Michael Benson's True Crime Bundle (95 page)

From the witness stand, Jilica snuck a quick peek at Rachel, sitting at the defense table. This slightly unnerved Jilica, who crossed her arms across her chest, suddenly chilly, and stared downward for a moment.

“At some point, when you were in the vehicle, did you overhear a conversation?” Hanewicz queried.

Jilica said she did. She heard a girl’s voice on Sarah’s phone, a voice she didn’t recognize, and she clearly heard it say, “I’m going to stab you and your Mexican boyfriend.” She couldn’t hear everything that was said on the other end of the phone connection. In fact, that one sentence was the only thing that caught her attention.

Hanewicz wondered what made that one sentence stand out. Jilica said it was because of what it said. That would catch
anyone’s
attention.

Was Sarah screaming?

Jilica said, “She was kind of arguing back. They were just two people going at it.” Although the voice wasn’t familiar, it was identifiably female.

What was Sarah’s reaction to the outrageous threat?

Sarah didn’t seem to take it seriously. She just said “really,” or something like that.

Once Sarah started to drive, where did she go?

Jilica couldn’t be sure. She wasn’t that familiar with Pinellas Park, but they passed a couple of streets and she thought they went by Sarah’s house. She saw a cab parked out front and knew Sarah’s dad was a cabdriver.

At one point, they did stop; and Sarah talked to another person in a car, a girl, but Jilica didn’t know her. She didn’t overhear much of that conversation. She remembered hearing the name “Javier,” but that was about it. She didn’t know what was going on. She knew Sarah was mad at someone—but she thought they were still going to McDonald’s. It all concerned people she didn’t know, so it didn’t register. Not at first. Slowly it sank in. Sarah’s agenda had shifted. After the conversation with the girl in the other car, Sarah’s driving changed. They “whipped around a couple of corners” and ended up in front of “some guy’s house.”

Hanewicz produced a large board, upon which were glued nine photographs, which she referred to as state’s composite exhibit 3a through 3i. She asked the witness if she recognized those photos.

Jilica said she did; they were from “that night.” She pointed out the minivan in which she was sitting, ran through again where she was sitting, and where Janet and Sarah were sitting. Jilica testified that when they arrived at the location, there were two boys and a girl there. The girl was standing in the yard, on the grass, on the driver’s side of the red car between the front tire and the front door. The boys were standing in the yard, closer to the house.

As soon as Sarah’s minivan came to a stop, she opened her door. The blond-haired girl was walking toward her, “sort of fast,” with her right hand held up beside her face, something held tightly in that hand. Jilica didn’t recognize the blond girl or the two boys standing in the yard. She had never been at that location or seen any of those people before.

“What did you see in the girl’s hand?”

“I saw a knife.”

Jilica saw the girl with the knife walk right up to Sarah. They “locked heads” in confrontation. For a moment, all Jilica could see was a bunch of hair flying around.

Hanewicz made the witness spell it out so that it was clear: The blond girl had been the one to close the distance between the two combatants. The blonde walked all the way from the side of the road to the driver’s side of the minivan, while Sarah had barely taken two steps out of her car. Jilica was still in the backseat when she saw the blonde walk right in front of the minivan.

The witness knew now that the blond girl must have stabbed Sarah, but she didn’t see that. She just saw a flurry of motion, and then the blonde walked away.

It all happened very fast, “not even ten seconds.” And it was at that point, after the fight, that Janet and Jilica got out of the minivan.

Jilica had concentrated her efforts on trying to calm Janet Camacho down because Janet had seen what had happened and was very mad. Jilica looked at the blonde and she was just standing there with a smirk on her face. She hadn’t seen the blonde’s face immediately following the confrontation with Sarah because she was walking away, and all she could see was her back. But when the blonde turned around, and they were face-to-face, Jilica saw she was smirking.

Was Janet upset? Jilica did not remember Janet crying.

Did Janet want to fight Rachel? Jilica had no idea what was going through Janet’s head.

“Okay, fair enough. What did you see Janet do?” ASA Hanewicz asked.

Janet hadn’t been able to do anything. That was because Jilica had her arm. Janet Camacho was trying to get to the blonde.

