Circling The Wagons

Kayla and her husband, Ray sat in a local Dunkin Donuts...It was early in the morning..

"Babe, that aint the only high prestige firm in the world...There is mine for instance...Your resume is there and there are others..Don't sweat it....If you had sold out your fam...I'd of kind of lost a little respect for you..."said Ray..

"That never was even a consideration...I'm an only child...

Olivia was like my big sister and

Beverly was and is my sister, closest I have to one...cousins or not...No way would I ever betray them.." said Kayla..

"But uh even if you did...I uh would still forgive you and hit that thang like a beast.."joked Ray...

"Oh My God...All you think about is sex!" laughed Kayla..

"I'm a newlywed and I got a hot wife...What am I supposed to think about?" joked Ray...

"You think I'm hot Ray?" whispered Kayla..

"Damn Right...Since the day I first saw you on that  plane..." said Ray...

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww!" said Kayla....

She rewarded him with a kiss....

Jasmine Jenkins walked up to their table just then....

"Kayla....Is this your husband?" she asked..

"Hi Jazzy." said Kayla with a phony smile and acting like nothing had transpired between the two of them..

"It is!...This is my husband, Attorney Ray St. Jacques.." said a gushing Kayla..

"Please to make your acquaintance." said Ray...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuu Kayla girl, he's a cutie pie!!!....Good catch girl.."said Jasmine and it was as if they were friends again as they had been in law school...Then Jasmine brought them back to reality..

"I called you all weekend...Your phone kept going to voicemail.." said Jasmine.

"I'm a newlywed...I was uh kind of busy.."said Kayla, smiling...Which was true..

She and Ray spent almost every free moment naked and

in bed, making sweet love!

"No...You made your decision..." said Jasmine...

Then Kayla got serious and dropped the façade..

"Yes I did! But you already knew what it was going to be." she said..

"Good Bye Kayla...Have a nice life...I wish you the best...Nice meeting you Ray."said Jasmine as she walked away..

Ray smiled..

They continued sipping coffee and eating their doughnuts..






II-

In the Judges chambers., Olivia and I

were kissing passionately...

"How did you get yet another key to this room?" I asked in between kisses..

 "The Judge liked my dress and my shoes...I asked her if I could have the key to her chambers for uh pre -trial rituals...she smiled and said yes...She's a nice lady..."said Olivia.

"You clerked for her didn't you?" I asked.

"You are such a detective..." Olivia laughed..

as we continued kissing...

Voir dire began...

Olivia, our client Dennis Carter, Beverly and I sat together....

 Nelson began jury selection..

Chip Burrows, the smooth Black lawyer who Jazmine had been sleeping with from her firm had agreed to be her second chair in this case...

It was quite obvious we wanted working class Blacks or whites from the neighborhood on the jury and not an 11 white, one Black jury like Dennis Carter had for his first trial...

Chip Burrows was not actually a trial lawyer...He was no match for Nelson , who put  7 African -Americans, 4 men and 3 women on the jury and 5 whites,all millennials...4 women and 1 male...on the jury...

Beverly, Olivia and "Lead Attorney" Josie were overjoyed...

Nelson had gotten a slam dunk...

Jasmine glared at

 Kayla

and Ray , who sat in the visitor's section watching...

A part of her felt a sudden sadness...Like she was fighting with her past...Kayla ,Nelson,Beverly and Olivia were her friends at one time...They still would be if not for this case. Who had she become?  She didn't even know herself now of days...another part of her felt anger and frustration at even having to be here...

All of the cases that Josie Boyd could have picked and she picked this one...This one of all of them! This was her fault, Jasmine thought...

III-

The Trial began.... Jasmine gave an incredible summary of the crime and the events and drove home the point that a pregnant woman , a woman who was eight months pregnant had been the victim of this senseless violence..and that if anything, Dennis Carter should be placed back in prison for the deaths of that woman and her nearly born child...She went so far as to ask for the Death Penalty!!!

The Judge admonished her to tone it down a bit...

Josie, who did spot on imitations of both Olivia and Beverly in her last mock trial was finding her own voice, her own style...She gave a brilliant sumnation of the crime also and said that her client was innocent and that she could prove it..She promised to prove it before the trial was over..Heady stuff!

Jasmine looked at Josie like she was going to feast on her...She wasn't going to be able to PROVE anything...She'd be lucky if she'd even make this jury doubt thought Jasmine.

