Ella rightly objects. By the tenor of her voice, I can tell that she knows that Gabriel is getting his clock cleaned.

“Assumes facts not in evidence, Your Honor,” Ella says. “There’s been no testimony that Mr. Trofino was ever alone in Ms. Goodwin’s office.”

Judge Gold agrees. “Sustained.”

LeMarcus looks like a shark who smells blood. “Lieutenant, you did confiscate Ms. Goodwin’s phone when she was arrested, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Did it have a passcode on it?”

“No, it did not.”

“I see. So you, or frankly anyone else, could read all of her text messages on that phone?”

“It was a fairly new phone, so there wasn’t much on it.”

“Again, Lieutenant, that wasn’t my question. Let me ask it again. Could you or anyone else who had Ms. Goodwin’s phone read her text messages?”

“It was not passcode protected, so I could.”

LeMarcus smiles as if to say, Now, wasn’t that easy? Gabriel does not smile back, as if to say, Go to hell.

“Lieutenant, sitting here today, do you believe that at any time during that visit on the evening of Ms. Wright’s murder that Mr. Trofino was in Dana Goodwin’s office alone? And by alone, I mean all alone. Without even Ms. Goodwin present?”

“I don’t have any reason to believe that he was there alone.”

“But if you did believe that, can we agree that you, as a fine investigator, would have questioned Mr. Trofino about whether he took that opportunity to steal Ms. Goodwin’s phone.”

“Objection!” Ella shouts again.

It’s the same grounds. Facts not in evidence.

“Sustained,” Judge Gold says again.

LeMarcus doesn’t seem to care. Nor should he. The answers Gabriel provides have ceased to matter. This is all about his questions making the point that Richard Trofino should be the one on trial here, not me.

“You never asked Richard Trofino whether he took Ms. Goodwin’s phone, did you, Lieutenant?”

“No.”

LeMarcus returns to counsel table. Once there, he leans over to whisper in my ear.

“Not too bad, if I do say so myself.”

I couldn’t agree more.

47. ELLA BRODEN

47.

ELLA BRODEN

Wednesday and most of Thursday are the “science fair,” the term prosecutors use to describe putting on forensic evidence. It’s boring for everyone, including me, as it takes hours to make a single point. Establishing chain of evidence is no one’s idea of riveting testimony. Nevertheless, I think the jury gets the highlights: Lauren Wright was murdered at the duck pond in Central Park, where her body was found. Her assailant fired two gunshots into her head at 1:27 a.m. The murder weapon is a Glock 19, and the gun was previously owned by Detective Gregory Papamichael, who never reported his pistol stolen.