“But I didn’t know if the girl still had the knife, so that was why I was holding her,” Jilica testified.

“Where were the boys at this time?”

Jilica said the boys had not been quick to react, that they were “pretty much just standing there.”

How did Jilica learn that Sarah was hurt?

“I turned around and I saw that Sarah wasn’t standing up anymore.”

Jilica could tell that Sarah needed medical attention. She grabbed for her purse, but she was nervous and dropped the phone. It hit the street and the back popped off. By the time she managed to get the plastic piece back onto the back of her phone, she looked at the blond girl, whose name she now realized was Rachel. She could see that she no longer had the knife. She let go of Janet and walked around the rear of the minivan, which she referred to as “the truck.”

“I saw Sarah lying on the ground, and I scooped her between my legs and I was holding her chest a little bit.”

“When you saw, did you scream anything at Rachel?” Hanewicz inquired.

“Yes. I said, ‘You stabbed her! I saw you stab her, and you’re going to jail!’ That’s exactly what I said to her.”

“Do you see the person who stabbed Sarah in the courtroom today?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Could you please point to her and identify her by an item of her clothing.”

“She’s right there, wearing a black jacket,” Jilica said, pointing at Rachel.

Hanewicz showed Jilica a CD that had been listened to and signed by the witness, who testified that it was a recording of the call she placed to 911 moments after the incident.

According to the police, Jilica’s 911 call was made at precisely 12:45
A.M
. Now the CD was played for the jury.

“Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?” the dispatcher asked.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Jilica replied.

The dispatcher tried to get her to give an address, but Jilica only knew the name of the street she was on, not the cross street or the house number.

The dispatcher asked what city she was in. Jilica said Pinellas Park.

“Pinellas Park. Okay. What happened?”

“Fucking Rachel fucking stabbed her.”

“Okay. What is the address? Ask what the address is.”

“What the address is? Sarah is not even … What address is this?”

Voices are heard in background relaying information.

Jilica started to relate the address but interrupted herself to say, “Don’t let her get to her! Janet, come here!” Jilica finally managed to get out the address.

“Where on her body was the patient stabbed?”

“I swear to God this is …”

“Where on the body is the patient stabbed?”

“She’s stabbed in the chest. It’s Sarah.”

“Where is the person who did this?”

“She’s right here.”

“This is a female patient?”

“Yes.”

“All right, my name is Margaret. I’m going to put you right through to the police. There is already an ambulance on the way. Okay?”

“Okay. Don’t hang up.”

“I’m not hanging up.”

On the recording, there was the sound of a phone ringing as the dispatcher tried to patch the call through to the police.

Jilica, obviously impatient, said, “Come on, come on, come on!”

Margaret finally came back on the line, the original dispatcher.

“We got a girl on the ground and she’s passed out. I don’t know if she’s alive,” Jilica said.

“All right, we have some help on its way. You say she’s passed out?”

“I don’t know. She’s like coming and going. She’s trying to breathe.”

Margaret again reassured Jilica that help was on its way. “I’m going to tell you what to do for her, okay? Is the knife out of her?”

“She’s stabbed in the fucking chest. The knife is out.”

“Is there serious bleeding right now?”

“Yes, there’s bleeding. Sarah! Sarah, stay with us.”

“All right, you say she’s stabbed in the chest. Is there more than one wound? Was she stabbed more than once, or is there just the one wound?”

“Just the … I don’t know. I didn’t see when she got … I mean, I saw her get stabbed, but I don’t know how many times she stabbed her. I didn’t think she was going to do it. I just saw the knife. She’s foaming out the mouth. She’s breathing.”

“And where is the person who did this, right now?”

“Help is coming, Sarah. She’s, oooh, she’s standing right here. All right, I think the police are coming….”

“Listen to me, you need to try and stay calm.”

Jilica could be heard calling out instructions, apparently to police who had arrived. “She’s right there! No, not the girl in the orange shirt. Janet!”

Then there was silence. The call had been terminated.

