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she sketched Aldrich's growing frustration at these circumstances and his disappointment, which evolved into deep anger, that Natalie was not home much more often with him and his young daughter. With a tone of sympathy, she related that Aldrich's first wife had died when his little girl, Katie, had been only three years old and that he had hoped and expected that Natalie would be a second mother to her. Katie had been seven years old at the time that they married. Emily indicated that she would produce witnesses who had been friends of the couple who would testify to Gregg's repeated statements of anger and frustration that Natalie was consumed by her career, and was not there emotionally for ei?ther one of them.

She then informed the jury that Natalie and Aldrich had a pre-nuptial agreement which kept their finances generally separate. However, she stated, much of Gregg Aldrich's income was earned as Natalie's agent. When, a year before her death, she had separated from him, she told him that she still cared deeply for him and wanted him to continue as her agent. But as the months went by, and Nata?lie became convinced that because of Aldrich's resentment a total break would be necessary, he faced the loss of the substantial in?come from his most successful client.

Emily related that the evidence would show that Gregg made re?peated requests to Natalie to reconcile but was rebuffed. She told the jurors that after the separation, Natalie had bought her child?hood home in Closter, New Jersey, a thirty-minute drive from the midtown Manhattan apartment where Gregg continued to reside with his daughter. Emily explained that Natalie was comfortable and happy in her home, which provided close proximity to the New York theatre, but both emotional and physical distance from Gregg. Shortly after this move, and sure of her decision, Natalie filed for di?vorce. Witnesses would testify that Gregg had been devastated, but still not convinced that the marriage was over.

Emily continued. The evidence would demonstrate that Gregg Aldrich, growing more desperate, began to stalk Natalie. On the Fri?day night prior to the early Monday morning death of Natalie, he attended the final Broadway performance of A Streetcar Named De?sire, sitting in the last row so that she could not see him. He was ob?served by others who would testify that he had appeared stone-faced throughout the performance and had been the only person in the audience not to rise for a standing ovation at the end.

As the jurors listened intently, their eyes shifting between Emily and the defense table, Emily continued. “Telephone records reveal that on the following morning, Saturday, March 14th, Gregg re?ceived what would be his last phone call from Natalie. According to his own statement to the police after her body was found, Natalie left a message for Gregg that she had gone to her Cape Cod home for the weekend. She told him that she still intended to be present at the scheduled three o'clock transition meeting on Monday in her new agent's Manhattan office.”

Emily related that Aldrich explained to the police that this meeting had been scheduled so that he and the new agent could review her contracts and pending offers in Natalie's presence. Gregg admit?ted to the police that in the message Natalie told him she needed to be alone, and implored him not to contact her for any reason during the weekend.

Emily then turned toward Gregg, as if to confront him. “Gregg Aldrich responded to that request,” she said, her voice rising. “Al?though he initially denied that he had any further contact with Nat?alie prior to her death, the police challenged him with the records they quickly obtained. Within a half hour of that phone call, his credit card was used to rent a vehicle, a dark green Toyota sedan, which he kept for two days and drove a total of 680 miles. The rental itself was particularly important because the defendant already owned a car, which remained in the garage of the apartment build?ing where he lived.”

Turning back toward the jurors, Emily argued that the mileage