Watkins looked like he wanted to spit in disgust. “I put them there myself. What is this? A cover-up? I was wondering why you weren’t badgering me about them from the get-go. I’m telling you, we got the whole thing from three different angles!”
CHAPTER
55
THE COURTROOM ERUPTED. Judge Larch banged her gavel, demanding order. She told the jury to ignore Mr. Watkins’s testimony for the time being and ordered both prosecution and defense into chambers along with the U.S. marshals who worked in her courtroom.
“Judge, the government asks that it be given time to find the phones Mr. Watkins claims are in that factory,” Wills said when they were all in chambers.
“Judge, there is no way to know if these phones, if there are any, have been put there after the fact as a ploy by Mr. Watkins,” Anita said. “Whatever is on them should be excluded.”
“That factory has been sealed for months,” Wills said.
“But not guarded.”
“We don’t even know if the phones exist, Ms. Marley,” Judge Larch said. She looked at one of her marshals. “Collins, you and Avery, please go talk to Mr. Watkins. Find out where he says he hid these phones, call a forensics team, and go look. If you find them, establish a perfect chain of custody and bring them here.”
“Judge, that’s the rightful role of the government,” Wills said.
“We’re seeking swift truth and justice here, Mr. Wills,” Larch said. “If the cameras are there and they do show what happened that day, we’ll all see it together. At the same time. Here. In my chambers.”
The marshals left. The judge ordered that the jury be sequestered and given lunch. We ate down the hall, all of us wondering how the cameras could have been missed, and me worrying about the confidence with which Watkins had revealed them. What would they show?
An hour later, word came that three smartphones with extender lenses had been discovered where Watkins said they’d be: in recesses cut into the factory’s support beams, hidden with thin pieces of sheet metal.
An hour after that, Larch’s marshal entered her chambers with three evidence bags, each holding an iPhone 6s. They were dusty and their batteries were dead. Between the group of us, we had enough cords to recharge the devices.
One by one, they blinked on. Claude Watkins was asked to provide the security codes for the phones, which he did. They all used his birthday.
U.S. Marshal Avery, a thin woman with an intense bearing, wore gloves to enter the codes. Then she attached the first phone to a laptop computer, and the laptop to a screen on the wall of Judge Larch’s chambers.
Fifteen minutes later, as the last of the three videos played, there was dead silence in Judge Larch’s chambers. I felt steam-rolled and had no doubt I was heading to a federal pen for a long, long time.
“Compelling, Judge,” Wills said, triumphantly. “The government wishes to introduce these into evidence immediately.”
Anita said, “Your Honor, you cannot allow these videos to be introduced until we’ve had time to analyze them.”
“I’d say the videos speak for themselves,” Wills said. “The important parts, anyway. To ignore them would be a travesty of justice, Your Honor.”
“Allowing them into evidence without giving us the chance to examine them would be a gross miscarriage of justice, Your Honor,” Naomi said.
Judge Larch sat back in her chair, closed her eyes, and puffed on an electronic cigarette.
“Your Honor?” Wills said.
“I’m thinking,” Larch said. “You’ve heard of that, right, Counselor?”
The prosecutor was taken aback but said, “Of course, Your Honor. I’ve been known to think myself every once in a while.”
The judge opened one eye and fixed it on Wills. “I’ll allow the videos to be introduced.”
“What?” Anita cried. “Judge—”
“Ms. Marley,” Larch said curtly. “The prosecution wants the videos introduced. If you can impeach their value and credibility, you’ll be free to do so at the appropriate time.”
“With all due respect, Your Honor,” Anita began, “these will bias the—”
“For a few days, perhaps,” Larch said, putting her e-cig on her desk. “If they’re fake, you’ll know soon enough, won’t you? And maybe you’ll make Mr. Wills look like a fool for being so impetuous.”