She called the police, The Crime Scene Investigators and the Forensic experts to testify...

 Beverly whispered in Josie's ear...

 Olivia passed Josie some files..

On cross, Josie asked sensible questions about what they found...If they found any fingerprints or DNA belonging to Dennis Carter on anything other than the Glock that Scar had taken from him that was found on the body?? So sensible , this got the entire jury scratching their heads...

Sadly ,all of them had to say that they had not...This destroyed half of Jasmine's case...

Jasmine grudgingly admitted that Josie was good...but then of course she would be, being trained and mentored by Olivia Bennett-Alexander, The same person who had mentored her at one time.. Olivia was Beverly's real aunt....but she often felt like Olivia was her aunt too back in those days...

Jasmine and Chip Burrows called seven people..People who had seen Scar and Dennis arguing that morning in the laundromat..

Neither Nelson or Olivia asked any of them any questions, but they regularly whispered instructions in Josie's ears...

On Cross, Josie turned three of the so called witnesses testimony into hearsay...Making them admit that they weren't at the scene and had testified to something they barely heard or saw and couldn't possibly know what was being said or transpiring...

Beverly ,who was acting as second chair obliterated the other four witnesses statements and got them all to admit that they didn't see anything of consequence and that they heard everything, second hand...

Only one witness had actually seen and heard the altercation between the two.

Jasmine's objections were to the point of histrionics...She was furious that her seemingly airtight case was falling apart...being chipped away...and worse by her friends...or at least with their help.

The Judge again admonished her to cool it...

Olivia didn't say a word...but she observed Jasmine...She could see the desperation in her eyes...She was trying hard to win this case..

Nelson whispered to me..

"Josie is doing great...She's confused all of the white jurors and she's got the Black jurors in our pockets.." he said with a smile..

"We haven't begun our defense yet.."I said.

In closing...Jasmine went back to the fact that a pregnant woman was killed and her unborn child who never got a chance to live was also slain that night..."Even if you don't care about the drug dealer, who lost his life...You should care about poor Andrea Robinson and her unborn son."

It was powerful oratory done by a skilled lawyer...

And Just like that, Jasmine had won the jury back to her side..

That had never happened before, once we won a jury over, but this was a different kind of case.

Even Nelson sadly acknowledged that...

"We got work to do." he said..

 "We know that..."said Olivia..

"Alright Josie girl...Here comes the show stopper...It's all on you.." said Beverly..

"I'm ready.." said Josie..

Olivia, Beverly and Nelson had been coaching her all week for this moment...So far she had played it close to the vest without giving any clues to our actual strategy.

"Our turn is next.."I said..

Two Days later, we were on....

Jasmine looked at us with a superior glance when she entered the courtroom.....She was certain she had done just enough to win this case...It hadn't been the cakewalk the first trial had been some years ago...but she had held her own.

IV-

Like I said...We had been playing our cards close to the vest....

 Olivia and I and Nelson were now joined by

 Kayla

and Ray at the witness stand..

 Jasmine looked a bit worried as if the Wagons were being circled.

Chip Burrows watched attentively.. and took notes..He was enjoying the whole experience...

Josie called  Elijah Wallace to the stand..

"I never believed that DC, that's what we called Dennis ever killed Scar....and the reason why is because..He worked for Manny Spain...

"Well for one thing...Scar took his gun off of him... and the other thing...Manny Spain's guys didn't hit people out in the open like that...They'd of gotten him someplace else, by himself and with no witnesses...and they certainly wouldn't have hit a civilian...somebody not in the game.."said Eli..

Jazmine went hard on him on cross , often bringing up his past criminal record and the fact that he was presently on parole and had just gotten out of jail a few days before the trial started and there in was not to be taken seriously..

 For the first time, Olivia objected to Jazmine's tactics...

So did Beverly...

Jasmine smiled, thinking she had Olivia and Beverly rattled and that the defense had run out of strategy... This was exactly what they wanted Jasmine to think...

This was a serious miscalculation on Jasmine's part...The Black Jurors began to see her as high siddity and bourgie..all of which she now was.

They slowly began to turn against her... The white female juror began to see her as just plain mean...

Beverly called Andrea Robinson's brother in law, Silas Robinson, who I had located...

He wouldn't talk to me once he found out I was not a cop...

So Olivia went to talk to him...He was all smiles and giggles and trying to flirt and then she served him with a summons...He was furious...

