Authors: Don Lasseter

Date With the Devil (34 page)

BOOK: Date With the Devil

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Dr. Samuel Miles said it took place on September 16, 2008, and again on June 30, 2009, about two months before the trial started. Most of Mahler's account of the killing had come during the June 30 meeting.

“Doctor, how long would you estimate the defendant has had this bipolar disorder?”

“He may have had it all his life, but the first symptoms he described might have occurred during his adolescence. After that, it was fairly quiet or masked by his substances.”

An air of confidence seemed to radiate from Bobby Grace. He had the appearance of a swordsman testing the edge of his blade. “Did the defendant tell you that he graduated from college?”

“Yes.”

“Did he tell you that he graduated from law school?”

“Yes.” Observers could sense the importance of these questions.

“Did he tell you that he passed the New York State Bar the first time he took it?”

“Yes.”

“Did he tell you that he passed the New Jersey Bar?”

“Yes.”

“Did he tell you that he practiced law on his own in the New York area?”

“Yes.”

“Did he tell you that once he came to California, he started doing day trading?”

“He may have. I don't recall that specifically.”

“Well, did he tell you how he supported himself during his time in California?”

“I'm pretty sure he did. He was practicing some law. I don't recall if he also talkedâoh yes, he did talk about some kind of stock trading. I don't recall if that was day trading or not.”

“Did you do anything to confirm any of these uses of drugs that the defendant reported to you, other than the testing that you described?”

“The only confirmation I had was contained in the police reports with interviews of various people who described the drug use.”

“So, did you personally talk to anybody that said they saw him take drugs?”

“No.”

“Did you watch [a DVD] of the nine-hour interview the police did with the defendant after he was arrested in connection with this case?”

“No, I did not.”

A feeling hung in the courtroom that Bobby Grace's sword had already scored “touchÃ©” several times, and the defense was going to need a good supply of bandages.

“Have you heard of a term called âmalingering'?”

“Yes. âMalingering' is the conscious faking or exaggeration of symptoms in order to gain something.”

“And when you talked to the defendant about this particular incident that occurred in May of 2007, he had a law degree?”

Perhaps feeling a little feisty, the doctor snapped, “Yes, he did. I don't think they take that away from you.”

“Nope, they don't,” Grace happily agreed. “Doctor, about how many people in the United States suffer from what you call bipolar disorder?”

“It's about two to three percent of the population.”

“And of these two or three percent, do many of them function on a day-to-day basis ... being able to pass a couple of bar examinations?”

“Yeah.”

“Practice law?”

“Yes, most commonly, bipolar disorder is episodic, and between episodes people function fairly well.”

“And, as far as you know, from the defendant's reports, he had been using some kind of drugs since the age of seventeen?”

“Yes.”

“He told you that it was just about six months prior to the shooting that he started using meth, or speed, as you referred to it?”

“Yes. At one point, he said that the only drug he had used in the last twenty yearsâor ten to twenty yearsâwas cocaine. And then he later corrected himself, saying that over the last six months he was using speed from time to time because of a woman he was involved with.”

Bobby Grace, pacing back and forth, nodded and said, “Well, let's talk about that. In your interview with the defendant about the actual shooting, did he indicate to you that he was upset with Kristi because she didn't respond to him quickly enough regarding his questioning if she had any drugs with her?” Yes. “As a result of that, did he tell you that he went and got a handgun from somewhere in the room?” Yes. “At some point, did he tell you he loaded the weapon?”

After a short volley with equivocation from the witness, he finally said, “He didn't tell me how the bullet got in there. He said, âBefore you know it, a bullet was in there.'”

His voice a notch higher in mock confusion, Grace repeated, “âBefore you know it, a bullet was in there'?”

“Yeah. Now it's not clear from my notes whether he was saying to me, âBefore you know it, the bullet was in her' or if it was in the gun.”

A few cracks had seemingly appeared in the previously solid bulwark of the doctor's story. Grace said, “Well, actually, that sentence, or phrasing, comes before any discussion of the gun going off. Isn't that correct?” Miles agreed. “Then the defendant told you that he specifically got the gun out because he wanted to scare both Donnie and Kristi?”

“Yes.”

“And the defendant told you that he got progressively more upset or irritable because Kristi was not responding to his questioning?”

“Yes.”

“And that he asked about eight or nine times?”

“Yes.”

“Did he tell you he immediately realized that Kristi was dead after the gun went off?”

“He didn't say.”

“Well, did he tell you that he immediately went for help from Donnie and Karl to try to help him get rid of the dead body?”

“He didn't say that he did that immediately.”

