“How did you know it was the same woman that Mrs. Daniels had been telling you about?”
“Mrs. Daniels left the picture of them at my house. I looked at the picture, and the one they were showing on TV.”
“Did you call Mrs. Daniels to tell her that you had just seen the woman her husband Scott was having an affair with on TV and that she was dead?”
“Yeah, but Mrs. Daniels didn’t answer her cell phone.”
“What did you think about that?”
“I thought Panthea might have killed her.”
“Did that make sense to you?” Marcus asked.
“No, it really didn’t. Mrs. Daniels is a crier, not a fighter,” Wade said, laughing a little.
“So what made you think Mrs. Daniels had done it?”
“When they said they were looking for somebody driving a black Mercedes that was seen leaving the scene.”
“Is that why you lied to the police?”
“Yes.”
“You were just trying to help out a friend in need, is that right, Mr. Long?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thank you, Mr. Long. I have no more questions for this witness.”
When Marcus returned to the defense table, Panthea wanted to throw her arms around him and kiss him wildly for the job he’d just done. Instead she leaned close to him and said, “I think that went well.”
Next, ADA Paxson recalled Detective Silver to the stand. As Marcus expected, Silver had returned to the stand to lay out the murder itself. “—considering the fact that she only recently found out that her husband was having an affair with the deceased, and she had no alibi, she was driving a Mercedes Benz and she fit the general description of the person seen leaving the scene, I felt confident that we had arrested the right person for the murder of Abril Arrington,” Silver explained.
“Thank you, Detective Silver. Your witness, Mr. Douglas.”
Marcus practically leaped from his seat. “Detective Silver, do you recall your initial interviews with Mrs. Daniels?”
“Yes, sir. I do.”
“What time did M
rs. Daniels tell you that she made it to Wade Long’s house on the night of the murder?”
Detective Silver reached in his pocket and took out his notes. He had flipped a few pages, and then he paused with a confused look on his face.
“Is there a problem, Detective?” Marcus asked.
“I don’t seem to have a noted time,” the detective told the court.
Marcus returned to the defense table, and when he came back to the witness box, he had the transcripts of the interviews in hand. “Allow me to refresh your memory, Detective.” Marcus handed Silver the papers. “Would you mind reading the highlighted section please?”
Silver looked over and read the document carefully before he started to read it aloud. “Detective Silver: what time did you get to your friend’s house, Mrs. Daniels? Mrs. Daniels: I don’t know what time I got there. I was just driving, and I ended up there. I needed somebody to talk to.”
Marcus handed the detective another sheet of paper. “Once again, Detective, read the highlighted section, please.”
“Detective Silver: I talked to your friend, Wade Long last night, Mrs. Daniels. He said that you got to his house at eight-thirty. Mrs. Daniels: if that’s what Wade said. I don’t know what time I got there,” the detective said, reading the words that he and Panthea exchanged.
“So based on what you just read, Detective, is it fair to say that Mrs. Daniels never tried to mislead you about her alibi? Is that fair to say?”