"Mr. Robinson...You were uh Andrea's brother in law...Well at the time, just her sister's boyfriend right?" she asked..

He was all smiles ,looking at Beverly's sexy body...

"Yessssssssssssss....I mean, uh yes I was uh her sister's boyfriend..." he said..

"You didn't live with her sister, you just stayed there a few nights right?..and while her sister was at work during the day, you were there with uh Andrea alone a lot huh?" said Josie..

"Yeah, I was uh there.." he said..

"Relevance...What has this got to do with anything?" asked Jasmine..

"I'm going somewhere with this your honor.."said Josie..

"Alright, make it plain baby."said the Judge..

"I have eight months of phone calls from Andrea to your cell phone...some during the day and most at night after she got off work.....Now this is strange for the boyfriend of her sister to be calling her that much and her getting calls from you...."said Josie who then produced some forms..

"This is from the Maternity Center.....This shows THAT YOU WERE THE FATHER OF HER BABY Mr. Robinson...Isn't that true?"asked Josie..

Silas Robinson was no longer smiling..

"Yesssss...Yessssss… I was... but I didn't kill her...I didn't kill her..I swear, the night she was shot...I was across town..." he blurted out..

"Oh we know you didn't kill her...We know where you were...No more questions."said Beverly...

"I noticed that his wife has no look of shock on her face..."whispered Olivia to me..

"I'm wearing off on you baby..."I said..We both smiled at each other.. His wife knew he had fathered her sister's baby...

"I call Alicia Robinson to the stand..."said Josie.

.

Alicia Robinson had a look on her face that said the cat was out the bag....

Josie showed her a gun permit for a .38 smokeless, purchased a week before the murders..It was her gun permit..She showed the jury blown up photos of the crime scene..

"This gun which we subpoenaed is a ballistics match for the murders...It's YOUR GUN!" said Josie..

Alicia Robinson was stone faced...She said nothing..

I explained about blood splatter..and how Scar's blood splatter was all over the back of Andrea Robinson and none of her blood was on him, therefore summarizing the fact that Andrea got shot first and Scar was coming out of the restroom and shot second because he witnessed it and knew exactly who she was..

Chip foolishly questioned my credentials on cross..

I explained that I was a former  Homicide Detective on the New Orleans Police Department for years before I became an Investigator for Olivia and Beverly..

Olivia, Beverly, Nelson and Kayla smiled...

Jasmine clearly didn't like this, but there was nothing she could do..During the original trial, She and the Case Detective figured that Scar was the target of the murder and that it was Andrea Robinson and her unborn child who was collateral damage...and yet it was right there plain as day...Andrea Robinson's body was in front of Scar's...Scar was in the back near the restroom....None of her blood was on him...She got shot first...He got shot as he exited the restroom...

Josie continued with Alicia Robinson, showing her photos of the death scene and showing her a copy of the report from the Maternity ward mailed to her..

"This report was mailed to you two days before the murders..." said Josie.

"You knew your boyfriend had impregnanted your sister...and you were furious and hurt at the betrayal....You went in his phone didn't you? You found texts and messages from her to him and him to her.." asked Josie..

"Yessssssssssssssssssssssss…. Yesssssssssssssssssssssss...I couldn't believe her, that she would sleep with Silas while I wasn't home....and was walking around so happy about being pregnant...I was furious...I should have made him go home when I went to work..I let him stay....and that low down pole cat slept with my sister every chance he got... Both of em smiling and lying to my face...and just screwing like two cats in heat!

I shot her!!!....I shot her!!!...I had to shoot Scar because he came out the bathroom and startled me...I didn't know he was there...I thought she was in the laundromat by herself..

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww lawddddddd Silas, you are such a nasty low down dog.." she wept...

"Baby that was years ago....It' water under the bridge....I am messin around no more.." her husband pleaded.

Silas slumped down in his chair...

"And both of you let my innocent client rot in jail for years for a crime you both knew he didn't commit."said Josie...

The Jury was stunned...

"In Lieu of this new information, I move to vacate all charges against Mr. Carter....You are free to go.. Baillifs take Mrs. Robinson in."said the Judge...

"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!! THANK YOU JESUS!"said Dennis Carter , who grabbed Josie and held her tight...

"Thank You Sexy.." he whispered in Josie's ear and squeezed her a little tighter...'Let's get together tonight!" he asked her..He was aroused....

