have to do is show the jury just how ridiculous it is. And, don’t forget we also have very solid witnesses who will be testifying to that fact. So we go after the witnesses and we don’t go after Loomis himself. Public sympathy is a powerful thing, especially because of what he’d been through. We stick with the law and we destroy the science and we’ll be golden. This one is a slam dunk guys, it’s an amazing opportunity to win the highest profile case this city, this country for god’s sake, has ever seen
.” Now both Melanie and Bart were now looking down at the table they were seated around. Neither one of them responded to Neill, but they were both thinking along the same lines. They were both thinking ‘if it was that easy it would be you handling the case’, but they knew it didn’t matter whether they said something or not. Neill’s mind was made up. “You’re both new at these high-profile cases, so I’ll overlook your fumble this once, but one is all you get. All right let’s go over our expert witness list.” Farris and Logan nodded and came around to the side of the table Neill was at to look at the list. Neither was willing to let Neill know that they both thought the decision to pursue murder one and only murder one, was a huge mistake.