Home Invasion - J. A. Johnstone [51]
Carson looked at Pete McNamara. “The defendant will please rise.”
Slowly, painfully, the old man climbed to his feet. Gutierrez and Rutherford flanked him.
“What is your verdict?”
The jury foreman took a deep breath. “We find in favor of the plaintiff, Emilio Navarre.”
Even though that was expected, hearing it caused a loud reaction from the crowd in the courtroom. Angrily, Carson gaveled for silence. When he finally got it, he turned again to the jury foreman.
“Do you find liability on the part of both defendants?”
“We do, Your Honor.”
“And in the matter of damages?”
“We recommend that the plaintiff be awarded actual damages of one million dollars and punitive damages of five million dollars.”
The courtroom erupted again. Alex felt sick to her stomach. She had seen Pete McNamara flinch with every word spoken. With every flinch, he seemed to shrink.
Beside him, Dave Rutherford looked stunned. Rutherford had at least held out some hope that his client, the city, would escape from the self-righteous liberal wrath. Now that hope had been dashed.
It took a while for the courtroom to quiet down again. When it had, Judge Carson told the jury members, “Your recommendation in the matter of damages will be taken into account. The court thanks you for your service, and you are dismissed. “ He picked up his gavel. “These proceedings will resume at nine o’clock tomorrow morning and take up the matter of damages and the final disposition of the case. Until then, court is adjourned.”
Before the gavel could fall, though, Pete McNamara lifted his head and asked, “Don’t I get to say anything?”
A smirking Clayton Cochrum, who had been shaking Navarre’s hand and slapping him on the back, shot to his feet. “Your Honor, the defendant had his chance to testify earlier. Allowing him to speak now would be highly irregular.”
“Don’t tell me how to run my court, counselor,” Carson snapped. “But Mr. Cochrum is correct, Mr. McNamara. Testimony is over. You’ll have a chance to speak your piece again during the next phase of the trial, during which damages will be awarded to the plaintiff.”
“So nothin’ can change the fact that I’ve been found guilty? That’s over and done with?”
“I’m afraid so.”
McNamara shook off Joe Gutierrez’s warning hand on his arm. “Well, I don’t have much money, so it don’t really matter what I say, does it? I lost my wife, and you can’t do anything worse than that to me. None of you can.” He pointed at Navarre, who sneered at him. “That son of a bitch and his buddy already done it. They killed my wife, the damn thieves.”
“Counselor, you’d better get your client under control,” Carson barked at Gutierrez. “If you don’t, he’s going to be found in contempt of court.”
“Oh, I got plenty of contempt,” McNamara lashed out, and a cheer came from many of the spectators. Alex felt like cheering herself as this old man, who had been beaten down so unfairly, found the strength somewhere deep inside to stand up against the evil that had come down on him, futile though the fight might be. “I got contempt for you, Judge, and for that rattlesnake of a lawyer, and for that ugly monster who calls his-self human.” He waved an arm toward the eagerly watching reporters. “I got contempt for them coyotes who call themselves the press. They done made me out to be the bad guy here.” McNamara’s voice broke. “Me, the man who’s lost everything that mattered to him, includin’ his good name—”
He broke off with a strangled sound and took a stumbling step forward. “Pete!” Gutierrez said as McNamara slumped over the defense table. “Pete!”
McNamara slid off the table and fell to the floor in a limp heap as shouts and screams filled the courtroom. Alex saw Judge Carson hammering frantically on the bench with his gavel, but she couldn’t hear anything over the tumult of the shocked spectators and the roaring that filled her own head.
CHAPTER 23
“The doctors are sure it was a stroke?” Alex asked as she stood in the hospital corridor with Joe Gutierrez and Dave Rutherford.
Joe nodded. “Yeah. They