Allowing a tiny bit of sarcasm to color his tone, Grace said, “Oh, I forgot. He went and put a suit on first, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then he went to Karl to get help to move the body?”

Sounding like a professor speaking to a misguided student, Dr. Miles corrected Grace. “He went to Karl and told him to look at what was there, look at the body, and then Karl went back to his room.”

“And Karl wouldn't help him?”

The answer rang with defiance. “Karl offered no assistance.”

“He told you that from there, he called some other people who he described as losers to ask them to help him with his situation?”

“Well, he called a lot of people asking for help and he describes them all as losers. And he berates himself for not calling people he knew were not losers who might have provided him with some reasonable advice, like call the police.”

To a few spectators, the testimony seemed to have morphed from a doctor's professional opinions to that of a friend trying to rationalize an alibi for Mahler.

“By the way,” said Grace, “did he ever tell you that he called the police?”

“No.”

“Then eventually does he tell you that he placed Kristi's dead body in the back of his [car] trunk?”

“Yes.”

The jury, at last, had heard an admission of this important part of the case. Mahler had also told the doctor of driving for hours.

“But he doesn't know what happened after that?” Grace questioned.

“All he knows is he was arrested the next day.”

“No,” Grace said, “I'm asking if he told you what happened after he drove that distance with the body in his car.”

“Yes. He pulled over and put the body somewhere. I can't read my handwriting as to what he did with the body there.” It seemed strange to listeners that the doctor knew so many details about Maher's behavior, but couldn't recall hearing about the dumping of a dead body without being able to read his scribbled notes.

“Did he speak about putting the body somewhere?”

“I don't know if he dug something or if he just put it at the side of the road. I don't know. I can't read my handwriting.”

“All right. So did you get the impression that he had no idea where he was driving to or where he put the body after the shooting?”

“He said, âI have no clue what I was doing.'”

“When did he tell you his version of how this occurred?”

“That was June 30, 2009.”

“In the police report, did you read that detectives had interviewed the defendant for over nine hours on June 1, 2007?”

“Yes, I read it, but I didn't recall that date.”

“And didn't you think it was important to hear what the defendant had to say in that interview to see if it matched what he later told you?”

“Well, in retrospect, I would have liked to have seen the videotape of that.”

Bobby Grace returned to the issue of malingering and asked the same question: wouldn't it have been important to compare the interviews?

Dr. Miles partially agreed and commented about his concern that Mahler was “malingering mental illness.”

“Can people who have bipolar disorder lie?” Grace queried.

“Yes.”

“So, in terms of you evaluating this case, don't you think it would have been important to try to figure out if the defendant was lying to you, by comparing what you heard from him to what he said in the police interview?”

The doctor's confidence appeared to be cracking. His faltering answer seemed cloudy with doubt. “Well, it would have been helpful to have that data and look at that data. And that, I think, would have been, you know, in retrospect, I wished that I had thought of thatâthought of seeing the videotape. And the videotape could have given more information than just what he told the police.”

Bobby Grace holstered his sword, having inflicted significant wounds to the bipolar/drug usage excuse. “Thank you, Your Honor. I have no more questions.”

Larry Young rushed in to perform some triage. “Doctor, you mentioned that you thought he had worked for some law firms. Do you have any basis for that?”

“He mentioned working for a law firm, but I don't recall the name.”

“Do you recall if he told you that he couldn't keep a job working for other people?”

“Yes, he said that he couldn't.”

“Now, an inability to keep a jobâis that at all consistent with the bipolar situation?”

The long, convoluted answer amounted to a definite maybe.

Young asked, “The police reports you have read, isn't it true they included a synopsis of this nine-hour interview?”

“Yes.”

Everyone in the room realized that a synopsis, whether a few sentences or a few paragraphs, would not provide a reasonable comparison.

“Would you classify a drug addiction as a disease or a moral defect?” Young posed.

Another lengthy answer sounded nondefinitive.

With the defense's case hemorrhaging credibility, Larry Young had no more questions.

Bobby Grace, apparently satisfied, chose to let Dr. Samuel Miles leave.

C
HAPTER
38

“H
E'S A
V
ERY
S
ELF-
C
ENTERED
, A
RROGANT
M
AN
”

On Thursday, September 10, 2009, Bobby Grace had only one more witness to conclude the prosecution's case, Detective Tom Small. With the morning used up by other matters for the judge, Small took the stand at one forty-five
P.M.
and would testify for only one hour. Responding to questions from Bobby Grace, Tom Small told of his twenty-five years with the LAPD and fourteen years as a homicide detective. He confirmed that he and Detective Bynum had conducted the long videotaped interview with David Mahler, which took nearly all day on Saturday, June 2, 2007.