Josie smiled and eased out of his embrace...

"You're welcome.. I'm flattered , but I can't...I'm spoken for...I have a boyfriend.."she whispered softly...and walked away from him...

 "Good Job Josie." I said..

 "I'm so proud of you Josie girl.."said Olivia, hugging her and kissing her on the cheek..

 "Ouuuu Josie...You were fierce girlfriend."said Beverly, hugging her..

"I knew you had it goin on girl."said Nelson, who also hugged her..

"The Bennett Women plus one win again.."joked Ray....

Jasmine walked past Kayla and whispered in her ear...

"Of course you know you can forget everrrrrrr working at my firm..."she said..

Kayla smiled..

"That goes without saying..I don't want to work at your firm Jazzy...I don't want to be anywhere NEAR YOU" she said..

''Oh, wellllll."said Jasmine..a bit taken aback...She was both shocked and saddened by what Kayla had said.

But Chip whispered in Kayla's ear...

"Don't worry about her..I'll fast track your resume Kayla...I think you're hella hot." he said and followed Jasmine out..

"Second time today I was told I was hot!" said Kayla, smiling. "But you don't have to do that!" she added.

 Olivia walked over to Kayla ..

"Everything alright?" she asked..

''We saw Jasmine talking to you." said Beverly..

"I'm fine...It's Jasmine who is in trouble...She's lost her soul.."said Kayla.

EPILOUGE:

ADA Rockland Cambridge and his investigator, Gary Lockwood

opened up an investigation  into the other five murder cases in which April Dellums was used as an eyewitness..

They found enough multiple inconsistancies in which five new trials were ordered..

Of Course we defended two of the men...The two he said he definitely knew April Dellums lied in...

Yvette Jones, Keith Jones and Bee Bee Evans defended another one of the men...

Yvette Jones ,Sofia Garcia and Kahlil Ahmed defended another of the men ..

And Kayla represented another of the men...ironically with help from Josie as her para-legal,

 All five men were exonerated and released from prison...

The city paid Dennis Carter and the other five men, 1.5 million dollars a piece in wrongful imprisonment suits..

 Jasmine Jenkins ,who was the ADA who tried all six cases was brought before the Legal Ethics Board...She vigorously denied knowing that April Dellums was giving false testimony.....which was probably a lie, but her attorney, Chip Burrows

 defended her vigourously enough to present doubt that she knew and since April Dellums was dead ,there was no way to prove otherwise..,

As a result Jasmine was not censored and no disciplinary action by the Legal Board of Ethics was taken against her...

At her law firm though...The embarrassment and just the  idea of any impropriety on her part jettisoned her campaign to make partner...It was what she feared would happen... She was furious...

Her boyfriend Chip decided he liked trial law and turned in his resignation....He took a job at the Innocence Project...It was for a lot less money, but it would give him the experience of being a trial lawyer which was what he discovered he wanted to do...

He did fast track Kayla's resume as he promised...

but Jasmine discovered it and destroyed it...Kayla would never work for her firm as she promised..

 At our house, We were far from worried about Jasmine...

Alfreda baked another one of her great cakes...

and Olivia and Beverly

ordered a catered meal of

Ribs, Barbecued Chicken, Cole Slaw, Burgers and Potato salad and invited some of our friends..

 Yvette Jones

 Bee Bee Evans

 Keith Jones

 Sofia Garcia

 Kahlil Ahmed

 Jade Lee and newlyweds

 Kayla Bennett-St. Jacques

and Ray St. Jacques..

 Our friend and fellow Private Investigator, Kevin Morris was there

with his wife Sepia, who had sold us this property and their daughter, Kimberly...

 Olivia's personal attorney and friend, Zoey

and her husband, Lem rounded out our guests...

 Nelson

 and myself

 Gary

 and Rockland brought Josie in for the surprise congratulations party we threw for her..

"Oh My God.." said Josie...who broke out in tears....

"Don't cry Josie.....This is our way of saying we love you and we appreciate you.....You've been with Bev and me since day one..."said Olivia..

''And you've helped all of us at one time or another...You're going to be fierce as an attorney.."said Yvette Jones..

 Josie's boyfriend Paris arrived with Champaigne...

We popped the bottles and poured champaigne...

"Now it's a party."I said as we all cheered and clapped and enjoyed ourselves..

Nice way to end a case!

For DANYEL S.