Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [300]
9
On Tuesday, September 15, the grand jury convened at the Justice Center to hear the Ramsey case. It had been 628 days since JonBenét was found murdered in her parents’ basement.
The sky was cloudless and postcard-perfect as reporters and photographers gathered once again. There were representatives from all the Denver and Boulder news outlets, from TV networks—NBC, ABC, CBS, and their affiliates—and from the National Enquirer, Globe, and Extra. Few of the participants would talk, so members of the media chatted with each other as they waited for something to happen.
The grand jurors arrived shortly after 8:00 A.M., and a Boulder County sheriff escorted each one up the sidewalk, past television camera crews and still photographers, to the entrance. None of the jurors seemed upset by the photographers. As they passed the newspaper vending machines by the entrance of the building, they could see that the morning edition of the Daily Camera had published their Department of Motor Vehicle photos on the front page. The mug shots made them look like criminals.
On the left side of the grand jury room, with its tight-pile pale blue carpet, stood the jury box, with two tiers of high-backed, cushioned purple chairs, seven in the back row and six in the front. On the front railing of the box sat a white plastic water pitcher and two stacks of paper cups. Arranged in front of the jury box were nine royal blue, cushioned armchairs. The witness box was on the spectators’ far right, at the judge’s side. Behind the raised area where the judge would sit were two flags, the American flag on one side and the Colorado flag on the other. White paper was taped over the panes of glass on the door so that no one could see in.
Outside the courtroom, no fewer than four sheriff’s deputies were on hand, to keep the press at a distance. There were enough casual exchanges between reporters and grand jurors—“How are you?” “Good morning,” and the like—that a judge ordered the reporters to stand back.
The DA’s position was clear: They would say as little as possible. Bill Wise told Daily Camera reporter Matt Sebastian, “I’m not answering any questions except to say that it’s a beautiful day in Boulder.” Alex Hunter—carrying a legal pad and an orthopedic seat for his back condition—also said to reporters, “It’s a beautiful day.”
Michael Kane’s plan was to present the case in the classic way—in the order in which the police had discovered the various elements, without first presenting a history of the family or suggesting possible motives. There was none of that in this case anyway. There were only the crime, the evidence, and the targets. The grand jury would follow the events through the reports and recollections of every officer who had come into contact with the Ramseys, starting just after 5:52 A.M. on December 26,1996, when Patsy called 911.
After a day of introduction, the grand jury began hearing from Rick French, Karl Veitch, Paul Reichenbach, Bob Whitson, Linda Arndt, Barry Weiss, and Larry Mason. Pete Hofstrom, in sweater-vest, tie, and tweed jacket, would walk briskly past the grand jury room, making an exaggerated grimace to a reporter he recognized but never pausing to comment as he headed off to litigate cases that no one would ever read about in the newspaper.
In his thirty-two years as a law enforcement officer, Lou Smit had worked enough grand juries to know that “you can indict a ham sandwich if you present only one side of the case.” What about all the evidence that had been found of an intruder? Smit asked himself. If Michael Kane was planning to introduce any exculpatory evidence, Smit hadn’t yet seen any signs of it. He was sure the Ramseys were going to be indicted.
Smit didn’t want his name associated with the case anymore. On September 19, he finished writing his letter of resignation and showed it to Pete Hofstrom and Trip DeMuth before leaving it for Hunter on September 20. He knew it wouldn’t be long before the media got word of it, but it surprised him that Hunter didn’t call him