The actual crime was much more complicated and nuanced than the tale contained in those two brief newspaper articles he’d found online, which made it sound that Sterling meant to murder Williams for his money and drugs.

But this did not surprise Shaw, who had been press fodder on a number of occasions in the reward-seeking business.

Never accept any story on its face . . .

He wondered how many jurors had been predisposed to the boy’s guilt before settling into their chairs in the courtroom.

5.

Shaw assessed the trial, which seemed to him to have proceeded very quickly; the transcript was brief for a criminal trial.

On the prosecution side, the convenience store clerk testified about seeing Jude’s truck. He had in his possession the murder weapon and drugs and cash traceable to the victim. The D.A. conceded that the gun was not Jude’s—there was testimony that he’d never owned a weapon, had no interest in them—but he told the jury that Jude had found the Smith & Wesson in Williams’s Subaru; it held traces of Williams’s DNA.

As for motive the D.A. offered the theory that Jude believed Williams was threatening his panicking brother. “The defendant simply lost control.” One prosecution witness testified that he had seen Jude lose his temper in the past, especially when his brother was in jeopardy. He’d once badly beaten a student who was bullying Frank. This was the assault that got Jude arrested.

Another student testified that Jude had once said if anybody “hurts my brother, they’re dead.”

Michael testified that he’d seen Jude with the gun in the clearing.

The defense case wasn’t stellar.

Attorney Cummings pointed out there was no gunshot residue on Jude’s gloves or hands, but that was countered with: he’d thrown the gloves out and had plenty of time to scrub.

He argued that the shooter could have been one of the other four students, robbing the dealer. But the D.A. pointed out the absence of their DNA and fingerprints on the gun and of gunshot residue on their hands or gloves—though his same argument about pitching the gloves and washing hands would apply to them too. This rebuttal, though, Cummings did not offer. Besides, if the motive was to rob him, why was it that Jude had ended up with the drugs and money, and not any of them?

One witness who did not testify was Frank, Jude’s younger brother. The prosecutor understood the boy’s disabled condition and both sides stipulated that he need not appear at trial but be deposed. The boy said that he didn’t remember anything of the shooting. He had a “bad moment,” apparently his term for a panic episode. He recalled lying on the ground, curled up, trying to picture his “safe space.”

It took the jury three hours and twelve minutes to convict Jude.

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