Most of the detective's tenure on the stand would be used up by playing segments of the videotaped interview Tom Small and Vicki Bynum had conducted with Mahler. A full transcript, nearly four hundred pages, was given to each juror.

Prior to the playing of each clip from the video, Grace validated it as evidence by having Small state that he and Bynum had asked those questions.

Grace signaled for the tape to stop, and inquired of the witness, “At some point in time, did you take a break in your interview with the defendant?”

“Yes, we did.”

“And was there a way to monitor him when you were not in the room?”

“Yes. There's a side room where the equipment is, and there's a video screen and audio in there.”

“Was your attention called to something the defendant was doing while you were not in the room with him?”

“Watching him on the monitor, I saw that Mr. Mahler was up and around in the interview room. He was in the corner and seemed to be contemplating something. He initiated an action that was, at the time, rather comical to us. What he did isâhe set up a faint, knocked some furniture into the wall, and then laid down under the table.”

“Did you go into the room to see that he was okay?”

“Yes.”

With the judge's permission, Grace played the video segment showing Mahler going through his unconvincing charade of pretending to faint.

As everyone in the room watched the childish ploy, Mahler stared straight ahead, perhaps embarrassed but clearly angry.

With the screen again blank, Grace said he had just one more question. “Detective Small, at any time, did the defendant admit to having killed Kristin Baldwin?”

“He did not admit to killing her.”

Larry Young's final turn at cross-examination brought him out of his chair. After courteously greeting Detective Small, he asked, “Would you characterize his behavior as somewhat bizarre during that interview?”

Tom Small, like his supervisor Wendi Berndt, had testified in more trials than he could remember, and he knew exactly how to handle it. He replied, “I would characterize him as very unusual.”

The defender inquired, “I mean, there were times he was laughing out loud. We hear that one loud âha, ha, ha, ha.' And at other times, he would speak quite loudly. Isn't that unusual, in the context of the conversation?”

“Are you asking for my opinion?” Detective Small responded.

“Yes, sir.”

“My opinion is that he's a very self-centered, arrogant man.”

“Do you think he thought he could outwit youâthat he could be the best person you have ever talked to and negotiate with you and walk out? Don't you think that's what he was trying?”

“I believe you would have to ask him.”

“He just thought he was the greatest thing going, didn't he?” Small didn't bother to reply. “Did you notice how even some of his words were very, very rapid, weren't they? Remember, he said, âI'm sorry if I'm going too fast'?”

Unexcitable, in a level voice, Small replied, “I don't find that unusual.”

“And the bizarre language he used, or that he wrote in those notes, didn't you find that a bit unusual?”

“My opinion was that he's very proud of his training as a lawyer and he tried to exhibit that, put it on display for us.”

“In your opinion, a real lawyer wouldn't have written that?”

“I don't know. He did.”

“And what was this about? âThe body was left near a hospital'? Did you find a hospital out there?”

“I didn't recover the body. I spoke to the detectives who did.”

“Was there a hospital there?”

“The area where the victim was found was in a remote section of the desert.”

“So it wasn't true that there was a hospital there?”

“That I don't know. When you say âthere,' you'd have toâ”

“Well, the location.”

“As far as I know, it was a rural road, very remote location, near the I-40, and several miles east of Barstow, near Daggett.”

Young ended with a brief exchange about what Mahler wore in his bedroom when Kristin Baldwin was shot, and then he sat down.

A short redirect by Bobby Grace drew the final testimony to a close. He announced, “The people rest.” Larry Young followed suit with “The defense rests.”

David Mahler, however, had no intention of resting. He asked the judge for permission to speak, and presented a Marsden Motion to fire his attorney. It surprised no one. All morning, his whispered arguments with Larry Young could be seen by everyone in the room.

Granted the opportunity to speak, Mahler complained of the psychiatric diagnosis and said the testimony had been too short and inadequate. It should have covered long-term effects of drug usage. He wanted to be hypnotized to show his mental problems. A court case he had handled in New Jersey, Mahler claimed, would be relevant. He demanded that he be given an MRI or CT scan. And records of his behavior in jail should be admitted. He said, “I feel the jury has heard an inadequate psychological defense.”

Judge Wesley ruled the Marsden Motion would be denied, since Larry Young had presented a spirited, well-thought-out defense case. The other issues could be addressed in post-trial appeals.

On Friday, September 11, 2009, the eighth anniversary of a tragic day in U.S. history, jurors and spectators filed into Judge David Wesley's courtroom to hear Bobby Grace and Larry Young present their final arguments. Outside, the sky had cleared considerably as firefighters continued to work in the Angeles National Forest to bring the devastating flames under final control.