In the courtroom, there was a pause as everyone recovered a bit from the horrible recording they’d just heard. Both Jilica, on the witness stand, and Rachel, at the defense table, had wiped away tears as the tape played.

ASA Hanewicz broke the silence by asking, “Jilica, could you please walk us through what we just heard?”

Defense attorney Hebert objected to that, saying the tape could speak for itself without color commentary.

Judge Bulone sustained the objection and asked Hanewicz to ask a more specific question.

Hanewicz asked the witness what she was doing when she first called 911.

Jilica reiterated that she was sitting on the ground with Sarah’s head between her legs, trying to comfort her. She put a little pressure on her chest wound, but she wasn’t sure if she was doing it correctly. She was talking to Sarah—no response.

By this time, a couple of neighbors had come out of their houses to gawk. She was limited in what she could see because she was sitting next to the car. It was hectic and she’d been screaming Janet’s name, because she didn’t know if they were still fighting. She didn’t want her friend to get hurt.

When the cops arrived, Jilica pointed out Rachel as the one who’d done the stabbing, and made sure they didn’t confuse Janet—who was wearing an orange shirt—with Rachel.

“No further questions, Your Honor,” Lisset Hanewicz said.

Jay Hebert, looking angry, paced in front of the witness, setting up the easel with the photos of the crime scene pasted on it. Hebert began by asking about the time, on the night of the incident, when Jilica was outside Janet’s house in a car talking to a friend.

“Who was the friend you were in the car with?”

“Justin.”

“Last name?”

“I don’t know.”

Hebert wondered to whom Janet was talking outside the house.

Jilica said she didn’t know that guy’s name at all.

Hebert was interested in intoxicants. No, Jilica didn’t observe anyone smoking marijuana that night. No, she didn’t personally smoke any marijuana that night.

“Not that I know of,” she said.

“Not that you know of?”

“I don’t think I did.”

She hadn’t seen any vodka that night, either. She was outside most of the time, sitting in her friend’s car. She wasn’t sure when Janet came out and went in, but she was pretty sure Sarah didn’t come out until the McDonald’s run. Joshua
never
came outside.

Hebert drew Jilica’s attention to the red car that passed by that night. “Isn’t it true that you thought there were two people in that car?”

Jilica replied that she couldn’t really see. All she saw was hair. She knew someone had to be driving; but as for whether or not there was a passenger, she couldn’t be sure. She
might
have said it looked like there were two people in the car.

Jay Hebert pointed out that in her deposition, page 25, line 24, she definitely said that at first it looked like there were two people in the red car.

Jilica acknowledged that those were “probably” her words. She had said them a long time ago. The thing that drew her attention to the car wasn’t just its speed, but the length of time it stopped at the corner. It had definitely
not
been “just a regular stop-sign stop.”

Hebert then focused on the encounter with Ashley Lovelady. Jilica didn’t know Ashley, had never seen her before, and had no idea that she was Sarah’s friend. She thought Ashley might have been driving a white car.

Up until the news from Ashley, everything was calm in Sarah’s minivan. In contrast to Ashley’s testimony, she remembered the cars facing in opposite directions when they stopped and had a conversation.

As Jilica recalled events, the two drivers, Sarah and Ashley, could easily roll down their windows and speak to one another. Jilica wasn’t “really tuned in to the conversation,” but she did overhear the phrase “Javier’s house.” She didn’t know, or didn’t remember, the context.

“You would agree that it was then that all hell broke loose, and that the drive from then on, until the time the van stopped, was a completely different drive.”

“Yes, I would agree with you.”

“Sarah was mad?”

“Yes.”

“Sarah wanted to fight,” Hebert stated.

“I don’t know what was going through Sarah’s head. I know she was angry.”

Hebert once again referred to Jilica’s deposition, during which she’d been asked if Sarah was angry and wanted to fight, and Jilica had answered yes. Did she recall answering that way?

“I do recall answering that way—but that was kind of two questions in one,” Jilica complained. “As for whether Sarah wanted to fight her or not, I don’t know what was going on in Sarah’s head. You asked me if she was upset and ready to fight, and I said yes because she was upset.” And, yes, from then on everything changed. It was not a pleasant drive.