Dressed sharply in a navy blue suit, pin-striped white shirt, and an iridescent blue-red tie, Bobby Grace accepted the judge's 10:45
A.M.
invitation to begin. Still observing the unwritten rule of keeping a one-yard buffer between him and the jury box, he first paid a moment of respect to the memory of 9-11-01.

Without the use of notes and speaking directly to the jury in a folksy tone, often crossing his arms or placing his left hand in his pocket, Grace told them of Mahler's living the “Hollywood lifestyle.”

Since the jury would have to wrestle with decisions regarding murder or manslaughter, Grace commenced with educational definitions. He nodded to the courtroom clerk, who, according to plan, dimmed the courtroom lights. The jurors' and the audience's eyes focused on the large screen above David Mahler's head. The first slide set the tone with a larger-than-life photo of Kristin Baldwin. Bobby Grace next used graphics to explain the concept of circumstantial evidence versus direct evidence.

The slide show moved on to clarify witness credibility. Grace knew the unusual cast of characters who had testified might not have impressed jurors as completely reliable. He wanted it understood that the world of a killer is not populated with angels.

After spinning a positive image on the parade of people who had known David Mahler, Grace walked the jurors along a path of education about levels of homicide, starting with first-degree murder and proceeding to the least severe crime of involuntary manslaughter. Explaining that he wanted to focus on second-degree murder, Grace underlined that Russian roulette, as an intentional act dangerous to human life, constituted murderâeven though explicit intent to kill might not be present.

When prosecutors argue this type of implied malice, they may seem to be giving a mixed message. Jury instructions define “murder” as requiring “malice aforethought,” which generally means the defendant must have the
intent
to kill. But another jury instruction states that “malice” is implied when a person commits
an extremely dangerous act
. This is an acceptable substitute for the intent to kill. Grace's use of graphics on the screen helped jurors grasp the subtle differences.

Shifting to the key points of his argument, Grace summarized testimonial evidence from the witnesses, emphasizing the events in David Mahler's bedroom that took Kristin Baldwin's life, the video of his Jaguar being gone the amount of time required for a trip to Daggett, Mahler's attempts to find help in disposing of the body, and his callous behavior at the Marriott, including liquor, meals, and the use of a prostitute.

Anticipating what Larry Young might say, Bobby Grace attacked the psychiatrist's testimony as inadequate to prove that bipolar disorder or drugs had driven him to kill Kristin Baldwin. The doctor had quoted David Mahler saying, “I contacted every loser I knew to get someone to help me get rid of the body.” This demonstrated consciousness of guilt.

Illustrations of every point appeared on the screen in full color. All of the evidence, said Grace, pointed unequivocally to a finding of second-degree murder.

Mahler's facial expressions turned from eager spectator to defiant opponent. He furiously scribbled notes on a pad, moved his glasses from his forehead to the bridge of his nose and back again, and glared at his own attorney.

A lunch break interrupted the show. At 1:45
P.M.
, Grace resumed his presentation, often backed up by a projected photo of Kristin, with a soft smile on her face. At two ten, he gave the jury an earnest look and slightly above a whisper said, “The people thank you.”

Larry Young's argument got off to a bad start with a technical malfunction. His aide flipped the on switch of Young's computer to project PowerPoint images, but the battery had died. Unhappy with a possible delay, Judge David Wesley suggested to Young that he connect it directly to an electrical outlet. Embarrassed, Young groaned that he had left the power cord in his car. Frowning, Wesley asked if the DA's power cord could be used. Bobby Grace quickly unplugged his cord and handed it to Young's assistant. She said, “It won't work because I have a Mac.”

Judge Wesley offered one more solution. Could Mr. Young use Mr. Grace's computer? But the assistant didn't think the Mac slide show was compatible with the PC equipment. Wesley informed Young that he had about ten minutes to solve the problem, or he must proceed without the graphics.

Armine Safarian, the comely young woman who had been propositioned by Michael Conoscenti, came to the rescue. She offered to help the assistant convert Young's digital show to a Mac format, and said it would take only a few minutes.

While Safarian worked, another drama took place at the defense table. Mahler and his attorney had been exchanging grumbling words. Young's voice grew loud enough to be heard in the gallery. “I'm the one who will talk, not you!”

Mahler snapped back, “Who the hell do you think you are?”

In a low growl, Young replied, “your lawyer.”

The quarrel continued, in sotto voce, until Armine Safarian announced after only ten minutes of expert assistance that the conversion was done.